Molten connector woes.

[VK]

I had a local shop replace both my stator and regulator last fall.  The connector looked just fine and the mechanic convinced me to continue using it rather than hardwiring.  That seems to have been a mistake as less than 1000 miles later I see that the connector is melting out.  I seem not to have continuity between the frame and any of the three wires, so can I interpret that as meaning that the stator isn?t fried too?  (By the way, the wires to the new stator are black and those leading to the regulator are yellow.  I requested that they order from Electrex, but can?t say what brand they actually used.)  I gather from my forum readings that I should cut the connector out and hardwire things together.  If I understand correctly, it doesn?t matter which wires get soldered together, only that they are all soldered separately.  I still have the original fusebox.  Would it help to immediately pitch that as well and replace with spade type fuses?  Any other suggestions?

VK

[QBS]

VK; No continuity is what you want. You should also either give your connector a really good bright and shiney cleaning and then a light greasing or hard wire the connections.  Wire color out of the stator isn't critical.  The same goes for the input to the R/R.  What is critical is that any one wire out of the stator is connected to any one wire on the input side of the R/R.

Regarding replacement of the fuse box.  Many here have bad things to say about the OEM fuse box and recommend its' replacement.  I would agree with them IF the OEM unit is in unserviceable condition.  However, if you feel that your OEM box is in good shape, I would recommend not replacing it and instead giving the inside side of the fuse holder prongs and the metal fuse ends a bright and shiney sand paper cleaning.  Then, lightly grease those same surfaces.  A fuse box serviced in this manner will last a very long time.  My '83 still has its' excellent condition OEM fuse box.  Cheers.

[Walt_M.]

Yikes on the connector! I've been reading all the dastardly stator stories and decided to put a fan on my R/R. Bought one today at Radio Shack and was deciding how to mount it. I have yet to have any trouble but don't want any to start. I've decided to space the fan about 1/2 in from the R/R so if the fan quits, there will still be some air circulation. The connectors are still clean, they had never been apart but I know this type of connector will lose tension over time so I might solder the stator leads while I'm at it.

[Lucky]

Yup, cut both connectors on the Regulator and hard wire them.  I won't be surprised if you find the connector on the R/R that goes to the rest of the harness has started to melt at the Black wire as well.  this is the very importaint ground wire for the R/R.  any unused current the stator puts out is shunted to ground, so this wire can carry a lot of current.

Since your going to solder the wires, you might want to consider moving the R/R up by the front of the bike where it can get some nice cool airflow.  Adding a fan, while it might not hurt, will not really help much because the R/R is located right above the rear exhaust.  even running the fan, your just blowing hot air over it.

Finally, run a nice big 12 gauge piece of wire from the R/R mounting screw to the frame or battery negative.

--Lucky

[jasonm.]

If you had a new stator and R/R installed. They both should have clean new connectors. Something the shop did was not quite right...I think.

[Rick G]

The fuse boxes in all these 20+ year old Yamahas  are high maintence items .  I have replaced many of them, The problem is that  the  brass fuse clips  , are crystialized  at the right angle bend  in the bottom .  trying to clean them or retension the usually results in a broken clip.  I have installed one,  by Buss, in my bike,  that has 4 fuses and fits right in  (2.99)  it uses glass tubular fuses. Actually I would prefer the twin blad type but my only local source gets 27.00 for them and I'm too cheap to pay that much.

[VK]

Thanks for all of the feedback.  Given Jason's comment, it seems my first step ought to be to go to the shop and show them what is going on.  If either the new regulator or stator has gone bad, I don't need to be giving them an excuse that it was caused by my own modification.  

VK

[George R. Young]

Suggest replacing the melted connector with automotive spade clips. should cost a coulple of bucks at any automotive shop.

[rick_nowak]

if the RR shunts current to battery that it cannot dissipate, the frame itself, used as the ground in the current path would act as a resistive grid.  so, might not be the best idea to wire directly an extra ground strap from RR direct to neg. battery. always a good idea to have solid ground and power connections though.

[gbranche]

The fuse boxes in all these 20+ year old Yamahas ?are high maintence items . ?I have replaced many of them, The problem is that ?the ?brass fuse clips ?, are crystialized ?at the right angle bend ?in the bottom . ?trying to clean them or retension the usually results in a broken clip. ?I have installed one, ?by Buss, in my bike, ?that has 4 fuses and fits right in ?(2.99) ?it uses glass tubular fuses. Actually I would prefer the twin blad type but my only local source gets 27.00 for them and I'm too cheap to pay that much.

Do you happen to have the part numbers for those items? When I bought my 83, the main fuse clips had already snapped off, and a previous owner had wired in a blade-style fuse holder. Then I managed to snap off one of the fingers for the headlight fuse, and had to wire in an additional stand-alone blade-type holder. For the next one, I'd prefer to just replace the entire fuse block.

Greg

[Lucky]

Littlefuse makes a 6 fuse holder with an opaque blue cover. Pepboys sells it, and the part # & pic is on my site http://www.geocities.com/lucky_142
on the replacement parts page. You can solder the wires riwght on & it fits in the stock location.
--Lucky