Basically you have a bunch of electrons in the battery, and they all want to go "to ground". As the electrons go by on their journey to ground you can put them to work, this is the current. In the case of your bike ground is the frame. The negative cable on the battery goes to the frame or the engine block, here and there in the wiring harness you see dark green wires just bolted to the frame. These are all grounds. Sometimes headlights and horns ground themselves out through their housings which are metal and mounted to the frame. For there to be a current, there must be an electrical source, and a ground for the electrons to go to. If the source is good, and the component (light or horn) is good, then what's left is the ground. A lot of times the connection where the wiring grounds to the frame can get corroded. Find the ground for that circuit, disconnect it, clean it with a little fine grit sandpaper, and reconnect it.
-Kyle On Tue, Jun 26, 2012 at 1:11 PM, Cory Crawford <[email protected]>wrote: > ha stupid phone now I just saw the rest of the responses. nighthawk owners > have a sense of humor too! Ha. ya wasnt too optimistic anyone would live > relatively close. I'll try out this ground stuff though I just need to go > over to google and type it "what is ground" and hope that it doesnt give me > a bunch of responses about dirt rocks and plants cause thats same thing I > think of. > > > > On Tue, Jun 26, 2012 at 11:08 AM, Cory Crawford < > [email protected]> wrote: > >> Thats perfectly described and understandable for me gevanish thanks. Ya I >> tested the headlight by sticking some wires into the connectors on the back >> of the headlight and then connecting the wires to the battery. still a >> little confused by all the ground talk but I'll just try and follow your >> advice word for word and see what happens. When you say the ground you take >> off the frame what does that mean? Thanks for your answer though I'm gonna >> try this... >> >> >> On Tue, Jun 26, 2012 at 5:25 AM, EGrider <[email protected]> wrote: >> >>> A little while back, the headlight on my NH just stopped working, both >>> high and low beams. You say you tested the headlight and it works. So did >>> I. I'm going to assume that this means you got the headlight and 2 pieces >>> of wire and touched them directly to the battery, yes? That should mean you >>> have already figured out which connectors on the bulb are + and which is >>> the ground, even if you don't know which is high or low beam. Next you need >>> to attach a wire to the + on the headlight connector in the headlight >>> bucket to take power from it. The ground you take off the frame, not the >>> push-on connector. Run a ground wire from the bulb to the frame or back to >>> the ground on the battery if you have a long-enough wire. See what happens. >>> In my case, the bulb came on, which meant my ground was bad on the push-on >>> connector to the bulb even though it looked fine on visual inspection. I >>> cleaned and jiggled and pushed on the ground until it was making contact >>> again and viola! working headlights, high and low! Your mileage may vary, >>> but that's my story. Now I'm an electrical semi-idiot. >>> >>> >>> On Monday, June 25, 2012 5:30:25 PM UTC-4, clkcrawford wrote: >>>> >>>> I'm an electrical idiot. Never gotten my hands dirty in my life UNTIL I >>>> bought my 1985 Nighthawk 450 a couple weeks ago. Wasnt running and now its >>>> running like a champ thanks to forums like this and the Clymers. Now the >>>> last two things that I CANT figure out. My horn and headlight are not >>>> working. Already tested horn and headlight individually so I know its not a >>>> problem with them. I have tried studying and analyzing the wiring diagram >>>> in my clymers and it might as well be instructions to deactivate a nuclear >>>> bomb thats written in german. I have no clue what it means and the only >>>> time I've tried messing around with stray wires sparks flew like 4th of >>>> July and I burnt my fingers. SO...my question is this..where do I start and >>>> what do I check? You might have to use caveman language with me because >>>> even "check the terminals for a bad ground" means absolutely nothing to me >>>> cause I have no clue what those are. Only shop around in my area that will >>>> do the electrical on this wants $90 an hour just to look at it. Trying not >>>> to go that route. I apologize for my idiocy but I'm sure most people >>>> understand that everyone use to know nothing and that happens to be the >>>> stage I am in. If you need more info let me know I can post and reply >>>> pretty quickly. Thanks and I'll post some pics too if need be. >>> >>> >>> On Monday, June 25, 2012 5:30:25 PM UTC-4, clkcrawford wrote: >>>> >>>> I'm an electrical idiot. Never gotten my hands dirty in my life UNTIL I >>>> bought my 1985 Nighthawk 450 a couple weeks ago. Wasnt running and now its >>>> running like a champ thanks to forums like this and the Clymers. Now the >>>> last two things that I CANT figure out. My horn and headlight are not >>>> working. Already tested horn and headlight individually so I know its not a >>>> problem with them. I have tried studying and analyzing the wiring diagram >>>> in my clymers and it might as well be instructions to deactivate a nuclear >>>> bomb thats written in german. I have no clue what it means and the only >>>> time I've tried messing around with stray wires sparks flew like 4th of >>>> July and I burnt my fingers. SO...my question is this..where do I start and >>>> what do I check? You might have to use caveman language with me because >>>> even "check the terminals for a bad ground" means absolutely nothing to me >>>> cause I have no clue what those are. Only shop around in my area that will >>>> do the electrical on this wants $90 an hour just to look at it. Trying not >>>> to go that route. I apologize for my idiocy but I'm sure most people >>>> understand that everyone use to know nothing and that happens to be the >>>> stage I am in. If you need more info let me know I can post and reply >>>> pretty quickly. Thanks and I'll post some pics too if need be. >>> >>> -- >>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >>> Groups "Nighthawk Motorcycle Lovers!" group. >>> To view this discussion on the web visit >>> https://groups.google.com/d/msg/nighthawk_lovers/-/UWqJe6HaiFAJ. >>> >>> To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. >>> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >>> [email protected]. >>> For more options, visit this group at >>> http://groups.google.com/group/nighthawk_lovers?hl=en. >>> >> >> > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Nighthawk Motorcycle Lovers!" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/nighthawk_lovers?hl=en. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Nighthawk Motorcycle Lovers!" group. 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