I'd agree. No way a bolt that size is the MAIN ground.

 

I believe that is the ground for the instruments, and lighting. Proper installation should be screw, star washer, clamp, frame. Make sure you have good contact to the frame.

 

This has got me curious.
On my bike (97EG) the main neg. cable goes to the forward starter bolt. It has the neg cable and holds the stater to the inner primary. There is a second lead (wire) from the battery neg connection that runs just down in front of the battery box and attaches to the bikes frame. for lighting and such. I.m wondering if the main ground to the engine is loose or bad and the second cable is trying to carry the full load?????

I can see alot of heat and sparks coming from that. Also the second neg. cable is about half the size of the main neg. cable.

Have seen this scenario on cars and trucks a good many times.

WP

 

Softails only use one ground cable and it grounds just to the frame forward of the oil tank.
If I remember right that is a 1/4x20 bolt holding it on.

 

"(1/4-20x1 self tapping")

This part of the first post makes me think a 1/4 " sheet metal screw.
Granted HD has used self threading bolts and maybe that is what he means.

But a 1/4 inch I'd be replacing the ground cable with something to reach a solid bolt and 5/16 at least.

And possibly it is really done just that way. I think we can still bet money on a bad connection of some sort weather it be the cable or starter draw through the roof.

WP

 

Well, I'll be. It must be more substantial than it sounds.

 

Here is the follow-up:
I took out my dremel and used the wire brush attachment to really clean up the negative battery cable connection (on the frame side) and cleaned up the frame area and the nut inside the frame that the self-tapping screw/bolt goes into. I re-attached everything and screwed it down fairly tight. No more sparks and starts like a champ (starter runs very strong). Thank you for all the help. I attached a picture to show how the battery cable is grounded to the frame. I'm the original owner and nothing has been changed in regards to this.
From a quality standpoint, the frame/welds and general build of my 2004 HD was MUCH better than what was built in 1993. My 2011 is even better.

 

Sounds like you had some corrosion built up on the ground.


I don't really know why you brought up welds but all the welds on my '95 bike are fine. No rust no broken welds. Not sure what else you can ask of a weld.

 

If got her fixed that's the main thing.

Sparks from under the seat would get most anyone's Attention.

WP

 

You are likely seeing hand welds V the machine/robot welds I assume the factory uses today. Remember, in the early 1990's they were producing like 70k bikes a year they were building only around 200 bikes per day. In the height of the 2000 bike boom, HD was rolling out something like 900 per day.