Trying to narrow down my list of suspects. So here is the situation. Ground wire from battery to frame went bad...corroded, green & no ground. so Ground got hot while bike was in the garage & melted the entire battery terminal off. So I bought a new ground, mounted it to a thicker plate on the frame & removed the ground wire for the rear coil from the same bolt as the battery ground cable to its own separate ground. No more arc when i hook up the + then touch the - BUT if I have the battery hooked up & hold a test light to the ground terminal it lights up. So not sure what to look for on the bike? I just had it tore down for paint & all the wiring looks good so maybe a fuse or switch somewhere? It's a 1989 FLHS Any suggestions would be appreciated if not I'll send it to the shop

 

Do you have an security system on the bike? If so it has to have power from the battery even when the bike is shut-down. How much drain on the battery is there. An amp clamp on the negative terminal should let you know what the actual drain is.

If no security system on bike, try putting a meter on ground (amp clamp would be easiest) and start pulling fuses one at a time. Watch to see where the ground disappears. This will at least narrow down the problem. Depending on what circuit it shows up will determine how to proceed. Could be a ground in a coil for example.

 

If I'm reading this right, your single lead test light, lights up when you touch the negative battery terminal? First of all, get a cheap volt meter, test lights don't always paint a good enough picture of what is going on. But is nothing working or is it working but your test lamp is lighting up? If there is a short somewhere that could conceivably happen, but only if there aren't any fuses on the circuit that is causing the problem, so something that was added aftermarket. More info please...

 

The bike was recently torn down for paint and such. The bike was parked in the garage, assume ignition was off (battery tender?). I would think that a ground wire melting would indicate a short, possibly not enough current to open a main fuse, or it's shorted before any fuse. I'd be looking at the battery compartment for pinched wires. Maybe something under the seat pan, poor connection at the ground point, i.e. paint is not scraped off to bare metal. +1 on the meter recommendation. Don't give up too soon, this is a good excersize to learn from.