Unknown short, no power anywhere

[Puntachu]

I have an 82’ GS650E and for the last few days I’ve been battling some random short issue, where I have nearly ~0 ohms resistance from terminal to terminal with the battery off and key in the on position. As soon as I pull the main fuse, I get readings in the megohms again. Checked as much as I could, r/r, the headlight spaghetti, brake switches, turn signal switches (couldn’t locate the relay?), fuse box internals, etc. the only possibly weird thing I noticed was the 4 wire connector off of the fuse box, (O,O/G, O/R, O/W). When I pulled the connecter I went from 0 ohm resistance to megohms again. After, when I probed 2 of the wires on the male side the test came back to 0 ohms resistance, which I’m pretty sure seems like a short, unless I’m mistaken. I believe it was the O wire that goes into ignition and O/R that goes to the handle bar controls. (Tested those, they behave normal). Prior to this I took it for an hour ride the day before with 0 issues, but when I went to start it I flipped the key and got NOTHING. Batt was at 12.8v so I tossed it on the charger and am gonna try to continue to diag tonight. If anyone has advice I’d appreciate it, thanks.

 

[rphillips]

Seems you've done a whole lot of checking. Me, with batt. connected see if 12V going to ign. switch, if it is see if 12V going to fuse panel... With test light check batt. pos. to frame, if light don't light batt. ground is problem.

 

[Grimly]

Best I can recommend is to unfasten all connectors on the loom and with a bulb inserted into the positive feedline, connect up the battery and re-connect all one at a time, to narrow it down to one circuit feeding one item.

You could make up a test bulb to plug into a fuseway instead, if that's easier. If the bulb lights, there's near enough a short in that circuit.

 

[tom203]

This is the 1982 650e. ? Did you get the colored wiring diagram?
pull the ignition fuse and see if other stuff behaves normally…key “on”

 

[Puntachu]

Alright, now I found all the wires in the turn signal to be shorted to each other, as well as the headlight bulb, tail light, and still getting nothing. This is way out of my skill for electrical but I’m gonna keep going, its not gonna fix itself.

 

[salty_monk]

I had a weird one inside the speedo housing, bulb holders being shorted by the reflectors that had come loose…

 

[Puntachu]

Yeah, turned out to be something in the headlight circuit.

 

[850 Combat]

Good for you. I generally add a few extra grounds. Does a 1982 still have the long stator wire toward the former headlight switch and back? I've taken to running the stator wires a lot farther to the R/R. I've just found too many dirty plug in connectors, and overheated burner bullet connectors with the clear plastic all overheated. Hey, it works for a decade or two...

 

[Puntachu]

I couldn’t tell ya off the top of my head. I know I found continuity between my chassis ground and some of the main fuse box power wires without a battery hooked up, and the other big issue was a somehow internally shorted AGM battery. Got a yuasa just a few months ago but after testing it, if I touched it at all (like shook it or knocked on the side) voltage would drop to 6v. Ouch. But after a new battery, cleaning some corrosion and shorts in the handlebar light controls and cleaning all grounds, it seems good. Still a stock R/R though, only 15k miles but I did find some toasty bullet connecter casings. I plan to do a Honda rr swap whenever I want to put the bike down and get back into the garage in this heat.