83 gs550E regulator/rectifier wires melted

[qwksi1]

I just got my 83 GS 550E back together and im fighting through a few gremlins. I was trying to get my bike to idle down past 3k when i spotted smoke coming from the battery area. The 3 phases (yellow) wires and the black/white wires shielding was melting off on the fusebox side of the R/R connector.

I'm currently going through the stator papers and the wiring diagrams. Ive cleaned up all the ground connections going from the R/R unit to the battery. The wiring still gets super hot within seconds. I should add that the R/R unit is only a few months old, it was installed by the previous owner. This issue has come up after a complete teardown to the frame and reassembly but I did not pull the engine apart. The bike operated fine in the 10 miles I drove it before I pulled it apart for a thorough cleaning.

I guess my question (since nothing in the stator papers mentions melting wires) is what would be causing this? Does it matter which of the three yellow wires are connected to which of the 3 yellow wires at the bullet connectors coming from the alternator? This was the only thing I can think of is the Phases are mixed up other than a ground being bad....

Edit: I found the part in the stator papers about my ground probably being the culprit since it worked fine before I took the bike apart. Can I ground the R/R black/white wire directly to the frame, engine or negative battery terminal and which would be better?

Here is a picture of my bike

[Steve]

Does it matter which of the three yellow wires are connected to which of the 3 yellow wires at the bullet connectors coming from the alternator? This was the only thing I can think of is the Phases are mixed up other than a ground being bad....

No, that is not a problem, you can connect them in any order.

Not sure about your bike, compared to earlier ones, at least, does it have that "mystery loop" that takes one stator wire into the harness, then have it come back down another wire? If so, please reconnect so that all three stator wires go directly to the three input wires on the R/R.

Does the red R/R wire go straight to the battery or is it connected to the stock location?

Does the black R/R wire go straight to the battery or is connected to the screw that holds the R/R to its mount?

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[qwksi1]

No, that is not a problem, you can connect them in any order.

Not sure about your bike, compared to earlier ones, at least, does it have that "mystery loop" that takes one stator wire into the harness, then have it come back down another wire? If so, please reconnect so that all three stator wires go directly to the three input wires on the R/R.

Does the red R/R wire go straight to the battery or is it connected to the stock location?

Does the black R/R wire go straight to the battery or is connected to the screw that holds the R/R to its mount?

#1 No, three yellows come from the stator, straight through the bullet connectors to the R/R harness.

#2 No, it goes to the fuse block that has newer style plastic fuses.

#3 The Black wire goes into the harness via a single bullet connector and then into the common b/w that connects to the fuse block, and possibly igniter among other things before going to the battery.

Here is my wiring diagram, nothing is altered on my bike wiring wise.

[duaneage]

Replace the connector on the black wire with a ring terminal and mount to the frame if at all possible. Lengthening is ok, but solder the extension on and heatshrink it. The frame represents the best place for a ground, since all devices on the bike connect to it.

Check the bullets and replace if needed. There is sometimes a redundant white square plug that overheats and melts, this can be bypassed usually by running the wires straight to the battery, ground, or stator leads. Those molex connectors are a PITA.

Check the doc at the bottom of my sig line, it shows how to modify a Honda RR and wire it onto the bike.

[Steve]

#1 No, three yellows come from the stator, straight through the bullet connectors to the R/R harness.

#2 No, it goes to the fuse block that has newer style plastic fuses.

#3 The Black wire goes into the harness via a single bullet connector and then into the common b/w that connects to the fuse block, and possibly igniter among other things before going to the battery.

#1 Good. Older bikes had a headlight switch. They also ran one leg from the stator up to a second contact in the headlight switch so it would be disconnected when you turned the light off. I wasn't sure when they got rid of that loop, as it was still there for several years after they removed the headlight switch on the US models (it is still there on the two '82s that I have). Apparently, it stayed because the switch was still there on bikes sold to the rest of the world.

#2 On the diagram, it appears to go to the fuse box, but on all of my bikes (all older than yours), the R/R output wire goes to a connector. Beyond that connector, there is a wire that disappears into the harness. Several inches beyond its disappearance, it is crimped to the wire that goes between the MAIN fuse and the ignition switch. You can see that crimp on your diagram, just above the top left corner of the fuse box. That crimp connection is known to cause problems, it would be better to re-route that wire to go directly to the battery, through a 30-amp fuse. Be sure to cover the empty connector that you took the wire out of, so it does not get shorted to anything.

#3 There are too many connection points in that ground wire. Any place you have a connection, you have the potential for a problem. Your best bet is to solder an extension onto that wire, as duaneage suggests, and run it directly to a good frame point or straight to the negative terminal of the battery.

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[qwksi1]

Thanks for the replies guys. I cleaned up my main ground to the engine block real good and then grounded my R/R directly to the battery. That didn't fix it so I pulled the melted R/R connector apart and spliced the 3 stator wires and red wire eliminating the plug. It looks like possibly the spade connectors in my plug didn't line up and that was my issue. It is fixed now. Now all I need to do is get my turn signals to blink and my bike is done.

I guess I would have been better off grounding the R/R unit to the battery?

[Missile99]

Glad you eliminated those poor connections. There are probably others in the harness that need attention too. Duaneage is absolutely correct about those darn connectors. I don't trust them.

Your non-blinking turn signals should work now if the voltage is high enough. What is the voltage at idle and 5-6k rpm?

I guess I would have been better off grounding the R/R unit to the battery?

I thought you said you did ground to battery negative? It is common to do this. A good frame ground will give you no problems either. My battery is right next to the R/R so that's where the black/white wire went.

[qwksi1]

Oh yeah I meant to say frame. I did ground to the battery. Time to bust out the multimeter. The turn signals light up very bright but do not blink still.