Negative earth wiring diagram

Status
Not open for further replies.
ashman said:
Whats with all the fuses, I only run one fuse, have never had any problems with it my orginal wiring was rewided to a simple system when I convered it to the Featherbed frame in 40 years of ownership I have never had any problems with + earth.

Ashley
Click to expand...

hi ashley

there's only three fuses--12-volts to the brake light, 12-volts to the boyer box and coils, and a hot wire for an oil pressure light. the others are spares, just stuck in empty slots so i don't lose them. this harness is vastly simpler than the original. i suppose it looks complicated because the wires aren't wrapped up.

there's nothing wrong with positive ground. i ran positive ground with a single AG glass fuse on this bike for 38 years. i switched to negative ground because i'll be fitting a minimal LED tail/stop/turn unit that requires it, and the A/F gauge, GPS tachometer, and datalogger are all negative ground.

positive and negative ground on this machine is interchangeable in about six minutes. just reverse the wires on the battery terminals, the boyer, and the regulator. the dual tower coils have no polarity, so the boyer wires can feed them in either direction.
 
Whatever you decide to do (negative or positive earth) for the next owner(s) sake use original wiring colours :!:
 
I run positive earth and run leds and gps, just need to isolate the item and know what is the +ve wire and the -ve one, last set of led headlamp bulbs did not care which way they were connected.
 
you're quite correct about careful grounding and isolation.

in my own case the LED tailight unit only works in one direction.
 
Misinformation alert.
Re:
"...I simply bought +ve ground led lamps.
Much easier than changing the wiring polarity.
And then forgetting one day, and frying the lot..."

ĹED's are 'light emitting diodes'. DIODE is the significant word in that description.
Diodes pass current in one direction only. Reversing the polarity will not 'FRY' them, they just won't work i.e. in this scenario, they simply will not emit light.
Ta.
 
speedrattle said:
ashman said:
Whats with all the fuses, I only run one fuse, have never had any problems with it my orginal wiring was rewided to a simple system when I convered it to the Featherbed frame in 40 years of ownership I have never had any problems with + earth.

Ashley
Click to expand...

hi ashley

there's only three fuses--12-volts to the brake light, 12-volts to the boyer box and coils, and a hot wire for an oil pressure light. the others are spares, just stuck in empty slots so i don't lose them. this harness is vastly simpler than the original. i suppose it looks complicated because the wires aren't wrapped up.

there's nothing wrong with positive ground. i ran positive ground with a single AG glass fuse on this bike for 38 years. i switched to negative ground because i'll be fitting a minimal LED tail/stop/turn unit that requires it, and the A/F gauge, GPS tachometer, and datalogger are all negative ground.

positive and negative ground on this machine is interchangeable in about six minutes. just reverse the wires on the battery terminals, the boyer, and the regulator. the dual tower coils have no polarity, so the boyer wires can feed them in either direction.
Click to expand...


No worries, it is a nice set up and look nice and neat, I don't have a battery set up on my Norton, thats the good thing about the J/H maggie.

Ashley
 
Gosh what beautiful schematic and organized compact construction motorson and speedrattle. Commando worship tituals like these must be so satisfying lasting. All those nice terminals and routing, simply wonderful to see.
On first Peel, ugh, 6 relays + 3 fuses became to cluttered for me so this time around I got a black box chopper modual with internal relays and circuit breakers and LED ready plus high current starter circuit and biological vascular looking color and labeled loom. I will not tape over it but display it by loom weaving worship tedium.

Fuses protect wires and fires not devices so really only need one but hey the more the merrier is just more contacts to stay of head of to me.
 
Without wishing to rain on anyones parade here, something to bear in mind is how water resistant things are.
Having riding through a few torrential downpours, if water can get in and stay on flat surfaces, things may not be so happy ?

The stock Commando setup drains water off fairly well - you can see that someone has taken care to ensure this.
The blue can thingy I've seen fitted upside down in a few instances, and looks like a real water trap....
 
If you have to do this (and I don't see why), please put a label near the battery indicating that it is negative ground. Be considerate to the next guy.

Russ
 
Duh both Positive Earth and Negative Ground wires still retain the universal color code of red to + and black green etc to - battery terminals - so no brainer if battery connections color kept traditional.
 
You have to watch and ascertain that new wiring looms ARE the correct colors though.
And, watch out for the red wire on Commandos that aren't positive earth !?!

I bought a (cheap) loom for a much earlier bike (dommie) without enquiring too much,
and the colors as supplied were not even faintly the same as the stock loom.
It did come with a diagram showing what each wire was though, and since its not out on show,
was quite serviceable. If I keep the diagram for any future owners, not a huge concern.

I have yet to see a dommie with a stock loom either, but thats a whole nother matter.
Commando looms are not on show much either, so its (mostly) all in the mind ?

As long as you always remember whether that red wire is -ve or -ve earth !!
Someone said that LEDs are not polarity sensitive - but any circuitry around them
or on gizmos is likely to be....
 
"...Someone said that LEDs are not polarity sensitive..."

More misinformation rubbish - that 'someone' said LED's ARE polarity sensitive!
Ta.
 
Both statements are visible in this thread.

If the circuitry around the LEDs goes phut! with wrong polarity, that sort of takes priority... ?
 
Rohan said:
hobot said:
Mo proper terms is Positive Earth or Negative Ground.
Click to expand...

Thats debatable. Very debatable.
Negative earth gets 35,000,000 google hits, and negative ground ~22,000,000.
So its probably only a regional/american thing.

I simply bought +ve ground led lamps.
Much easier than changing the wiring polarity.

And then forgetting one day, and frying the lot....
Click to expand...
can you get LED + earth headlight bulbs? cheers baz
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top