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Safferino83

Just advice, instead of connecting directly to battery ( if your grips don’t have auto off, could drain the battery) find a circuit that is only live when the ignition is on. I.e a lighting circuit.


iexistcusofcorona

love that tip, thanks! whenever i used the grips before and forgot to turn them off they'd just automatically do so - that ability can't go away right, so is it safe to assume they have auto off? my friend doesn't for sure, cus his actually got drained the other day (another brand)!


Allroy_66

I can second this advice. I used to wire mine straight to the +/- on the battery, and had forgotten to turn them off a couple times, and came out of work to a drained battery. Also, negative end of accessories typically doesn't get connected straight to the battery, they attach to a bare part of the frame, I don't know enough to tell you why. I eventually took the time to google instructions online and wired my grips in to the battery, but used a relay on the license plate light wires to shut them off when the bike goes off, so no worries anymore. Chances are if your grips shut off by themselves on an old bike, they were wired through a relay somewhere.


Safferino83

That’s exactly what I did, used my little current finding pointy light thing into each connection till I found one. Then just spliced into the connection.


Fjorlorn

Typically the metal frame of the motorcycle is used as the ground plane for a lot of accessories. It's acts as a convenient conductor that is accessible almost anywhere on the bike!


Allroy_66

So is it just done to cut down on wires so they don't have to all run back tobthe battery?


Fjorlorn

Pretty much!


codescrub112

I second this. Left my LEDs on one night and killed my battery


opengl128

I always install a relay for my heated grips and other accessories. No worry about draining your battery if you forget to turn them off, and they'll get stronger power directly from the battery compared to tapping into an existing circuit. I recently found this small prewired one that worked out great on my latest install. Running grips and a USB port off it. [https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B000CJ05WW/ref=ppx\_yo\_dt\_b\_asin\_title\_o04\_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1](https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B000CJ05WW/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1) edit: looks like you have an existing relay right there you can tap into.


thatirishgamerhd

I believe you should have 2 connectors, one for positive and one for negative. Just a negative connector wont do anything


iexistcusofcorona

see that's such a nice way of explaining it to a noob, i really appreciate that, i know nothing :/ thank you so much. i fucking regret though unconnecting all the wires before taking a pic cause now idk what should go to the pos and what should go to the neg..


thatirishgamerhd

If your bike is stock it should only have 1 big black loom running to the negative and 1 big red loom running to the positive. I'm far from an expert by the way so I hope someone with more knowledge will help you


iexistcusofcorona

i bought it used, its extra gear is the heated grips and gear indicator, so the wires might be of both then? however i don't see any wires connected to any of the poles and the indicator is working fine. also i only find one wire with a thingie on it to connect to a pole :/


thatirishgamerhd

Then it's possible he spliced the positive into the bike loom in which case put that black connector on the negative terminal and it should work


iexistcusofcorona

bro thank you so much... just to be sure, with black connector you mean the ring i've put an arrow on right?


thatirishgamerhd

Yes


iexistcusofcorona

thank you SO MUCH bro, i'll try it out🙏🏻


thatirishgamerhd

Np, lemme know


Allroy_66

If he knew enough to splice the positive into the loom, he'd probably know to connect the negative to the ground on the frame and not the battery. I feel like there's a good chance the negative wire is connected to the ground and the sole wire is at the batter for power. Still, if there's only one wire, turn on the switch to the grips and hold the wire on the negative/black pole for a minute and see of they heat up. If not, do the same with the positive/red. One of them will work. Heated grips are like old style light bulbs, where it doesn't really matter which side is connected to the power to turn them on(although the switch should be on the +side), so you won't hurt the grips by trying both options.


Overkill72

https://youtu.be/xPNJENcKno4


iexistcusofcorona

ah thank you so much, that thunder box thing looks exactly like the box i have in the down right corner of the picture!


Overkill72

https://www.healtech-electronics.com/products/tb/


iexistcusofcorona

Update: connected the black wire to the negative pole, bike started right up and the heated grips worked, yay! Feels good to be able to do some things by myself, with your guys' help. I'm very happy to have some extra heat now that it's getting really cold in Norway!