new stator heat issue..help..americade!!!

[nathan12]

I have replaced the stator and rectifier very recently on my '82 1100 gl. I have put about 300 miles on the bike in the meantime. I fired it up today and out of the blue it was running on 1 cylinder and the neutral light and headlight were flickering badly and then it quit. I fired it again and it did this for about 30 seconds and then all 4 kicked in quite suddenly.. I shut it down, removed the side panel where I have spent so much time working and found that the leads coming off the stator had gotten hot enough to partially melt the clear covers where they meet the rest of the wiring harness. I then checked the battery terminals and the positive lead was loose. I tightened it, started it, and now it runs great, there is some heat at the connections and the new rectifier is a little warm, but I assume its supposed to be. SO...would the loose battery terminal cause this to happen? The new stator has three black wires instead of the three different colored ones of the stock. I hooked them up according to how ever I felt like it, because myself and my step father and at least two other people thought that since all three are supplying voltage to the harness, that it should not matter which goes where...is this WRONG?? I am planning a wild trip to americade in about a week and a half, any information would be so much appreciated..thank you!!
nathan reed.

[Steve]

Yes, the three stator wires go to the three r/r input wires, it does not matter which one goes where. 8-[

Yes, the regulator gets warm during normal operation.

If other connectors are getting warm, there is a bit of resistance there. Take the connector apart, clean the connection. Put some dielectric grease in there before putting it back together to slow the return of corrosion.

.

[nathan12]

Thank you. I just spent a couple hours searching through old posts and along with your help I feel pretty confident that shes ok, the stupid positive lead on the battery came very loose and I think that is what caused the initial heat build up. in the wires. Thanks again.
nathan

[doctorgonzo]

Yep, bad connection and too thin pos wire burned up my last R/R unit.

[SqDancerLynn1]

I replaced my reg with a Honda Reg. I chose to hard wire it, Soldered the wires together & two layers of shrink tubing Thats been three years ago !!! Loose battery cables will cause a variety of problems. Make sure & add a ground wire from the reg mounting bolt to the battery. USE at least 12 gauge wire, 10ga would be better.

[J_C]

I just posted up on this in another thread, but after reading the last few posts I for the first time really looked into my positive batter wire. Oh my God this thing is a mess. The connector had crud all over it, so I took some sand paper and steel wool to it. For the first time I noticed the amount of corrosion in the wire where it crimps to the battery lead. Good grief! It was chalky and green, white, and brown. Gross. I ordered new leads that should be here in a week from bike bandit, but just with cleaning the connector my charging system is getting 14 v at idle, and maintaining 13.8 at 5000 rpm! Thanks for the insight here guys!

[nathan12]

still some heat

So I have gone through and cleaned up the main ground wire off the battery, checked and rechecked the ground on the r/r about 37 times, and swore alot. the bike runs great, but the three wires off the stator are STILL getting pretty warm,but not as bad after I cleaned up the black battery wire. also the main fuse gets quite warm. Is any of this "normal" or is there any thing else I can do short of going through the entire harness. the problem only seems to be between the wires coming straight off the stator and where they connect to the reg, and in the main fuse.
thanks! nathan.

[J_C]

What kind of charging numbers are you getting? Did you try recrimping some new spade type connectors instead of the bullets? Does the new r/r have a ground wire running directly to the battery?

If you did crimp new connectors, did you cut back enough wire that you were crimping good shiny copper and not copper wires that were brown or black?

These were all the things I was told to do, as I have the same problem. I still have it, though it's slightly better now. I thought this may help you somehow

[babylon9484]

Im

Greetings to all: I'm in the middle of an electrical mess with my 821100GL. Along with other problems I did encounter the heating up of the three stater wires. My mech. was advised to hard wire the sucker into place. Cut out the bullet/spade connectors altogether.

[nathan12]

yeah, that is going to be my next project, bike is running now, some heat, but they are not melting or anything, also am going to try to ground the r/r to the battery as some have suggested. now of course i have another gremlin in that some times (most of the time) the starter button will not engage the starter, i think its just the button itself, may by pass it with a on/off switch. or just resort to crossing the solenoid terminals when it refuses to start, that seems to be pretty reliable. screw it, payed 200 for the bike with only 10,000 miles on it, love the power and the way it rides, my girlfriend loves it too.
nathan