I smell something burning...

[hi-plainsdrifter]

Just doing some tinkering on my 83 XV. I started it up because I was gonna maybe tinker with my new carb synch gauges. After a couple minutes of warm up time I notice a wisp of smoke coming up thru the frame. Shut it down to have a look see, and what I found was a connector from the rectifier doing a meltdown. Real hot. Three white wires from one side and three black ones going towards the stator? Anyone have any ideas? Didn't seem to effect how it runs but definitely something is wrong. Me not so happy.

[warthogcrewchief]

I've heard of that happening a lot. I'm sure others will agree with me that the connector for the three wires is pretty cheap. A lot of people will hardwire the stator in. All you've gotta do is clip the three black wires and three white wires as close as you can to the connector.

 

Then connect the wires together. I think it's a good idea to just solder the wires and use heat shrink tubing over the joint.

 

I always manage to forget to slide the heat shrink tube over the wire BEFORE I solder the wire. Also, "tin" the wire before you solder. Tinning is just coating the exposed wire end with a little solder.

 

It doesn't matter which white wire connects to which black wire. All three wires are the same for the white and for the black.

 

I've been fortunate that my connector hasn't burned up yet, but I'm still thinking about doing the "hard wire" mod as I hear it helps to improve charging just a bit.

[hi-plainsdrifter]

I was afraid I had something much worse going on. Was just about finished getting all the bugs worked out of this machine when those wires burnt. Can't put a price on you folks "experience" because it is invaluable. Thank you very much for the useful info. Especially the little details like all the wires are common.

HPD

[warthogcrewchief]

If you're concerned that you have burned up a stator or a regulator rectifier, you should run some tests. I forget which values specifically to look for. However, I know the simplest test, which is to run the engine and see what the volts are across the battery terminal with a multimeter. Then compare the results with the static (not running) battery.

 

If you have questions about your charging system, read the stator papers:

http://www.thegsresources.com/gs_garage.htm

 

They start halfway down the page. Most motorcycles have similar charging systems, so a lot of what is said in those papers will apply to the VR.