Aftermarket Headlight Grounding

[heckienawjoe]

Hey guys, (likely) a stupid question for you:

I bought an aftermarket headlight and it only has one wire (main power) coming out the back. I opened it up and it has a ground wire also that it attached to a metal grommet in the shell.

My question is, do I need to cut the ground wire and splice it to the ground wire circuit on the bike (where the stock headlight ground wire attached)?

Thanks.

 

[Belle]

No, if the co. attached it there it is likely good enough, but you could probably go one gauge wire up on lower end components. Most likely, the co. didn't brake the bank on copper (they never do). Don't know which one ya got, so, I'm just sayin'. But...if you're returning or using stock controls ya might need to. I don't know--don't stay stock too long, myself.

 

[FrkyMnky]

You will likely need to ground the headlight as I am pretty sure the forks are not grounded. Would be pretty easy to bolt up the headlight and the battery and see if it works. If it doesn't then you need to run a ground wire.

 

[jamesgs4]

IIRC the factory ground wire is to keep the headlight from grounding to the frame through the neck bearings. Factory ball bearings have tiny contact points, and electricity arcing through them could easily ruin them.

 

[speez]

cut ground off base and put it on old headlight ground, better yet run a new wire to under tank and make a new ground, this new light has no hi beam??

 

[heckienawjoe]

interesting...never knew that about the steering bearings.

no hi beam. I'm not thrilled about that but I rarely use it anyway.

Got it connected and yes it does work with the ground attached to the metal grommet in the headlight shell. I may end up splicing in with the old headlight ground circuit as the beam isn't all that bright and I'm suspecting a weak ground as the culprit.