Original recipie or extra crisp fried..wires that is...

[Guest]

Okay, hoping a guru here might help me, especially as seeing that following the troubleshooting guide fried my volt-meter...no kidding, smoke came outta it when i attempted to measure the A/C voltage coming out of the stator.

Problem: Battery wasn't charging when riding;

Mods: Installed new Electrosport RR and Stator over the winter.

Picture: As you can see, one of the leads coming off the stator into the connector to the R/R is scorched brown (supposed to be yellow). And it actually has melted the plastic for that connector pin.

What I know: After the last ride when battery died, RR was cool to the touch. When I measured the voltage off of the stator wires it seemed that the voltages were within the spec on the troubleshooting guide. Fried voltmeter when I went to measure current however...opps.

What I don't know: Which came first? Did the RR have a failure and draw too much current from the stator? or Is my stator somehow fried and sending too much current down the lines which fried RR and melted the plastic?

Any guesses?

I am assuming that the RR is probably toast. Can't check the ohms thru the stator until I replace my voltmeter next time I'm in town.....

Thanks...

[chef1366]

Did you have your meter on AC when checking the stator wires?
I would cut off those connecters and solder all wires together and use shrink wrap to seal connections.
Did you ground your new R/R diretly to the negative battery post?
If it isn't a connection thing then your new R/R is fried.
I don't think a stator can send too much if the R/R is working properly.

P.S I am not a guru I just went through all the troubleshooting on the stator papers and fixed my charging system with soldering and shrink wrap.

[jbs80106]

RR grounded to frame...

Before I posted I used the search feature and saw the recommendation for grounding the RR to the battery. I just reattached the ground wire to the same ground screw to the frame like the old RR was.

When I was checking the A/C I got 50some VAC on the 2 wires that run into the plastic connector. Haven't checked the 3rd wire as its routed/connected to something else and I'll have to cut to get a measure.

I think it was user error with the voltmeter...may have attempted to measure DC with the probes in the AC positions. Opps!

[Redman]

I would say that rather than there being an electrical overload (too much current) the probelm is a bad connections there in that connector, and the normal amount of current going thru that bad connection is the source of the heat (current squared times resitance equalls watts or in this case heat). If it was an overload, then the same amount of current would be going thru the entire wire, and melt the entire wire the same all alongs its lenght. But the discoloratiuon/,melting is near the connector and worse at the connector, so that tells me the problem is the connector. Problem can either be wire the two connectors meet ar cooroeded, or maybe where one wire is connected ti its connector. Most probably where the two connectors meet. See if you can clean it up with contact cleaner or scrape with a small balde.

If all else fails, a chaeap fix will be to cut that wire out of the connector and splice in a jumper wire. Can eoither solder the wire or use small wire nuts (blue or grey).

[jbs80106]

Thanks!

I saw all these rubber covered connectors (as seen in the pics) that I'm not sure what the point was. Seems theres a joint connection between the wires coming outta the stator connected to short 3-4 inch lengths to the plastic connectors. Either the wires were just 4 inches too short or some other mod was made. Maybe it was done that way at the factory?

Obviously I need to replace the melted connector and do some crimps.

What guage wire is that in there? Not as thick as some extra 12/2 or 14/2 I have on hand? Would it be 'bad' to use 14 guage wire in there?

[robertbarr]

Problem can either be wire the two connectors meet ar cooroeded, or maybe where one wire is connected ti its connector. Most probably where the two connectors meet.

If all else fails, a chaeap fix will be to cut that wire out of the connector and splice in a jumper wire. Can eoither solder the wire or use small wire nuts (blue or grey).

I'd say Redman nailed it perfectly. I vote for running the Stator Papers checks (once you acquire a new meter) and then soldering.

As for the meter, I wonder if you were inadvertently trying to measure current. That would pop a fuse within the meter, if there were such protection -- or else cook something.

[Steve]

Check for a fuse in the meter, then DON'T try to check current coming from the stator. Voltage output checks are sufficient.

When replacing sections of wire, it is probably 18 or 16 gauge wire in there now. Replacing it with 14 will not harm a thing. It will not pass any more current, because there is still some of the smaller wire in there somewhere, but it definitely won't hurt anything.


.

[saddlewarmer]

most meters i know of only handle 10 amps max. I have one that will measure 1000 amps, it is not a direct connect to the the line tho, check your fuse in meter, ya might get lucky.