Battery ground location

[motomartin]

I've started working on the 'barn' bike. The bike was complete with an actual rats nest, symbolic of its condition.
The battery ground (negative) lead goes to the battery door bolt. I'm sure this is not the correct location, where should it connect?
I cannot get the starter to turn the motor over (even with the plug removed). I have taken the starter apart and cleaned off the commutator, it now spins nicely out of the bike. The battery is new, I have cleaned off the starter button, the lights flicker when I press the starter button but no response from the starter. The wiring from the starter button gets hot. I have tried two different starter relays. Next thing I will look at is the ignition wiring for the other two wires from the starter button.

[wayne]

I have two bikes both with original locations for the earth. On my M model, it has a 10 mm bolt with a Suzuki "S" stamp that bolts into the little tab at the centre rear of the battery box.

On the A model, it runs down the frame tube and connects via one of the Clutch cover screws, specifically the Allen head that sits directly behind the kickstart spline.

Wayne

[motomartin]

Thanks for the reply Wayne, I'll check it out

[ziggystardust]

Both my RE5s (A and M) have the same earth connections, the one that locates on the engine over the kick start as mentioned by Wayne and another from the main wiring loom slightly to the right of the bike's spine under the petrol tank, it's a tab specially for the earth. If this is not a good clean contact then it can give problems.

[steveuk]

The tab at the centre rear of the battery box should have a bracket bolted to it that holds the multi plug connector from the rectifier.

[wayne]

Not necessarily re the bracket that holds the multi plug. A lot of the early bikes were full of brackets. I have an early model sitting in the shed undergoing a ground up restore and it is full of brackets. My two later models have almost no brackets, for example under the tank, and the bracket at the rear of the battery box is no longer there.

In both later models, the rectifier multi plug is held against the right upper frame tube where the battery is and held by the standard Suzuki plastic coated flat metal wrap around ties.

Desperate cost cutting I guess.

Wayne