Electrical harness burnt up near stators
 

Anyone else have the issue where the connectors failed, melted and burnt the wires near the stators? Just the charging wires have been damaged, not the remaining sensor wires in the harness. Recommendations : replace harness or piece meal the wires and change connectors. Problem I see right off the bat is that I have very little wire to work with coming from each stator outlet.

Common problem due to the resistance of the plug. High resistance connection=heat= more resistance=...you get the pic.
Best solution is to remove the damaged wires, solder/heat shrink new and do away with the plug. For the amount of times the stator has to be removed, it's of little use anyway. Use a multistranded, flexible, 12ga wire.
I meant to add, hopefully they didn't short out and fry the stator. Should be approximately 75VAC (I think, someone says different, believe them LOL) across any two of the three yellow wires at 'round 2500rpm..........Mike

It happens to more than a few bikes, the good thing is that its a pretty simple fix. Do what MrMikey suggests and you should be back in business.

I agree with your assessments, I'm going to eliminate the plug entirely, and hard wire both stators into place. Replace any damaged wires as far back as required inside the harness. I could pick up a used harness on Ebay for $60.00 but I don't need to replace the entire unit so that would be a lot of work for nothing. I can get a new harness for $700 Cdn. so that's not happening either.

I would say this should be one of the most needed improvements a new owner ought to make. Some folks are scared off because of a known wiring problem, but other than that, these bikes are totally bulletproof if maintained....just my 2 pecos....
The main cause of this mess is the plugs hidden behind that cover that allows dirt, moisture in and add to the mix cramped wires, stuff wiggling, corroding, saw a friends bike start smoking as we came outta a big texas rainstorm last year.....
Flagged him down and his stators were fried, along with his wiring....
Its a easy weekends worth of work thats totally worth it....
Mines not hard-wired, but I use automotive weatherproof plugs sealed and have dielectric grease....

Okay, I've rewired the regulators and stators straight together. My wiring diagram has everything where it's supposed to be. However, this is where I need some assistance. I'm left with two wires of the same colour ( yellow with a thin black stripe ) I checked them with my ohm meter and they are connected at some other point. It's too bad everything was so fried and melted that my pictures don't show where these two go. The schematic in my manual does show one yellow/black wire attached to a stator output wire and then travels up to the main fuse box to feed the headlight relay?? But, no mention of the other yellow/black wire. It may be an error in my schematic since it would make sense to draw current from both stators..... Any insight would be appreciated.

Need to get a hi-quality repair manual that has a full color electrical schmatic, it will pay for itself in a case like yours....
Also, try to use the same color wiring as that was in the orig. harness....
https://dc611.4shared.com/download/c...xODY&lgfp=3000

Bike?
Usually yellow is the AC from the stator and goes to the R/R, I'm presuming yl/bla is one stator the other is probably all yellow.
I have a manual for a Nomad and a Voyager so I'm just going by the Nomad one for now.
The three yl/bla wires go to the front regulator, the only other connection to them is one of the yl/bla is 'T'd' into and also goes to the relay in the headlight bucket for the headlight. That's why it shows the diode in there, to rectify the AC into a rough DC to operate the relay.
The other diode, (thinking out loud) is to prevent backfeed when the headlight circuit is energized as once it's energized, the coil gets it's power right from the actual headlight circuit, keeping the light on. without that, the light would stay on even after you shut the bike off, I think??
I'm thinking the reason it shows continuity is that it is the same wire, the T'd one as it goes to two spots after coming form the stator, the R/R and up to the headlight bucket...............Mike

Isn't the yellow/black striped wire used for grounds on the Kaw's?

I'll have to check later, but I believe so.

That makes me think that your problem may still exist, a bad ground somewhere causing the other ground wires to carry more of the load, and causing your meltdown.

Looking on the schematic for the Nomad it shows the two stators with three wires off each. One shows 3-YL the other 3-YL/BLA.
I can't remember the ground color on mine but BLA/YL seems to stick out for some reason...I think...........M

If you haven't fixed it by the time I get home, I'll run off a copy, hilite the wires in a bright color so you can follow them, and post them....
Have faith! MAS will get ya straightened out!

Got it figured out. The two wires were to be from each stator and carry the ac voltage up to the head light relay. This keeps the headlight from coming on while cranking the engine. Once the ac current is felt at the relay, it's tripped and the headlight now comes on. All rewired and back together and now I have 14.7 Volts at my volt meter. I did hard wire the rectifiers to the stators and eliminated the connector. Not an issue unless i have to replace the rectifiers which means cutting the harness. I price I'll pay if it ever happens.

I having been watching this. Good job on fixing the problem.

My symptom is mostly the headlight does not always come on at startup. The bulb and headlight can connectors are fine. Testing shows no power to the fuse when the headlight does not come on. This is why I am happy I did not use the headlight wire to fire my driving lights relay. Otherwise, no lights at all.

The left side rectifier seems cold while the right gets warm/hot. It seemed to me my voltmeter in the power pod I have was lower at at road speeds than I remember. Time to do a step by step diagnosis.

I had similar symptoms and had one cooked stator, the other half of the charging system was fine just the outer stator showed continuity to ground and had like 10 VAC at around 2k Rpms , I was lucky it was the outer one that bit the dirt. Interestingly enough both of my plugs were in great shape back then and showed no sign of overheating. Yours sounds like one of yours has failed but like you said it needs testing. I would also look at those wires that go to your headlight relay and make sure they're in good shape if you are having an intermittent head light problem.

I have noticed "head light relay" mentioned in quite a few posts but have no idea where that relay is located. Is it part of the fuse package under the left side cover or an actual relay I can check and replace?