An Electrical Must Read

I just want to take my hat off to the guys here at KZRider that give their time and knowledge to us for free.


What I have here in this post is 2 pictures testifying to the secrets your electrical system is keeping from you.



~I was getting no charging current/voltage at all from my bike( a beautiful 1979 KZ650) and following a few posts, and the .pdf file for troubleshooting the charging circuit I had taken apart the RR, Dynamo, Armature(Stator) and tested them all. I posted my results here on KZRider, and included the comment that my Kawasaki Manual gave Impedance specs for the armature on my bike. These specs were .35-.48 Ohms and if the armature(stator) wasn't between those, it was defective....... the guys here at KZRider gave me the opinions that even though I was measuring .9 Ohms, contrary to the Kawasaki Manual for my bike it was close enough.


The suggestions then were to check the RR that I had just put in last year, and re-check all my wires/connections. Well, RR measured fine, so I was convinced that for sure my Stator was bad despite people thinking it might not be.... after all, the manual said it was bad.


Steell and WiredGeorge both suggested that I re-check all my connections and make sure they were all good. I had already done this, but I figured, what the h*ll, one more time, then I'm certain. Well, as you can see in the photos, wiring from 1979 gets a little old, and these two leads from the Dynamo were braided around each other in such a way that they looked completely fine.(I tried to re-braid it like it was to show everyone) Looking at it and feeling it made it seem perfectly fine.... it was just old and brittle rubber I thought..... It took a very close inspection, the third time at this connection, to realize that the two wires for whatever reason, were melted together. The braiding had hidden the short from me, and with the melting, the two wires still looked normal... only stuck together.


The reason I am posting this is for all of us that think we have checked it out just fine.... This is to prove that it CAN BE HIDING from you. Not until I forced the two wires apart was it even aparent they had shorted together..... I don't know if from vibration, age, heat from something..... but in this one spot only, they had shorted, and the second picture shows clearly the damage done. Needless to say, without having to buy a new Stator(and that not fixing anything) the bike is working perfectly, and I don't have sketchy shorts near my less than perfectly sealed carb bowls. When suggested to check your wiring, CHECK YOUR WIRING.....


Thanks

Post edited by: b4schroer, at: 2006/07/02 21:33

The second pic

With 6359 registered users, usually someone has the answer

Seems like there has been a bunch of corrosion related electrical problems recently

Excellent post b4schroer. Good find!!!!
ride safe,
Les