Update - My wiring harness got very melty...

[RPC3]

Perfect, thanks. I ended up getting the 35 amp just because 5twins and some other users had gotten that exact one, so it'll help me when trying to copy their efforts (including mounting).

Alright - all parts ordered (rectifier, regulator, and new wiring harness).

When wiring up a new harness, what do people find easier; cleaning up the bike/frame/ground points and having a fresh frame to work off of, or leaving the old harness in place and slowly replace new with old to see how the routing/plugs match up?

Thanks for the help so far, looking forward to (hopefully) getting everything back up and running in the next few weeks.

 

[650Skull]

Check the connections against the existing before removing the old, just to make sure every thing is the same.

Take pics if you are concerned. Remove the old then replace the new. Not hard, it al falls into place when looking at what connecter fits.

 

[RPC3]

Hi guys - checking in after doing I think (/I hope) everything correctly. New wiring harness from mikes is in place, new solid state rectifer wired up to the harness, vr115 regulator wired up to the harness. Cleaned all the connections, cleaned all the grounds, bike started up - idling at 13.3 volts, at 3,000 rpm I'm at 14.5 volts, anything else I need to test for before hitting the road?

 

[tonyc]

Your numbers check out great you should be fine in the charging system. Good luck Tony C

 

[RPC3]

thanks for the quick response. I was just about to take her for a spin and noticed a spark. Was able to determine that the left side cover is causing some kind of short; must be touching or bridging something? I couldn't get the spark replicated without the side cover on, and just holding the side cover in place it was shorting to the seat latch and before I believe it was shorting to the frame close to where the top line runs parallel to the frame.

How should I go about trouble shooting this? Everything looks to be sealed pretty well; its a fresh harness with fresh wires all the way around. The only thing on that side of the bike is the regulator which is sealed end to end; can the body of the regulator not touch the metal side cover? Could one of the mounting screws to the regulator be causing an issue? Seems unlikely.

On the regulator, I've got Green-->green, black-->black, yellow & orange together going to brown on the harness.

 

[tonyc]

You must determine if the side cover is touching any bare wires or electrical components. Re-route from there.

 

[RPC3]

I can confirm that the sparks are coming from the mounting bolts I'm using to mount the regulator at the stock mounting spot. The side cover when jostled just right got close enough to the screw head and then the sparks. In looking, the bolt seems to just brush the rear fender. Unfortunately I overlooked cleaning the grounds where the rear (.. And front) blinkers mount, so I'm going to do that now - but does that seem to make sense for the problem/solution, or am I overlooking something else?

 

[retiredgentleman]

I can confirm that the sparks are coming from the mounting bolts I'm using to mount the regulator at the stock mounting spot. The side cover when jostled just right got close enough to the screw head and then the sparks. In looking, the bolt seems to just brush the rear fender. Unfortunately I overlooked cleaning the grounds where the rear (.. And front) blinkers mount, so I'm going to do that now - but does that seem to make sense for the problem/solution, or am I overlooking something else?

It appears you have a lack of proper grounds. The black wire from the regulator, that is connected to the black in the harness, is good as long as the black wire in the harness is connected to a good bare metal ground. Spend some time checking all the grounds.

 

[RPC3]

Guess I need to step back for a bit. I've cleaned the front and rear blinker grounds, harness ground that mounts under the left coil, engine ground that connects to the front right engine mount bolt/to the condensers, battery ground to frame... What else am I missing? I've got a multimeter but I'm Still pretty rubbish with it... Is the test to set it to ohms and then touch neg to ground and positive to...(positive on battery?)

Also worth noting, the sparks will jump from the vr115 body itself when I touch a wrench from it to the helmet latch. It doesn't *always* happen, but if I'm near enough the mounting screw it can happen.

Is there any chance my vr115 black wire is shorting to the case from within? I can undo my wiring on the VR115 to confirm the ground wire is crimped properly, but this was my first time doing electrical work so I went very slow and thought everything had come out pretty secure and snug.

