Wire shorting?

[bradleymaynar]

I would start with charging your battery first, that way you start with full voltage. And then finish the stator paper tests, may not be both, might be r/r or stator. Or just bad wiring, check all wires around r/r and stator especially. terrylee

The battery was charged completely last night. Just replaced all the bad connectors and the wires off the reg are still getting warm. May be PMing Duanage soon for a replacement. Granted this was from just idling. Makes it tough to check the voltages when the battery is under the airbox. Dawn refused to put her hand in front of the carb intake last night so I could keep both hands on the multi meter leads.

The positives so far: The bike idles nicely after warming for a few minutes. And, so far, I seem to have lost the dimming light issue. Also discovered my left rear cheapy, aftermarket bliker was out because the wires in the light had broken. Any suggestions for a good source for replacements?

Thanks again
Brad bk

[bradleymaynar]

I took the bike out after getting things buttoned up. The fluctuating lights are gone, but the headlight dimmed for a few minutes and then came back up. It was a short ride, about 10 minutes. I checked the wires from the reg and they were warm, not hot, like before.

Waiting on a new tach cable to do the stator test. With the bike revved (roughly 3K by ear) voltage on the meter was just shy of 14 volts. Battery voltage, not running, was 12.4.

Brad bk

[hikermikem]

Makes it tough to check the voltages when the battery is under the airbox. Dawn refused to put her hand in front of the carb intake last night so I could keep both hands on the multi meter leads.

Most battery tenders (like the ones at Wally World) come with a quick disconnect plug on a short set of leads that stay attached to the battery - you simply tuck the QD plug under the sidecover & you don't have to remove that PITA airbox... also provides a nice place to stick your mulitmeter leads when the bike is running as well.

I've got the '81 1100E (same as yours) and I'm running a Duanage RR with good results, although you'll have to connect the sense wire to the rear brake light. Get rid of that stupid wire loop that runs into the headlight bucket from the stator & just comes back to the RR - wire it directly at the source instead.

[bmac]

Hello Brad, Just a note here, why don't you just bypass that assembly and wire the stator leg's all three directly to the r/r and run new ground's to the battery and frame. Not sure if you did that though. The plug where the loop goes to is maybe melted as which is always a certainty. In some cases not sure if your's is but the reg's and rec. are separate. Just throwing that out there. I have bought a few r/r's from Duane and they are a great deal. Bob

[bradleymaynar]

While I still haven't done the stator paper tests, yet, I do believe I fixed the dimming headlight. After having a brake light issue, different thread, I went ahead and replaced all the fuses. Two of them, while looking good, actually had one end slip right off the tube. No issues as far as I could tell this morning on the way to work.

Brad bk