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Additional grounds. Yet still problems??

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xc6rider

Well-known member
Jan 12, 2009
1,484
484
83
Iowa
Who all has added ground from belt cover, to chassis/ and engine?

And of those who have, who all has still had VR /ECU problems?

Been informed to do this, and while going through doing this, and doing research just wondering who still has had problems.

It really makes sense to me though. Once a VR shorts out, it will in theory become a ground (especially if shorted to the body of the VR). And if it does that, it has no way to ground unless one is added.

A ground is still not going to take care of any electrical item recieving too much voltage however.

I'll post up some pix of how I added ground wires.
 
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xc6rider

Well-known member
Jan 12, 2009
1,484
484
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Iowa
Anyone had failures after installing additional ground wires???

Hopefully no response means very few that have added ground wires have had problems? Wishfull thinking?
 
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EricW

Well-known member
Nov 26, 2007
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NE Washington
07 D7 had no additional ground wires and fried all. 08 D8 has 10 Ga. tinned wires to chassis and motor and no problems. I would do it for sure. EW
 
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xc6rider

Well-known member
Jan 12, 2009
1,484
484
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Iowa
I also added 10ga grounds. One from the top electrical plate (which had zero ground before) to the original ground on the belt guard. And from that point to the engine.



D8ground.jpg

Plenty of room to fit a short bolt right into the existing hole for the case bolts.

D8ground3.jpg

Ran it up and secured it to the inside of the small belt guard that's riveted in place, and then up to the original ground location.

D8ground2.jpg

And the short one running from the top plate that holds the electronics, also to the original ground location.

0.0-0.5 ohms now throughout:face-icon-small-win

I used heat shrink with internal adhesive along most of the 10ga wire i got. Really adds the ability to form the wire and keep it where you want, adds more durability, while remaining flexible.

Hopefully the pix show up clear enough to see.... kinda small.
 
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EricW

Well-known member
Nov 26, 2007
1,867
691
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NE Washington
I used a tinned marine grade wire from West Marine (any boat store or wire house will do). Like above I used epoxy connections and covered with heat shrinks. EW

100_0578.jpg


100_0579.jpg
 

thefullmonte

Well-known member
Premium Member
Nov 26, 2007
1,844
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Rapid City
So far so good on mine. Granted I really don't have that many miles on it yet. The fact that they have come out with yet another updated Voltage Regulator has me a little worried.
 
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xc6rider

Well-known member
Jan 12, 2009
1,484
484
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Iowa
Anyone else?

I should have started a Poll to see how many have/have not had problems with the additional grounding. I'm guessing that the majority of sleds are running without additional grounding.
 
D
Mar 24, 2008
399
14
18
Idaho
grounds

I have had trouble getting my fuel controller to keep a good ground.

I connected it to three different grounds. One near the from of the sled, near the ecu and near the steer mount and my fuel contoller would run for a little while then go dead.

I gave up and took it off.

If I held it on to one of the head bolts with my hand it would run fine. No idea. what was going on.
 
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xc6rider

Well-known member
Jan 12, 2009
1,484
484
83
Iowa
I have had trouble getting my fuel controller to keep a good ground.

I connected it to three different grounds. One near the from of the sled, near the ecu and near the steer mount and my fuel contoller would run for a little while then go dead.

I gave up and took it off.

If I held it on to one of the head bolts with my hand it would run fine. No idea. what was going on.

I'm assuming you have NOT added any additional ground paths?

You're results pretty much paint a picture of poor ground design! I read about guys doing this, and thought i'd tinker around a bit. Checking resistance between several different spots on the sled was shocking. Everything looks good resistance wise, after adding grounds.
 
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xc6rider

Well-known member
Jan 12, 2009
1,484
484
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Iowa
Yes, I should add....

A whole 7 days and 51 miles (the first 51 miles) from starting this thread, my VR fried.

Answered my own question.
 

jeremyp111

Well-known member
Lifetime Membership
Dec 27, 2009
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New Hampshire
I'm betting that had nothing to do with the grounding though. The VR's are known to have problems and those problems are unrelated to poor grounds. Hey, the bottom line is that even with excellent grounds you may still experience electrical problems such as a failed VR. Hopefully the new one holds up better!

JP
 

jeremyp111

Well-known member
Lifetime Membership
Dec 27, 2009
136
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New Hampshire
I should also add that I put in some additional grounding wires to my sled, similar to EricW's pics. I have not experienced any electrical problems (knock on wood several times).
 
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xc6rider

Well-known member
Jan 12, 2009
1,484
484
83
Iowa
Correct, I'm certain the ground wire's aren't what caused the VR to go.

Something else is going on.

I'm also almost certain the VR isn't shorting to ground when failed, like I thought it would. Something is going wrong with them internally and just sending incorrect electricity through the system. I think it's sending Vac through the system.
 
F
Jan 3, 2011
20
1
3
53
My 10 600 IQ is presently at the deaelers with 185 miles on it. When i was idling I noticed the volt meter flashing and the bars at one. Checked engine temp. it was high at around 170 or so. Soon as I touched the brake lever or any thing requiring electric, Insturment panel would blank, tach would drop off. It idled/ran just fine, no hiccups there. Then if I touched the brake again the Instr. panel and tach would come back and display like at start up. But the volt meter would then again begin to flash and drop off, head/tail lights faded then out.
 
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