 

[retiredgentleman]

Never use the ohms selection, and then connect from ground to the battery positive. An ohmmeter is always used on dead circuits only. You would blow a fuse in the VOM or worse.

You should not have any voltage from the regulator case to the frame. Yet you seem to have this. You could use the VOM to measure for voltage from the regulator case to bare metal on frame, to see what it reads..

If your VR-115 is mounted on the original regulator rubber mountings, I would change that so that the VR-115 case is mounted to the frame bare metal. I have my VR-115 mounted to the bare metal on my frame.

 

[RPC3]

took the rubber mountings off and when remounting the regulator, halfway threaded into the top right mounting hole the bolt started to spark (guess I should have disconnected the battery).

I did measure volts from the vr115 case to the frame and got a 0 reading. However, maybe a mistake - I mounted the VR115 to the stock regulator plate and THAT plate, reading from that to my frame, is giving me a .18-.23 volt reading. Should I free the VR115 from that plate and re-attach? I'm curious - what would cause that plate specifically to cause issues?

**edit** maybe we can remove the regulator from the equation. I just removed it and the bike will still spark when touching a wrench from the regulator mounting bolt to the bare frame. Could I be charging my battery box with the rectifier? The rectifier is mounted directly to the bottom of the battery box; rectifier touching heatsink touching washer touching battery box.

 

[RPC3]

Process of elimination, I disconnected everything by my starter selinoid which happens to look pretty bad. Still getting a spark from battery box to frame.

 

[RPC3]

Alright... I think I've got it. In all my searching for a bad ground, it turns out I had a bad positive. The terminal from my battery to the starter selinoid had worn through and was grounding to m frame. I'm guessing this will solve the issues I was having, should be able to test later tonight

*edit*
Everything is working as it should, thanks again to everyone for the input.

 

[retiredgentleman]

Alright... I think I've got it. In all my searching for a bad ground, it turns out I had a bad positive. The terminal from my battery to the starter selinoid had worn through and was grounding to m frame. I'm guessing this will solve the issues I was having, should be able to test later tonight

*edit*
Everything is working as it should, thanks again to everyone for the input.

I knew you could find the problem.....................it just takes some detective work. That direct short to ground was somewhat stressful to your battery, so you will have to see if the battery holds a normal charge.

 

[RPC3]

Retiredgentleman, you were probably right with the battery. My battery charged okay to 13+ volts and the charging unit seemed to have been working okay in my quick test I did.

On tuesday I did a little other maintenance (lubed the advance shaft, new advance springs, re-set point gap, timing static and with light), thought things were in good shape and went for a test ride. All was well but 30 minutes into the ride I had a bit of a bog at an intersection. Next intersection I stalled completely, no power to anything including neutral light. After sitting for 5 minutes the lights would come back on, I checked for loose connections but didn't see anything out of place. Couldn't get the bike to start. After sitting for 20 minutes or so I was able to kick it over and kept it revved high enough to make it the last 3 miles home. was at 9 volts or so when I made it back and was able to test.

Battery charged back up to 13.2 volts on my trickle charger, but I haven't done anything with it since.

What tests should I perform to determine if the battery is junk or if its something else? The battery was new at the beginning of the year, but as mentioned it was grounding directly to frame so it hasn't experienced typical wear/tear.

Thanks.

 

[XSLeo]

Remove the battery from the bike, fully charge it, take it to a place that sells batteries, have them load test it. This will determine if the battery is ok.
If not, is it still under warranty? If so they may replace it.
If not you will need to buy a new battery.
Leo

 

[RPC3]

Load test at Napa looked good. Check slip rings on rotor and brushes next?

Edit* both brushes are over 14mm and my rotor is 5.4 ohms. Next?


Edit take two. Ended up rechecking my wiring and some of my crimps didn't hold. I thought I had done a good job with them but hey, guess not. All three white wires running from my harness to my regulator uncrimped. I recrimped and soldered them, don't think I'm at risk of them coming apart again. Well, glad to know that my rotor and brushes are in near new spec, guess credit due to a PO for a change.