A 3 month old battery loses its charge with 15 miles

Can anyone answer my q: “can I replace this yellow cable readily where it terminates on the alternator?”.

i don’t have specialist tools to remove the alternator so if i can’t tidy that short yellow wire within the alternator compartment, there is no need to remove the alternator’s cover.

thanks again everyone. 

Generator info starts on page 216.

kzrider.com/filebase-alias/summary/12-kz...ksm-kz440-a1-thru-d1

You need to remove the stator cover and make a proper assessment of the wires condition.  Use an impact driver, the type you hit with a hammer.  If the cross point is totally wrecked, use a dremel cut off disc and cut a slot, then use a flat blade tip in your impact.  The screws should come out.  

Most likely, you can simply splice a new section of wire onto what you have now.  Solder and use shrink wrap, or use some premade butt-connectors.  

There should be no more than 1 ohm between any two pairs of the stator wires.  With the bike running, and the wires loose, about 80 VAC, between any two wires.  

Assuming the stator checks out, I'd buy a used Shindengen SH775 R/R.  These are super robust units that will protect your stator from overheat damage from shunted current.  You can find these units for less than $50 on eBay.  Just be careful to not buy a fake; buy a used unit where you can read "SH775" printed on the top fin.  To find one, search eBay for 4012941 or 71001103, toggle used, then pick one out.  

SH775 Install by nessism , on Flickr

 

Great thanks Nessism. 

Unless I’m mistaken my multimeter won’t allow the measurement of sub-1 ohm, or I’m missing something? Any suggestions please? 

Put it on the 200ohm scale at the bottom and it will read 0.@@@

It will not read sub 1 ohm accurately but what you are checking for is that it does not read over 1 ohm.
Your meter will probably have some lead and contact resistance. For low ohm testing, I usually short my leads together and subtract that reading from the reading of the component I'm testing.

Most digital meters will "zero" if the leads are held together (analogue meters have a knob to adjust zero)

I didn’t have any joy reading low resistance on the alternator leads so I turned my attention to the R/R. 

The loom plug has gone and I found it replaced with connector boxes wrapped in tape and in-line butt connectors. You can see the burnt wiring below, including one R/R yellow lead corroded green and burnt to the point of disconnection from the burnt connector box.

 

I cut back the R/R wires to where they were clean and measured resistance according to the guide here:

 

I could only get a reading on my multimeter when set at 2000k, and for each pair, one direction was ♾️, the other direction was between 1200 and 1700. I’m assuming those translate to 1.2Mohms and 1.7Mohms? One pair, Bk-Y, was ♾️ in both directions.

is it reasonable then to assume the R/R is fubar and to be replaced? And would it be the cause of the burnt wiring, or might the burnt wiring have caused the damage to the R/R? If that’s the case, to future proof my rewiring, why did the wiring burn? I wonder if the connector boxes were insufficiently rated for the current - is that possible?

Sorry, lots of questions.

thanks again. 

It's safer to say that the regulator rectifier is shot than risk reusing it and burning out your stator. I agree with nessism in saying that you should replace the regulator rectifier with a sh775. I did this on my 1000 csr and it worked very well.

All you need to do is get two connectors for it and replace that wicked wiring you have then plug it in. its probably good that you are addressing this now than on the road.

Thank you. I’ll go ahead and replace the r/r.

The only 2nd hand one I can find on eBay is in Canada, ebay.io/m/2N5V1R  which will take a few weeks to arrive in the uk. With summer ending here in Scotland, I’d rather get one sooner to get back on my bike while the sun is shining.
The other challenge I have is a tight budget. A new sh775 in the uk is the best part of £180. 
At the same time, I don’t want to cut corners that will result in the same issue in the future. Can anyone recommend a cheaper but reputable r/r available in the uk please that will fit my bike?

I did find this on eBay- it’s genuine SH, but a different model than that recommended: 
FH020AA . Would it work?


Many thanks again.



 

Wow that wiring is "fugly" for sure it will need the R/R and the wiring repaired, however I'm not sure the SH775 will work for you. Your 440 has a single phase stator (two yellow wires) and the SH775 is intended for a three phase stator (three yellow wires)

The SH775 works fine with single phase systems.  You will simply have one leg of the input side unused.

I'm not sure what bikes used the SH775 in the UK.  The FHxxx units look the same, and will work, but they are shunt type,not series type, so they don't protect your stator as well.