Fried wires

Hello,

I have found some fried wires resulting from boosting the bike from a car. Now my question is did I necessarily frie the regulator as well or was it just the wires from the battery to the regulator connector.

The wires past the connector that go to the regulator look fine. Only the ones going to the battery are fried.

Here are two pictures (yellow marks the spot).

Thanks,

When I first got my bike, I had to boost from my car many times. I never had wires fry while doing this.

I suspect that what you had was some high resistance contact problem, this caused a significant voltage to drop across it which caused it to dissipated a large amount of power (heat). This heat melted the plastic insulation and oxidized your copper conductor.

You may want to check the rest of your harness for aged crimps and oxidized male and female contacts. I found many on my bike and when I did I both cleaned the contacts and soldered the crimps. I found that my wires themselves were still quite good... soft and flexible. I never did trust crimp contacts but after 30 years... Kawasaki can be forgiven.

Since my bike uses the original (old type) relay voltage regulator I have no idea if this caused any damage to what looks like the newer regulator on yours.

Sorry, but from your pic I can't tell for sure which are the problem wires. Someone with your model of bike will probably be by soon to give you a better reply.

Best of success!

Post edited by: bill_wilcox100, at: 2007/09/05 15:10

Post edited by: bill_wilcox100, at: 2007/09/06 08:20

Sorry, but I can't help but point out the irony that the fried wires are right next to the device labeled "Ignitor." Ed

The regulator is not in the picture. Since you have an IC igniter, you have an 81 KZ550 A2. That means you have a 3-phase regulator, which is often mounted under the battery. The black box in the picture is the lighting-controller.

If the car was running when you jumped the bike, and you left it connected after the bike was started, you may have damaged the regulator. Never jump from a running car.

The other possibility is if it was accidentally connected in reverse for a second. That would fry a reg/rec pretty quick.

You will have to locate the reg/rec, and trace all of the wires coming from it to make sure none of them are melted. That's a lot of work, but if there are any hidden shorts, any new reg/rec may also get fried.

Well the wires are fried that come from the battery to the regulator connector (white one) from the connector to the actual regulator they look fine. So i guess i'll change all the wires first, try the bike. Then if it's not working i'll replace the regulator as well. (More pics to come