Triumph wiring?

okay so here is my problem. starting to re assemble the wiring on my triumph and one of my coils is getting super hot when everything is connected and its draining my battery. i have the coils temporarily zip tied to the frame where they will sit and then everything else is bolted in and connected.

condensers are grounded
coils are wired how they look in my manual
rectifier is bolted to the fender(red wire comes off of that to my positive terminal on battery)
another piece that looks like a grounder is also bolted to the fender (see picture) and one wire goes from that to my ignition and coil

i cannot figure this out! only one coil is getting hot but maybe i misgrounded something or didnt ground what should have been but obviously the main problem here is that its british. ;D
please help!

How do the coils ground? Do they need to be mounted to the frame?

before i took it all out the coils themselves did not have a ground wire. one black wire comes off of one coil and goes into that thing in the picture, then another wire goes to the ignition switch. so i assume that piece is the ground for the coils.

The mount itself may be the ground. I'm nowhere near sure, but it's the only thing you've mentioned that isn't the way its supposed to be.

here is a picture from above the coils looking down where the seat will sit.

coils do not ground to the frame ......points and capacitors need to be though. what year is the machine? are you sure you are using the correct polarity when connecting the battery? if you turn power on, after a few minutes standing a coil will get hot ( points closed- circuit complete). vintage british wire harness's are very poor with corrosion causing a lot of problems. also are you running a proper fuse? us and english ratings(surge vs steady) are different. a 15/17 amp us is equal to a 35 english so you may be over fused while you actually have an issue..
joe@ vcycle

it is a 73, i have swapped frames though to a hardtail frame but the electrical all worked fine when it was in the other frame, i just have to re situate it in this new one. here is a crude drawing of the setup as it sits.


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That "Piece" iss Zener diode ie your voltage regulator. It gets hot when running as a rule.

Coils usually need to be grounded, so that could be an issue, but in general, coils get hot pretty fast on a bike that's turned on but not running. If a coil gets hot when the bike is running, it's usually a sign that the coil is failing.

all grounds good and clean? continuity from engine to frame,frame to rear fender, rectifier, etc? do you have heavy enough wires for the battery cables...
joe

for a little more info i added to my post...
no reason coils need to be grounded as you can see in his photo's/ drawings. all british coils have two connections +/- so there is no reason a out side ground would be needed to provide for a ground....primary through +/- leads and secondary to plug. if coil has a single connection then it will normally rely on mount for ground
yea as i said coils do get hot (only completed circuit side though on the points closed side) and bike is standing -not running.

joe