Help with wiring

[ryan]

I found a nice used rectifier that should fix my charging system. However, when I went to put it in, I noticed that at some point someone has "adjusted" the factory wiring. The factory "plug ins" are gone and it all looks hardwired. In addition, some of the wiring gets very hot. Has anyone ever seen anything like this? If I install the new regulator will the PO wiring job damage it....1981 GS1100E. Thanks for any help you can provide!

[posplayr]

See GS Charging System health in my signature

[tom203]

Yeah, spend some time looking at those links. Charging problems are very very common so it's worth trying to understand them rather than just replacing stuff and praying for a fix. The whole system has to be good.

http://members.dslextreme.com/users/cbsaunders/gs/gs_charging_system_health.pdf

[Steve]

Hardwiring the connections eliminates one of the most-common sources of problems with charging, but it does make replacement a bit more difficult. Those who do it feel it is worth the trade-off.

As others have mentioned, you can not simply throw parts at the bike and hope it gets fixed. You HAVE to do some testing, and one of the series of tests involves testing the stator output when it is not connected to the R/R, so you will have to cut the wiring to do the tests.

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