[sbcgos]

disregard, I'm an idiot.

 

[djoyner]

I recently rebuilt an old 78 GL1000 I picked up cheap. It did crank and run before I did the rebuild and repainting and stuff.

I have the bike all back together, but I can not get it to start. It will turn over, I am getting fire to the plugs, (not sure if it is enough) I have fuel in the carb bowls.

I have rebuilt the carbs and when I did I went over them pretty good. All jets and passageways were clear of debri and stuff.

I believe I may have an issue with either not getting enough fuel, or timing. But as I was using my tester to check voltage I noticed I am getting voltage on the frame and engine. Not sure if that is supposed to happen. I backtracked all the wiring and it did not go away until I had removed the ground cable from the battery. (the ground cable was the only part of the battery still connected to the bike - I had removed the positive side cable) Not sure what that means?

I have the ground cable from the battery grounded to the frame at the point where the three holed triangle shaped motor mount plate bolts through the engine block. Not sure if that is where it goes either.

If I am picking up 12v across my engine/frame would that cause the points/plugs to not work correctly. It doesn't even act like it wants to fire.

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated, I'm at a loss for what to try next.

You should not be getting a reading of 12v anywhere on the frame (the frame should be the negative return for the battery. 12 volts on the frame is definitely a bad thing. You may have a 12 volt wire with worn insulation rubbing against the frame, but that would typically result in a blown fuse.

If you don't have enough voltage coming out of the coils, then the bike won't start. You say that you are getting fire to the plugs, I assume you can lay a spark plug on the engine casing and see a good spark?

I would start tracing wires to find out why there are 12 volts on the frame before I continued trying to start the bike.

 

[Ansimp]

If you are testing between the negative battery terminal and the frame and getting a voltage reading then it means that your earth to the frame is poor.