finding a ground

[cscott]

wondering if there is a step by step way to isolate a ground draining my battery on my 47 indian chief? thanks

[tfburke3]

I would suggest a multi meter set on ohms and connected to battery ground connection and positive wire disconnected from battery.
With everything off reading should be 0.If there is some continuity you can try and disconnect things on at a time until 0 reading.
The weirdest drain I heard of was older wire harness terminal rubber sleeves had some carbon or some conducting material that could drain if touching ground.
Tom

[pisten-bully]

wiring diagram '46.jpeg

...follow Tom's advice and work "upstream" from the battery by following the wiring diagram. Off the positive lead of the battery (disconnected for testing) you'll see the feed goes two ways: to the brake light switch and to the ammeter... and once you find a circuit or wire that has continuity to ground then you start looking at that wire in detail, evidence of chafing and poor connections are your leading offenders. Good luck!

[Beemererik]

If it is a very slow drain on your battery, it is helpful to use a good quality multimeter that can measure current. Fluke is an example of a good meter manufacturer. Typically, the meter will have a 10A range and a 300mA (0.3A) range. I would start on the 10A range as current inputs on a meter are fused and if you exceed them, you will blow an internal fuse. Once you determine your current drain is lower than the lowest range (say 0.3A) switch the wires to that range on the meter as you get better granularity in your measurement. If your drain is greater than 1A you should be killing your battery in a short period of time. I would expect slow drains to be under 0.1A.

Added accessories such as USB ports and phone chargers can cause sneak drain paths if they are not actually wired in to be truly disconnected from the battery when the bike is off.

How to start - current is measured in series with a wire. So, you could lift the battery positive or negative terminal wire, hook one side of the meter to the battery and the other side of the meter to the battery cable just removed. With the ignition switch off, ideally you should measure no current flow. If you measure current flow, say 0.05A or 0.1A that is when I would start disconnecting one accessory lead at a time to see when it goes to 0A. Then you will know the area to focus on

I know a lot of people struggle with using a meter to measure current. If that is your situation, I would try to find someone locally who is familiar with the process.

You can use an ohm meter to locate more severe shorts, however if it is a higher resistance drain (which equates to low leakage current), they can be harder to find unless you are proficient with the meter.

[Saddletramp]

I concur with all of the folk above. The simplest OHM test if you will is to rule out a short. BTW shorts don't always manifest in sparks or fire. Drains on the system are sometimes that very thing. Troubleshooting being the exact same process. More likely too much resistance somewhere along the line in the harness. I have to ask the jackass question Mr. Scott, is there in fact a drain on the system with the battery connected and all else off/disconnected? Okay. Shades of my former career tracking electrical improprieties in cable systems. Never could isolate the drain in my '60.panhead. Just rewired the thang. 1983 restoration was looming anyway.

Excellent walk thru Mr Burke and Erik, looking forward to the resolution post cscott.
James

[DEEBS47Chief1991]

The battery is hooked directly to the ammeter, key switch, horn, brake light switch, & generator. It's possible that one of these items has small internal short when the bike is at rest. The horn and brake light switch would most likely give visual/audio results. I would look at the cut-out on the generator or the key switch. These two are the switches that get used the most and can cause issues.

My money is on the cut-out "regulator". Points might be welded together.

[Lyle Manheimer]

I agree with all sugestions so far but before even starting with a multi-meter a good visual inspection is a good idea. A slow drain is often caused by corrosion. Look at all connections and make sure none of them exibit the bluish green you find on battery terminals. I am sure you already checked them for corosion, right? Any terminals exibiting this should be replaced as the insulating qualities have broken down and it is a good idea to replace them.

[cscott]

Well I checked the continuity, it remained at zero, going to dig out my digital meter too and check. Then i will isolate regulator and see what happens, thanks

[BoschZEV]

Diagnosing someone else's electrical problems remotely can be quite frustrating due to lack of sufficient information. For example, all the previous posts have assumed your battery is fully charged and in good condition, but is it? If not, it's quite possible the battery itself is at fault. Also, it's possible the generator or voltage regulator isn't bringing the battery up to full charge.

