What specific connectors should I change to Spades?

[beachbum3478]

i bought a bunch of male and female spade connectors from Z1 with my order. And im curious what connectors are imparitive to going from the bullet connector the new spade connector? i read that it can do wonders on a older bike. any ideas would be great. thanks guys. oh yea, its an 82 GS1100L.

[twr1776]

The three wires from the stator and the wires from the R/R if they have them are the ones usually changed. The most important thing IMO is to inspect and clean as many connectors as you can and also inspect and clean the ground wire. It is also a good idea to run an additional ground wire off of the R/R direct to the battery terminal or motor. I always use the dielectric grease when reconnecting wires and heat shrink tubing when possible to seal off the connections.

[beachbum3478]

do you mean instead of connecting the r/r ground wire to the connector, to just run it straight to the battery? or split it there so it goes both ways?

[BassCliff]

Cooking with electrons

Hi Mr. beachbum3478,

On my bike, the ground wire from the r/r used to connect to the battery box, more or less a frame ground. It's much better to take this ground wire and connect it directly to the battery's negative terminal. No other ground connection is necessary. You may have to solder and splice in some extra wire to make it long enough. I did.

Here is my before picture (with taped up bullet connectors):



And here is the after picture with spade connectors:



Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

[J_C]

BassCliff, are those crimp or solder connections? That's very tidy in there

[Redman]

BB,

The recomendations of replacing the original electrical connectors are usally the connections between the stator and the R/R as TWR, BassCliff and others suggested. Although I would further clarify that recomendations is usally for the models/years that had the individual "bullet" connectors on individual wires, which I think were mostly those prior to 1982. I replaced mine on the 80 850G that I had. THose bullet connectors were not reliable, would build up corrosion, seemily didnt have the capacaity reguired, not make good connections, then would heat up and make the wires brittle, sometimes the heat would burn the insulation off the wires then have worse problems. ANd my expereince was that if the wires were brittle that the crimp on connectors were not relaible either, so I used the small grey wire nuts. Other folks will say to solder the wires and cover with black tape or better yet the shirnk tubing.

But in your case, you have and 82.....
I think most 82 and later didnt have the "bullet" connectors on individual wires, but had a connector block with all 5 wires/connections in one connector body. Maybe I am wrong, but I dont think people recomend repalcing those unless ther is an obvious problem. My 82 1100GK has the original connectors yet and seems just fine, and I had 82 650G for 20+ years with no such problem either.

Tell us more what you find.



Another thing to be concerned about: Is the grounding of the R/R (on about any model we talk about here on GSR). Original wireing the R/R ground wire (and the R/R case) is grounded to the battery box. And the battery box has a ground wire comming thru the wiring harness. But the battery box iteself may not be grouinded to the frame very well. Problem is that if the R/R fails in a particular manner, it may pour lots of current down the R/R ground wire and then thru that ground wire in the wiring harness, and it turns that ground wire in the wiring harness into a toaster heater element and it burns the insultaiton off a lot of other wires (this I state from personal experience). So way to minimize this is to add an other wire from the point the R/R is grounded (case or ground wire) directly to battery negitive. This also helps the R/R work better, perchance there is a bad connection with those other original ground wires.

[jetta90]

I need to quickly chime in and ask to clarify with Redman......................

I have an 84 GS 750 with the block type connections between the stator and R/R. Your comment about gorunding the R/R, you stated ...............................

" So way to minimize this is to add an other wire from the point the R/R is grounded (case or ground wire) directly to battery negitive. "

Redman, what you are saying is that I should run a ground wire from one of the bolts (there are 2) that anchors the R/R to the battery box directly up to the negative battery terminal?


Thank you

[twr1776]

Yes, I ran an additional wire from the R/R mounting bolt direct to the negative terminal on the battery for the additonal ground.

[BassCliff]

Cooking with electrons

Hi,

The regulator/rectifier itself has a ground wire. Connect that wire directly to the negative terminal of the battery. This eliminates frame resistance and resistance caused by corroded ground connections on the frame.


Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

[BassCliff]

Cooking with electrons

BassCliff, are those crimp or solder connections? That's very tidy in there

Hi Mr. J_C,

Those are crimp connectors. But I tinned the wire first and then put a drop of solder in the crimps. For extra protection, I need to put some dielectric grease in there but I haven't picked up any recently.

Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

[J_C]

OK, I think I bought the same ones. I'll have to look up info on how to solder. I'm not very good at it and I imaging getting those soldered on with those plastic covers in place could get tricky.

[Escobarclan]

Referring to the post above my '82 Kat has bullet connectors, Suzy used them in later years as well, at least on Kats.

[scottp8113]

don't worry, soldering isn't too tough, just be patient and don't try to force the solder in when your materials aren't heated up enough yet. as for the plastic covers, all the ones i've dealt with like that can slide off so you have access to just the metal parts, just remember if yours are like that to put the plastic cover on the wire FIRST and then put the metal connector on (made that mistake a time or two and it was a waste of a perfectly good spade connector

OK, I think I bought the same ones. I'll have to look up info on how to solder. I'm not very good at it and I imaging getting those soldered on with those plastic covers in place could get tricky.