Honda Shadow Forums banner

1996 VT1100C 3 Yellow Wire Repair

2.2K views 12 replies 6 participants last post by  Husoi  
#1 ·
During this past Spring, during the initial start-up of this bike, the battery was completely dead; necessitating a jump start from a lawn tractor's battery. While the engine was being revved in place to charge up the motorcycle battery, smoke started rising up from the battery compartment area until the bike engine suddenly died. Thereafter, no instrument lights on the speedometer were illuminated.

Fast forward to one week ago. I observed a melted/burned white plastic connector where the alternator stator's three yellow wires connect to the motorcycle wiring harnesss. In addition, the 30 amp main fuse (located immediately above the battery) was blown.

To repair the three yellow wires, I cut away the remains of the white plastic connector plug to expose the brass spade-type wire terminations. Any burned plastic on the brass wire terminations was scraped off with a razor blade and cleaned with electrical contact cleaner. Care was exercised to not mix up the wire connections on the AC voltage just in case...

A section of heat-shrink tubing was placed over each of the three yellow wires. The spade terminals were fluxed, connected and soldered together then the tubing was shrunk over each respective. I stuffed the newly repaired connectors into the clip which formerly secured the white plastic plug and zip-tied it in place.

PS This motorcycle had previously sustained a failed alternator. The local Honda dealer installed an aftermarket stator to restore alternator output.
 
Discussion starter · #3 · (Edited)
That's good advice. A brand new Magna Power battery is now installed. It was on a battery charger for a couple days before installing it in the motorcycle.

I still need to confirm the charging system is functioning by connecting a voltmeter to the battery and revving up the engine to see correct charging voltage.

I'm pretty sure I did a bad thing by using this water soluble paste flux.
Link Worse still is I didn't rinse it off before applying the heat-shrink tubing. Acid-based flux is for non-electrical soldering because it will corrode the conductors.
 
Discussion starter · #7 ·
The connector plug's location on my 1996 VT1100C is down on the left side of motorcycle; next to the transmission. The alternator stator is located on the left side of engine.

You will see a jacketed set of three electrical leads (from the stator) exiting atop the engine's left-hand case. Follow the jacketed leads to where they plug into the motorcycle's wiring harness.

On my bike, the connector plug is white-colored.


Is the connector that I circled in green the one that we're talking about?
 
Discussion starter · #11 ·
Separate the connector and inspect the wire terminations for evidence of corrosion. Corrosion results in high electrical resistance. High electrical resistance at wire termination/connections generate heat during electrical current flow. Overheated wire terminations will melt the connector plug.