Assuming there is a high resistance short that is slowly draining the battery, but far the best tool to use is a clamp-on DC ammeter. You need one that measures DC as well as AC, and has a scale that goes to 0.01 A, so read the descriptions carefully before buying, because the AC-only ones are less expensive but won't work for your purpose. Until recently there were available for around $15, but tariffs probably changed that.

Assuming you have a 10 A-hr battery, a clamp-on ammeter that reads to 0.01 A will detect a current small enough that it takes over a month to drain the battery, so it will be sensitive enough for most such troubleshooting. Assuming one of the leads at the battery shows current is flowing, such a meter makes it possible to quickly check each arm of a circuit to find the one responsible for that current. In principle, this also could be done by breaking each circuit separately to insert an in-line ammeter, as has been suggested, but not only would that take a lot longer, it often is impractical.

[Lyle Manheimer]

When looking for grounds, I always liked an analog meter. The sensativity of a digital will probably not give you a steady reading. Also, lift the battery negative when searching for the faulty circuit, if you have not already done so.

[dukekleman]

Diagnosing someone else's electrical problems remotely can be quite frustrating due to lack of sufficient information. For example, all the previous posts have assumed your battery is fully charged and in good condition, but is it? If not, it's quite possible the battery itself is at fault. Also, it's possible the generator or voltage regulator isn't bringing the battery up to full charge.

Assuming there is a high resistance short that is slowly draining the battery, but far the best tool to use is a clamp-on DC ammeter. You need one that measures DC as well as AC, and has a scale that goes to 0.01 A, so read the descriptions carefully before buying, because the AC-only ones are less expensive but won't work for your purpose. Until recently there were available for around $15, but tariffs probably changed that.

Assuming you have a 10 A-hr battery, a clamp-on ammeter that reads to 0.01 A will detect a current small enough that it takes over a month to drain the battery, so it will be sensitive enough for most such troubleshooting. Assuming one of the leads at the battery shows current is flowing, such a meter makes it possible to quickly check each arm of a circuit to find the one responsible for that current. In principle, this also could be done by breaking each circuit separately to insert an in-line ammeter, as has been suggested, but not only would that take a lot longer, it often is impractical.

BoschZEV,

I agree. I end up doing a lot of phone diagnostics and it is frustrating.
It's frustrating when the technician does not understand proper testing procedures.
It requires a lot of patience on my end. Especially when I'm helping them with modern motorcycles with CAN bus, BCM's and ECM's. There's a lot going on in the modern harnesses.
However, it still comes down to fundamentals.

Duke Kleman

[cscott]

buying a dc amp meter, think this is a good solution to finding my problem, thanks

[dukekleman]

Cscott,

I'm not sure what tooling you are considering investing in, however the two tools shown in the photo below are ones we have ordered and distributed to our training technicians over the last 20 years.
We have distributed over 1,000 of each.
The only reason I bring this up is because of the volume we use. I can say they have been VERY reliable and accurate!
IMG_20250521_132913672.jpg
They are a Fluke 115 multi-meter and a CM600 Amp clamp.
The CM100 is also very handy as well. (Not photo'd)

There are many other tools we use in electrical diagnostics but these two are a must have in my opinion.

Hope this may help,

Duke Kleman

[BoschZEV]

I wouldn't recommend the Fluke CM600 because it only resolves 0.1 A, which wouldn't be ideal for for troubleshooting on a motorcycle, and its upper range of 600 A never would be needed. The CM100 would be a much better choice, with resolution of 0.001 A and 100 A upper limit. The resolution would allow detecting leaks that would take over a year to drain a motorcycle battery.

[dukekleman]

BoschZEV,

The Fluke 115, I show in the image above, reads in Milli -Amps.

Duke Kleman