Electrical Grounding Problem

[jwgeorge]

Has anyone ever had a problem with their electrical system grounding through the brake light circuit?
My bike started running extremely bad last night, luckily just .50 miles from home.
It was barely running and sputtering and backfiring, but it would run at idle, but as soon as I started moving it would do it again.
The lights were very dim.
As I came up on my driveway I used the front brake and when I did the lights came back and the revs went up.
Got me to thinking, so I started off down the street and it ran bad, I held the rear brake pedal down a little and it ran fine down the street.
From looking at the wiring diagram I see that the taillight circuit has it's own ground to the frame.
Sooooo, I'm thinking that the main ground and/or the ground cable on the battery is loose, causing the electrical system to
seek out a different ground path.

Anyone else ever had this happen?

Thanks,
Jay

[Roguesuzuki]

wow... I can't imagine the ground on the brake light would cause that, however, if power is being robbed it could cause your ignition to be lacking power need for a good spark.. wild..

[jeremy_nash]

check the heavy ground that runs from the battery down to the motor

[jwgeorge]

Sorry, Should have listed the equipment: 1992 GS500E, with 7900 orig. miles.

It is the weirdest thing, seems to have hardly any ignition power when running down the road, then touch the brakes and activate the tailight and it revs right up!
I messed with it tonight and the ground cable from the battery to the engine ohms-out fine.
So I checked the igniter and rectifier grounds, both good.
The rectifier ground connection plug contacts looked corroded, so I cleaned them up and took it around the block and it was fine.
I need to ride it around some more and see if it acts up.
When it started running badly, it had not been ridden any longer than usual and it was cool outside.
I've ridden it harder and longer and not had any problems.