Melting Wires During a Jump

I have this friend.

Silly guy had a dead battery. From a NON RUNNING car, he attempted to jump his bike. Of course he crossed the leads and the + wires smoked. Lucky for me I'm not wearing the battery. . . I mean him. Not me. Him. Right.

The battery was old, so I replaced it. Charged it. Put it on the bike and after I saw sparks and a puff of smoke somewhere around the battery I disconnected it again. All the fuses are OK of course.

I saw that another person did this (major screw-up...melted wires - 2006/04/26 23:48 )and the recommendation was to disconnect the alternator and if that fixed the problem check the alternator voltage rectifier.

1. Does that still sound like the best solution?
2. What is a rectifier (sorry newbie to electrical)
3. If disconnecting the alternator doesn't help, what else should I check?

Year and model would help a lot, Kawasaki used different charging systems at various times and on different models.

You probably fried the reg/rec, or one of the two depending on the bike.

CliffordBRD wrote:

I have this friend.

Silly guy had a dead battery. From a NON RUNNING car, he attempted to jump his bike. Of course he crossed the leads and the + wires smoked. Lucky for me I'm not wearing the battery. . . I mean him. Not me. Him. Right.

Hey, I've got a "friend" like that too. Not a bad guy but "he" can sure do some dumb sh*t now and again!

I have never met CliffordBRD before in my life. I swear I was not there when his "friend" probably fried the rectifier. Any time you pass current backward thru a rectifier it fries. Diodes will only allow current to flow one way, any attempt to do otherwise cooks them. Rectifiers change ac power to dc power by only allowing current to flow one way. Check all fuses and wires. Where there is smoke there is fire or at least smoking wiring insulation. I could be wrong about the rectifier but I had a "friend" who did exactly that.

steell wrote:

Year and model would help a lot, Kawasaki used different charging systems at various times and on different models.

You probably fried the reg/rec, or one of the two depending on the bike.

1979 650B
Bone Stock.

RomSpaceKnight wrote:

I have never met CliffordBRD before in my life. I swear I was not there when his "friend" probably fried the rectifier. Any time you pass current backward thru a rectifier it fries. Diodes will only allow current to flow one way, any attempt to do otherwise cooks them. Rectifiers change ac power to dc power by only allowing current to flow one way. Check all fuses and wires. Where there is smoke there is fire or at least smoking wiring insulation. I could be wrong about the rectifier but I had a "friend" who did exactly that.

Is there more than one rectifier?
Regulator?

I really hate asking stupid questions. Almost as much as doing something so blatently stupid to begin with. At least this should prove I've never done this before. Bet it will never happen again too.

Also, based on the responses, it sounds like I can bring it back. That's good.

79 650 used a combined rect/reg. If something fried, that's probably it. Pretty common part. Should be in junk yards everywhere because they really never went bad without help.

steell wrote:

Year and model would help a lot, Kawasaki used different charging systems at various times and on different models.

You probably fried the reg/rec, or one of the two depending on the bike.

Looking at the parts diagram on Kawasaki.com, it appears that the wires to the regular took some heat for sure. There are three total; 1 black and two yellow.

I am assuming the rectifier is located near the alternator (the diagram doesn't say).

Positive battery wire also took some.

And a red wire that is with the positive really really got cooked. It is a short wire that disappears quickly into the wiring harness. I have no idea where that one goes.

RonKZ650 wrote:

79 650 used a combined rect/reg. If something fried, that's probably it. Pretty common part. Should be in junk yards everywhere because they really never went bad without help.

So my best bet is to replace both and any wire that looks less than healthy.

If I follow a bad wire TO the harness and replace it will that do? Or do I need to basically unravel the harness? (gulp)

RonKZ650 wrote:

79 650 used a combined rect/reg. If something fried, that's probably it. Pretty common part. Should be in junk yards everywhere because they really never went bad without help.

somebody probably repainted the reg/rect with non origional paint causing a chain reaction,or possibly the car he used to jumpstart bike had been repainted at one time!:evil: :whistle: :woohoo: :silly: :woohoo: :silly: sorry Ron,couldnt help myself!

The location of the regulator is under the left side cover, about the size and shape of a pack of smokes.

OKC_Kent wrote:

The location of the regulator is under the left side cover, about the size and shape of a pack of smokes.

Perfect.
Now I only need to find a new one.