449/511 ignition ground

There is a wire that attaches to the head of the engine, you can see it on the left hand side near the top. It is a ground wire. Remove it and move it to your frame near by, there is actually a hole already in the frame near the front of your engine up top, but I added a new hole in a convenient location. Ty says it is the #1 failure (*When racing of course and may or may not ever fail during normal use) on the 449/511 Huskys. It gets hot/vibrates and breaks inside the insulation and you won't even know it, but your bike will be sputtering and not run right.

And the iridium plug # is: NGK CR9EIX (3521)

Thanks mate, update recored and will preform when i can :-)

Have a source for that iridium plug, Tinken?

I bought one at Malcolm Smith's.

http://www.motorcycle-superstore.co...kw={keyword}&gclid=CPO689KP9rICFYdxQgodyjIAfQ

The guy who installs the sparkplug ground must have been on vacation when your bikes were built..Wonder if i unhook it it'll give it some xtra revs

Haha. I guess that little wire cooks on the top of that head and becomes brittle and eventually breaks. This happened on two different race bikes at different times and whole races were lost because of it. It is the ground side of the spark coil which seems to work fine for me attached to the frame where it doesn't vibrate nearly as bad and is somewhat cooler. Instead of a little wire, a ground braid would of been better to use, they are tougher to break off.

Ha ha I'm missreading posts again ! I originally thought they did not have the ground wire hooked to the head from the factory, the complete opposite ... Duh lol

This is what I did. Didn't want to drill in the frame + I dot believe it will give good connection because of the paint.

@Londin, Awesome! That's much better, I will move it there if I have issues on the frame.

Also, there is a capacitor towards the rear of the engine. These get very hot and can also cause problems. There is enough room to unbolt, flip upside down and re-bolt. It can be tricky to do, not sure the best way, maybe loosening lower shock bolt and moving the shock out of the way.

I bet this one won't heat up.
http://www.offshoreelectrics.com/proddetail.php?prod=cas-011-0002-02&cat=136

Is the function of the capacitor to power the spark ? Maybe running a really hot plug draws more current if so could be really hard on a single cap, if the cap goes it would deliver really ugly current to the ECM , causing problems... Good info Tinken.....

Good question, supposively the capacitor is for the high current supply to the ignition coil, though it may indeed also provide additional filtering for the direct current from the altenator. The placement of the stock capacitor is in close proximety of the engine case and little air flow sepperates. Once the capacitor is overheated, the engine may run poorly. I believe the stock capacitor is of sufficient size for the energy required of the 449/511, just keep it cool.

As far as hot or cold spark plugs are concerned, the heat rating of a spark plug only refers to the amount of heat that excapes through the plug itself, effectively making a scale system to the amount of heat conduction a spark plug has. With this in mind, it is important to run as cool of a plug as possible. I use iridium plugs # is: NGK CR9EIX (3521), these are extremly efficient in turning coil energy into spark energy.

So I moved the capacitor to the side of the frame - was to hard to turn it up side down!

Wow extreme! Yea, I struggled trying to get mine to turn upside down and gave up because I ran out of time. I am going to try unbolting the lower shock bolt and flipping it over. If that doesn't work, I can unbolt the muffler and subframe and just twist it to the side while I flip it.
You race your 449 if I remember correctly? If you're going to move it like that, you can stick it inside your rear fender. But I would try just flipping it again, remove your shock if you have to or one of the side engine supports and use a boxed end ratchet.

Ok.......after struggling to turn capacitor over for an hour I finally figured it out. Loosen 2 bolts a few tuns and pull capacitor off mount. Its held on by a rubber strap with a slot for metal to slide thru. Flip it over and push back on mount and tighten bolts back up. Took about 5 minutes. No need to remove shock but remove motor mount on side. It makes it easief to get a small 8 mil wrench in there. Hopefully Im explaining it correctly.

Worked for me, pretty easily accomplished, clears both the fuel lines and the frame by 5-10mm too so nothing rubs; Used an 8mm offset ring spanner, super easy. (mmm dirty bike)

I'll give this method a go next week, just need to grab some inline crimps from the wholesalers during the week.

Hello Husky Fans & tech's!
Good topic about Grounding on the 449/511. I would like to toss these question into the mix. Input would be greatly appreciated!

Whats your thoughts on the Throttle Body, especially for the TE, Aluminum case with all the sensitive mill-volt sensors and 2nd throttle motor attached. The entire system is isolated from ground except by the TPS Ground wires and secondary throttle motor ground wires? I am thinking...contact potential difference?

Anyone Ever measure the Resistance from the battery ground to the Engine or frame? I have not had the pleasure of seeing the wire harness split apart or removed from any TE bike. Nor checked the connection process from the Battery ground to the frame or Engine.

The Spark Ground discussed in the post. The design of the short lead by Husqvarna was configured this way for what reason? RFI, Resistance, how much of the energy from the ignition system is really riding on that wire? Maybe some High temp Mill Spec wire very fine stranded and use a silver solder for the lug would work very well and keep the design close to factory spec?

Warranty's on new TE bikes, I have to consider any modifications carefully!

Cheers
Ken

I finally got my capacitor turned upside as well. It for sure wasn't a five minute job, but I'm slow. I had the engine mount off on the left hand side since I was making the breather mounts and decided to do it while I was there.

@Desertyucca. The engine is connected in the rear to the battery via a large high current cable, mostly for the starter current. I wasn't able to see any resistance between the two or to my frame. The spark ground I imagine was put in place in an attempt to create a solid spark plug ground. It was a good idea, although somewhere between the BMW engineering drawings to the Italian production line, a tiny wire was used. Ty had two dnf's, on different engines, due to this tiny wire getting hot/work hardening and breaking inside the insulation. The best solution is to attach to the frame and then to the rear of the engine or battery ground.

As far as RFI goes, if you find me a non-resistor iridium spark plug, I will use it.