melted harness

[canuck cruiser]

Hey guys,

I have some melted wires behind my fuse block. They seem to be coming from the pick up coil cover. My head light and tach don't work. I assume the voltage regulator may have failed causing a spike in voltage and possibly melting the wires. I talked to a "car tech" who did a few tests and he suggested that there may be breaks and shorts in the wiring harness and that I may have to replace the wiring harness.

Tha wires that are melted come to the regulator and he tested them with a multimeter and said they may have melted together so i could cut open the harness or replace.

1. what do you guys think about that?

2. if i need to replace the harness, does anyone have a good used one they would sell to me in canada.

As always thanks for the input guys,

Jason

[xswilly]

if you can't fix yours i have a harness from a 1980 xs1100 G
standard

[skids]

There is a field coil connector back there and a stator connector back there. When the stator connections start corroding, they will begin arcing like tiny welding rods, thus turning the connector into an artform unlike the OEM part.

[Targetman]

The same exact thing happened to me.
Most likely it is not the regulator, mine was fine. It was probably a poor connection causing resitance to the flow of electricity which caused the wires to heat up and melt. Mine had a large connector melt behind the fuse panel. The wires (three white ones, I guess that's the stator connector) comming from the alternator went into it, and then to the regulator. Has your bike not been charging well lately? That is also a symptom mine had before I finally discovered the problem. After replacing the bad connector and burned wire section with new wire, charging returned to normal.

[canuck cruiser]

hey target,

My bike is not charging at all. So did you just cut out and replace the melted part and the connector and all was good? I think that is the area but I traced the wire to the right side (if you are sitting on the bike) and I believe the alternator is under the left side cover. I don't know what the field coils do (under the right side cover). I am stumped at what is going on and I just want it to be fixed soon hopefully. I hate to say it but winter is coming soon.

Thanks again,

Jason

[Targetman]

Hey..
Yes I just cut off the connector (which was like a lump of melted plastic, like Skids said) and the length of wire that was heat damaged on either side of it, and replaced with nice thick stranded 12 guage i think. It was a large conector with three white wires from the alternator.

The alternator is on the right side on the end of the crank shaft. The pick-ups are on the left side.

BTW, after you're done the repair and full charging is applied to the rest of the wiring on your bike, other bad connections may show up too. The wire at my main fuse was so hot you coudn't touch it. After replacing the blade type connector it was nice and cool again.

[skids]

Originally posted by canuck cruiser
and I believe the alternator is under the left side cover. I don't know what the field coils do (under the right side cover).

The stator, field coil and rotor, are all under the right side case cover. The field coil creates the magnetic field via current from the regulator. The rotor spins and causes the magnetic field to shift. Electrical current is induced in the three phases of the stator, which is in AC wave form. The rectifier portion of the volt regulator unit "straightens out" the AC wave forms to make DC current. The Regulator senses how much voltage exists and sends current to the field coil. I think that is full-circle.

[Geezer]

Those connectors are available. If it were my bike, I'd repair the damage.

Geezer

[morticiaann]

melted harness

My bike kept cutting out after a charge. It ran fine and seemed to get hot and then stop so I was thinking of the heat fins on the regulator/rectifier. I looked behind the fuse panel and my connection to the stator was burned and none of the wires had any resistance. Do you think the regulator is burned too?

[skids]

Re: melted harness

Nope, I think your regulator is probably fine. Get a new plastic clip from Geezer?? if he has any.

Originally posted by morticiaann
Do you think the regulator is burned too?

[Geezer]

I think I have all the connectors used in the charging system. The ones I don't have are the round pin type like used on the switches.

If the wires are too short after trimming off the damaged plugs. I could make up a repair harness section for you that you could spice in.

Geezer