84 zn1100 burning wire

Hi needs some advice.

I have wire that is burning up, i seem to have caught it jsut in time.

From the alternator I have 3 yellow wires 1 of them is heating up so hot that its melting. I unplugged it need the fuse box them the heating stops.

I need some advise on where to begin..

Or even eliminate some stuff.

-Could it be a bad battery.
-Could it be bad rectifier?
-Could it be just a short.
-Bad alternator?

its the middle wire thats getting hot.. as you can see it melted a bit the wires that it was touching.. even when not touching nay wires when the bike runs its gets burning hot

UPDATE: I should of added what is probably a crucial pice of info. the battery was bad i could not charge it..so I would boost it to start bike, then remove boosters and like bike run on the bad battery.

Could the bad battery make the alternator wires get so Hot..??

in any case I just bought a new battery today its on trickle now

This happened to my bike also, and it was a bad battery. The extra load on the wire showed up at the weakest point, the yellow wire connection, where it burned.

I see in your pictures that the connections are not stock, so some re-wiring has been done. You can cut the burned stuff out and replace it, and use dielectric grease on the new connection, then protected in heatshrink tubing. Or as I did, forgo the connection and solder the wires together.

If you boost a bike with a car, make sure the car is off. The car battery has plenty of boost to spin a bike's starter. If the car is running you may fry something on the bike, or blow a battery apart.

I agree get rid of all those spade connectors and solder and shrink wrap would be the first thing to do

Perfect thank so much guys..

I was gooan out new connectors on.. i will solder and shrink tube them.

thank again.