Electrical issues are my biggest fear!

[VentureBob]

Well on of my biggest fears of owning an old motorcycle has come true. I have a melting wire connection. I am hoping this is or can be an easy fix.

This is the Left side of the bike. As you can see from the picture its is melting the plug and attached wires. from what I have been able to see the lower connection of the plug goes down to some kind of vented box mounted behind the rear foot peg and above the exhaust pipe. The upper connection loops up and then down with a group of wires that shoot into the case going forward of the bike. The wires are only hot and smooking when motor is running. I tested with key on and it was cool, tested with key on and run switch on and it was cool.

I am keeping my fingers crossed that this is going to be an easy and fix.

http://i906.photobucket.com/albums/ac264/bobandlou3/IMG00085.jpg

[MiCarl]

If there are three of them and they're yellow (or white) then they are the output from the stator (alternator). Failure to correct the problem will prevent the battery from charging.

 

It is common for that connector to self destruct when 25 years of dirt and corrosion increase the resistance of the connector.

 

A common solution is to cut the connector out and solder the wires together. The order is not important - any one wire from the stator to any one wire in the bike wiring harness.

[Yammer Dan]

Those are the wires to the Strator I think. 3 wire plug all white? Cut plug out and solder them straight thru. Or you can try to tighten connections in plug. I tightened the connections in my 85 about 2 yrs ago and so far so good. Best thing is to get rid of the plug. Solder them!!

[VentureBob]

Thanks guys, sounds like an easy enough fix. Back out I go.

[bongobobny]

Yup!! Looks like the old melted stator connector to me too!!

[BOO]

Although I'm glad Dan was able to clean up the connector and it's working fine I would cut the thing out and solder the leads and be done with it. If the connector has burnt I don't think you can clean it up good enough to reuse.

You could install a new connector but I would just solder it.

BOO

[mbrood]

Normally engineers will select the connector for the contact connection area to insure that they can carry 200% of the expected current. With the stator outputting about 35 amps max, that's about 11 amps per connector and with those small connectors, it doesn't take long for corrosion to reduce the contact area, resulting in the heat generator you have. The most practical (in my mind) is to maintain the harness integrity and replace the three-pin connector with a more sturdy one, more able to handle the current. Then you can still pull the stator when needed or you can access the wires for testing.

 

If you have the originals, please insure that they are kept clean (male and female) and that the female isn't "sprung", causing less compression on the male. These pins can be backed out of the housing using a large bobby pin to retract the locking ear holding them in (enter from the wire side where the extra "space" is... properly cleaned and re-tensioned, ease them fully home so the locking ear engages.

[Marcarl]

Normally engineers will select the connector for the contact connection area to insure that they can carry 200% of the expected current. With the stator outputting about 35 amps max, that's about 11 amps per connector and with those small connectors, it doesn't take long for corrosion to reduce the contact area, resulting in the heat generator you have. The most practical (in my mind) is to maintain the harness integrity and replace the three-pin connector with a more sturdy one, more able to handle the current. Then you can still pull the stator when needed or you can access the wires for testing.

 

If you have the originals, please insure that they are kept clean (male and female) and that the female isn't "sprung", causing less compression on the male. These pins can be backed out of the housing using a large bobby pin to retract the locking ear holding them in (enter from the wire side where the extra "space" is... properly cleaned and re-tensioned, ease them fully home so the locking ear engages.

Nicely said, but doesn't take into account that the connectors are now 25 years old and are suffering, just a little, from metal fatigue, and so you might have this happen again shortly, as compared to 25 years. So to be save, I would solder them together.