Motorcycle Repair: 82 Suzuki electrical question, suzuki gs450l, electrical question

Question
Hello Chris,
I'm not a motorcyle guru, so I apologize for my lack of knowledge or even common sense.  :-) I've got a 1982 Suzuki GS450L in which I attempted to put a new battery last year. Somehow as I was sliding the battery in, the positive terminal or cable hit the frame of the bike.  It did it's smoke/spark thing briefly.  I then proceeded to look the bike over and everything appeared to be intact.  I then started it up and it worked just fine (it was the first time I had started it up all year).  After I shut it off and then tried to start it again a minute later, it would not start.  I tried and tried but could not start it.  The engine would turn over just fine, but when I checked the plugs I realized they were not generating any spark.  After a more thorough analysis I discovered a shorted ground wire on the left hand side of the bike.  I am assuming this had been burned through when I put the battery in, and by starting the bike and sending power through the whole cycle without having a ground, I made some other electrical part(s) go bad.  Any ideas on what it might be?

Again, to summarize, no spark--still turns over--shorted ground wire--ran at first--now it doesn't.  

THANKS!

Answer
Hi Dave.
 First thing; you cannot burn out any components if current cannot go through them.  Your burned out ground would not harm the components.

What did the ground wire go to and did you repair it correctly?  That is a possibility.

Check the ignition system and ignition fuse.  You could have a short somewhere else, a bad connection or even a burned out ignition fuse.  The system is designed to blow the fuse before any components get damaged.  There is also the possibility of having damaged the battery cels.  That needs a hygrometer to check it.

Start there and let me know what you find.
Good luck.
FALCON