Electrical Meltdown!

[WildWings]

All:

So I was riding home from work today (4 miles). When I arrived home I killed the bike and smelled burning copper. I take off the side plate and to my surprise: a wire burned itself up! I wire coming from reg/rec going to a terminal...the pics will explain everything. I can replace the wire easy enough, but what caused this??

[WildWings]

here's the wire on the reg/rec side.

[WildWings]

here's the general set up. (oh, sorry, I didn't realize how bad this pic was.)

[Steve]

From those pictures, it's kinda hard to tell that it actually goes to the r/r. It looks like all five wires from the r/r go harmlessly off to the side, while there is a burnt wire under them. Follow the wire both ways to see where it actually goes. You say one way goes to a terminal, what is that terminal connected to? What is on the other end of the burnt wire?

.

[Nessism]

There are about 10,000 posts here about R/R issues and making sure the grounds are good. Do your homework and perform maintenance, or wait for something to fail and perform repairs.

[WildWings]

You say one way goes to a terminal, what is that terminal connected to? What is on the other end of the burnt wire?

.

The pics may not show it, but I'm certain from wire tracing that the far right wire on the r/r is one end of this wire. I'm not sure for certain yet where that terminal goes, I was hoping someone might know from looking, but I'll research.

[WildWings]

There are about 10,000 posts here about R/R issues and making sure the grounds are good. Do your homework and perform maintenance, or wait for something to fail and perform repairs.

Yes, I've read several of them and understand that the r/r is a common problem. However, I'm not sure how to diagnosis this as an r/r problem or something else. What steps might I follow to diagnosis this? (I'm perfectly happy to be directed to another thread, I'm looking through them now.)

[WildWings]

Here's another pic that's helpful. I'll replace the wire in the morning with one of the same gauge, but how can I diagnosis this as r/r or something else? Should I go ahead and replace r/r? I just don't want the bike to catch fire below me!

[Wallowgreen]

Try this...

http://www.thegsresources.com/garage/gs_statorfacts.htm

[Nessism]

Go to the GSR homepage and check The Garage for The Stator Papers. Get a volt meter and go to work. Follow the instructions and you will find the problem. Obviously, you will need some wire to make repairs.

Good luck.

[prpldude]

I used this today to find that not only is my stator bad, but my r/r is also not doing it's job.

http://www.thegsresources.com/garage/gs_statorfault.htm

Clean all your wire connections good and check all grounds. This can make a huge difference.