Smoke from battery negative wire :/

[LMT GS500]

Got a little smoking problem. Was working on my bike today, started it and the revs jump to 7k. Throttle cable was sticking. Took the tank off greased up the spring and seems to be returning fine now. Anyways went to start the bike up again but it go. Seemed  like not enough juice in the battery. I did, admittedly, hold the start button for a few seconds and I saw smoke coming from the negative terminal off the battery. Disconnected the battery and both the batt negative terminal and the bike negative wire were hot for a while.
Anyone have a clue why this would happen? Gonna charge the battery before reconnecting it again as it's been off for a while whilst I've been rebuilding the bike.

[Badot]

If it's just the negative wire, a bad connection will easily do that.

[radodrill]

Smoking from the termin = very likely a loose connection.

I've seen an electrical fire start from a loose connection on a wall outlet.

[LMT GS500]

  will try trace the negative wire back to it's ground see if there's anything loose.

[Janx101]

loose at battery terminal most likely ... doesnt take much movement to mess with the contact and make tiny sparks.. then smoke...

specially if you recently reconnected the battery .. dont strip the bolts out but it should be quite tight! 

[LMT GS500]

quick update. the little black with white tracer wire connected to the battery negative wire was a bit shagged. so i remade the connection to go straight to the battery. traced the the batt negative wire all the way the right hand side where its bolted just behind the clutch cover; all seems fine. connected the batt again, press the started button and still no go. the negative wire still getting warm. didnt noticed any smoke this time though.
could it be the starter relay?? it clicks when i press the started button but the started doesnt crank.

[adidasguy]

Click and no start:
1. Bad battery. What is the voltage? (get out your meter)
2. Bad wire to the starter motor from the starter relay (remove starterr relay cover and check the + wire to the starter motor)
3. Least likely: frozen motor
4. Remote possibility: dead starter motor

[john]

I have seen old corroded battery cables do this.  It could be possible.  Might be worth checking it.

[LMT GS500]

problem "solved"! still dont really know what the problem was but read another post on here about bike not starting and he suggested putting it in gear, rocking the bike back and forth then starting it. and long and behold it worked so i guess the heat and smoke was just a result of overheating from holding the starter switch in; ooops. anyways bike starts fine now

[fetor56]

problem "solved"! still dont really know what the problem was but read another post on here about bike not starting and he suggested putting it in gear, rocking the bike back and forth then starting it. and long and behold it worked so i guess the heat and smoke was just a result of overheating from holding the starter switch in; ooops. anyways bike starts fine now

All these little tricks are handy.