Attaching ground wires to a powdercoat frame
Senior Member
Back Marker
Joined: Sep 2008
Posts: 172
From: Central Ohio
what are the material properties of the powder coating? most powder coatings include a lot of polymers. most polymers are pretty good insulators, but maybe your coating includes metal particles that are conductive. who knows? you could test electrical continuity/resistance with a multimeter. i would grind it off.
Senior Member
Superstock
Joined: Jan 2011
Posts: 258
From: Santa Clara, CA
what are the material properties of the powder coating? most powder coatings include a lot of polymers. most polymers are pretty good insulators, but maybe your coating includes metal particles that are conductive. who knows? you could test electrical continuity/resistance with a multimeter. i would grind it off.
Def. grind off paint; same principle of welding (kinda, sorta, ish) the paint prevents any good connection between the 2. had to write an OSHA report against some a**holes who welded a second story grab rail on a walkway over paint and the weld snapped and almost killed someone.
you can also find points to ground on the engine, because IIRC the main ground goes straight to the case.
Thread Starter
Senior Member
MotoGP
Joined: Jul 2010
Posts: 3,871
From: Phoenix, AZ
Still trying a little bit to figure out what all of the electrical stuff means as it is not my strong point. So, battery negative is attached to the motor housing, all grounds are attached to motor housing indirectly. So, if I have ground attached to my rear tank mount, it's also connected to the shock, which is also connected through linkage to the motor. Even if the paint on the frame has 0% conductivity (so the rear tank mount is not in contact with the frame at all), I am still grounded, yeah?
My apologies if the question is confusing, now it's more of a curiosity thing than a logistics thing.
Senior Member
Superstock
Joined: Jan 2011
Posts: 258
From: Santa Clara, CA
Hypothetically yes haha, in a very round-about way. you do need to have continuity between the point in question and the battery because the tires don't ground to the road and hence why the (-) terminal on the battery goes to the frame.
The easiest way is to just double check with continuity test as someone has mentioned before. If you don't have a meter there are some at radioshack for like 6 bucks, it's a necessity for pretty much any mechanics so I'd really recommend one.
But as long as it's metal-metal contact and not metal-paint/plastic contact then you should have continuity.
I typically over-engineer things and make them either soldered to ground points which I have wired between pretty much all the metal, or straight to the battery. It's the same reason I use solid core wire as compared to stranded. A little over-kill, but I'd rather overbuild something, than fall short of requirements!
The easiest way is to just double check with continuity test as someone has mentioned before. If you don't have a meter there are some at radioshack for like 6 bucks, it's a necessity for pretty much any mechanics so I'd really recommend one.
But as long as it's metal-metal contact and not metal-paint/plastic contact then you should have continuity.
I typically over-engineer things and make them either soldered to ground points which I have wired between pretty much all the metal, or straight to the battery. It's the same reason I use solid core wire as compared to stranded. A little over-kill, but I'd rather overbuild something, than fall short of requirements!
Senior Member
SuperSport
Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 818
From: Thornwood, NY
Grind down the small area you need for the contact... I powder coat small items at home.... once I get good 1 coat on a part if I don't have a clean connection to the part I can't do a second coat without heating it and "hot flocking" as the electrical connection is all but gone.
If you can't get to the area you want to grind very easily, try some aircraft stripper on a q-tip.... apply in very small amounts until it melts enough away till the point you are good to go.... but don't dip/smear/wipe/etc that stuff.... it will ruin a finish in an instant... i speak from experience!!!
J.
If you can't get to the area you want to grind very easily, try some aircraft stripper on a q-tip.... apply in very small amounts until it melts enough away till the point you are good to go.... but don't dip/smear/wipe/etc that stuff.... it will ruin a finish in an instant... i speak from experience!!!
J.
Thread Starter
Senior Member
MotoGP
Joined: Jul 2010
Posts: 3,871
From: Phoenix, AZ
Grind down the small area you need for the contact... I powder coat small items at home.... once I get good 1 coat on a part if I don't have a clean connection to the part I can't do a second coat without heating it and "hot flocking" as the electrical connection is all but gone.
If you can't get to the area you want to grind very easily, try some aircraft stripper on a q-tip.... apply in very small amounts until it melts enough away till the point you are good to go.... but don't dip/smear/wipe/etc that stuff.... it will ruin a finish in an instant... i speak from experience!!!
J.
If you can't get to the area you want to grind very easily, try some aircraft stripper on a q-tip.... apply in very small amounts until it melts enough away till the point you are good to go.... but don't dip/smear/wipe/etc that stuff.... it will ruin a finish in an instant... i speak from experience!!!
J.
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