New Regulator

I just put a new regulator in from Electrospirt on my 1981 KZ1000J. I had to switch around the leads since it wasn't setup correctly which was annoying since it wasn't putting out the right voltage at first. They also didn't include any bolts as the thickness of the regulator is now different. Anyway, the original is a 6 pin connector and the new one is a five. Should the box connector be warm to the touch, is this natural? Is it okay to have the brown wire not connected to anything at the box connector?

Thanks
Greg

swapped Leads around? Which colors are mated up? brown disconnected on the 5 wire should be fine. It was the voltage sense wire on the factory set up. The 5 wire uses the output to the battery also as voltage sense. Which was also used on Kawasaki. When you say warm like to hot to hold, or just higher than ambient? Heat is a sign of current flow, and resistance. So a poor connection will make heat, but so will high current flow, especially through small wiring. So what did you swap?

It should be the three yellows from the stator should match right up, doesn't mater which ones. Then Black to The Black/ yellow which is ground. And the red to The battery red/ white positive wire.

I disconnected the brown sensor wire and moved the white-red stripe wire to mate with the red on the regulator box slot connector. The way Electrosport has the connector setup on the female box is that it ends up connecting red to brown on male side. I wasn't getting a charge if any, thats why I switched to connect to the main white-red battery wire. It gets warmer than ambient fairly quickly, but not hot to the touch. I just don't know what it was like before. I'm getting about 14.1 V at the battery now instead of 16 with the old regulator.

Thanks for the info
Greg

There may be some heat damaged connector terminals, or loose fitting on the harness side. Also the first couple inches of the wires may show some heat damage/ discoloring. Resistance will build heat. New correct terminals are available, and you can replace the wires or possible shorten back slightly where they are not damaged.

So there shouldn't be any heat buildup on the connector box? The regulator has a heat sink built-in so I would think there would be heat on that line coming from the stator that the regulator would reduce in voltage. Whaddya think?

Thanks
Greg

Ideally No, but in the real world of an old wiring harness some small amount. Do you have a Infrared Thermometer?
You could shine that along to see where the heat is building.
Also if you measure the voltage on each side of the connector, you can measure the resistance by voltage drop. you may show 14.5 volts going into the connector, then 14 coming out. As an example, a .5v loss due to resistance. This would hold true at any point in your harness or across a switch.

I don't have an infrared thermometer, but the yellow wires are kind of stiff and hardened leading from the connectors at the the stator junction. I should probably replace those wires all the way to the junction box, although I will have to take apart the harness a little bit. The connectors at the stator have darkened and the connections are looking pretty old and baked, likely some resistance there too. I don't know if it's from current or engine heat or both. The yellow wires back at the box seem harder than the power, ground and brown wire too. The stator wires coming directly off the stator seem okay as they are built different with insulation. Boy, one thing leads to another.

Thanks for the info.
Greg

If you tested the ACV coming from the stator, the three yellows, you would find them down a bit, it will supply more ACV to the R/R when you repair those wires. Then the Available DC will end up higher. That system is rated for 20amps output at 14.5 DCV, you may be getting quite a bit less Amps total output. But your Stock system would never use up 20 Amps. But best to repair, before more heat damage occurs and you lose the connection to the R/R from the Stator. I think it was Topper who just had a thread with this, Yellow wires at connector fried.

Do most automotive stores carry wire and connectors capable of withstanding engine heat? Or is automotive wire built like this anyhow?

Thanks
Greg

Automobile wiring does not have to flex like motorcyle wiring. For the most part, the majority of bike wiring flexing is around the steering head. The makers of motorcycles usually specify untinned(solder coated) wires as ones that are tinned will stiffen up and break due to metal fatigue.

The wiring available at auto parts stores are of a low temperature insulation designed to be used in a somewhat protected envirionment. If I was going to re wire a motorcycle, I'd try to get wire specified to resist 105 C temperature.

Here's some websites I have bought supplies in the past:
www.waytekwire.com
www.delcity.net
www.shrinkshop.com
www.arlon-std.com/Products/tape .
www.easternbeaver.com
www.vintageconnections.com

I found a place in town that carries 140 ºC wire, Gregg's Distributors. I hoping they carry some replace male connectors that would go back into the junction box. I'm going to solder the wires at the stator instead of messing with bullet connectors, then shrink wrap them. I will also run a plastic flexible sheath over the wires near the engine to protect them from heat.

Got everything back together. Good voltage with no heat buildup like before after I ran fresh high-temp wire to the stator wires with high temp slit loom. Now the front calipers are more or less seized. Just ripped them off to have a look inside the pistons. Not a good site. Have to look for rebuild kit I guess. The season's almost over, but the bike is 30 years old afterall.