Yep! Check those ground points! Poor or broken grounds are probably the most frequent cause of failure in the whole wiring circuit. The yerf harness is poor at best, inadequate wire size, cheap pin connectors, just plain problematic in general. Bad ground points cause all sorts of issues, Slow or no starter spin, hard starting, misfires or ignition skip and dead batteries. Many a time starters , cdi's, carbs and batteries have been replaced only to find a faulty ground.
you can cure a lot of electrical issues by creating a solid ground terminal. Follow the negitive wire from the battery up to the electrical box on the swing arm. It will most likely be twisted together with some other ground wire going to the starter solenoid, rectifier, and ignition. Find a accessible spot on the electric box metal base. Drill a hole for a 1/4-20 x 3/4 bolt. Make sure the wire from the battery is 10g or larger. Connect from the battery to this bolt using a steel eye lugs. ( aluminum lugs will crush and break)you now have a solid ground terminal to work from. From this bolt run another 10g wire to one of the starter mounting bolts on the motor. You now have a strong ground to the motor for starting, charging and ignition coil. run another 12g wire up front to the dash area. This is a ground terminal for the ignition /starter switches and accessories. The 12g wire running forwards bypasses some problematic connections, (like that brake safety switch) and stream lines the negative path. Using terminal points helps with future electric issues by creating a test point for diagnostics. I.E... the CDI is controlled by ground. By grounding out the cdi it shuts off. The ignition switch sends ground to the CDI. A ground short anywhere in the circuits shuts the CDI down. Many a CDI has been replaced thinking it's bad.
I removed the electrics totally from the swing arm and located everything in a box on the chassis behind the seat. There is a negative terminal point and a positive fused terminal point. All the circuits, starting, ignition, charging, lights and oil cooling are run from these terminals. A failure in one circuit won't effect the others. Another helpful addition is a kill switch with a removable handle at the battery. This prevents battery drain while not in use. This switch shuts everything down! Also serves as a safety kill or a anti theft device.
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