R/R Thermo shutdown
 

Morning gentlemen.
Im not sure about this one, Yesterday I was on my way home and the bike started to shut down on me, first it was the tach, then the speedo & cluster lights, at a stoplight the bike sputtered and I ended up coasting to the side of the road. My first thought was the R/R that was just recently replaced (thank you 7 moore 7+ ), it was 109 outside and when I was fishing around the rear faring I couldn’t physically touch the R/R. it was too hot…. Burn my finger hot!. I ended up calling a friend to jump my battery; the bike fired just fine and ran strong for the next 25 minutes on the ride home. When I got home I started the bike over and over again to see if I replicate the voltage issue, I couldn’t.. Could this be an issue of thermal shut down to preserve the bike. Where to start, its only going to get hotter this summer here in AZ…

What type R/R is it that you have replaced with? If its the stock type it gets very hot, and it has no thermal protection what so ever, it just overheats... And while it may seem like a protection when ot stops working, its not, it will simply die if you repeat it a couple of times...

That applies to all R/R's including MOSFET types, but they are less likely to overheat in the first place...

The R/R that was donated to me (SH678-11 G6.6.9) donno as to the model but I believe its from an R1, The R/R is a heavy duty unit, as far as I can tell "novice" assessment. when I tore into the bike this morning, I found the issue.. 3 wires got soo hot they melted together and I believe they shorted out.. I will have to do some surgery this morning and rewire the box, Thinking as how to keep the R/R cool. Maybe relocate the R/R but to where?

That was from an R6 and is a shunt based (I had it left over when I went with a MOSFET type), so not ideal but much better than stock.

I'd say that because this is a second failure you've had recently, you'll want to definitely go through some of the wiring and check the connectors for corrosion and that they are fastened well (especially since you came from a wet climate)- I had it on my bike for two Phoenix summers and it should have lasted longer (or maybe I just burned it out for you, haha!). But often an R/R will go bad trying to overcome the resistance caused by corrosion

SWEET, hey bud.. yeah the R/R is in great condition. NOT BLOWN. most of the wiring that was in the faring is hard and brittle, what made this different was that some of the wires that went to the R/R were melted together "hence" the short... I will go through the elect side of the bike and abate the corrosion.. thinking when I rewire the R/R today how to avoid this again, BUT over the last month and a half the bike has run amazing.. Thanks again 7moore7+..

Where did the wires melt? Did it start from the connector? If so the wires may not be getting a good contact in the connector and that resistance could be causing the heat and the dammaged wires. Be sure to solder and shrink wrap the new wires in. But connectors don't have nearly as good of a connection and are more likely to promote carosion.

WOW, What would cause this.
 

WOW, take a look at this mess??? what would cause this?.. what a mess, how to avoid this? any thoughts???

Would the outside ambient heat affect the R/R? ? ?

Yeah that looks like your classic poor wireing job wowes. Sorry not trying to bash your work but but crimp on connectors like that aren't all that great. You can see the heat coming directly from the connections as the insulators are fried right at the crimps. Get all that off of there, get the proper connector to plug into that regulator with the proper pins and hopefully it'll have the pigtail of wires on it. Then solder and shrink wrap them so you have a good sealed connection and I think you'll find it'll be much more reliable.

COOL.. thanks alot for all the help, I just moved to the AZ from Mill Creek WA in Feb, this heat thing has played havoc with the SH, Im going to rock the new wiring now . 7moore7+ has been a life saver... so thank you again for all the help.

thats funny,i was taking the bike around to get the suspension dialed in last night,and when i was out,my bike did the same exact thing,no lights,speedometer,nothing at all.

when i turned around to head back home,during the turn and hitting the gas,it all came back on like nothing was wrong,but when i checked wiring,no burns,melted anything anywhere that i could see,i need to go deeper in the wiring,but im clueless why this happened.
i have the same exact R/R as in the pic above.could this be the issue with that R/R

Saige check your battery cables for being tight. And I don't mean just the bolts but make sure the cables are tight under the bolts. I have seen in the past where to long of a bolt was used and with no washer under it the bolt would be tight and the cable wouldn't be and it'd cause issues. With it all shutting down then all of a sudden coming back to life it could have just been a bad connection.

I'm guessing with jdobeckj's bike the battery went dead unti it was jumped at which time the wires had a chance to cool down some and retain a connection and the 25min ride home got some charge back in the battery.

+1 on that. Remove all the crimp connections, solder and heat shrink everything. If you cant get a proper plug for the R/R, at least take the plastic part off the crimp terminals( just heat 'em up a little and they slide off) crimp the terminal and then solder the crimp to make a good solid connection, then just heat shrink the whole thing.

those are the first things i checked,it is weird,nothing loose,burned,moved disconnected.
im thinking maybe corrosion or bad contact some place i cant see and get too.
im gonna have to check R/R specs and stator.

Wondering if there is a suitable grease that we can use for the electric connections, trying to abate the corrosion? like a dielectric or white lithium?

Once the connectors are clean, simple petroleum jelly is an excellent solution for this ;). Also, living in the desert will help substantially!

If you wanted to make a permanent sealed connection you could fill the connector cavity with high temp silicone and let it harden up, but forget about ever getting those connectors off again if you did!

For sealing stuff vaseline is a good option... But that's a truly hideous wiring... Solder and heatshrink... Crimps have nothing to do in a wiring harness...

Dielectric grease would be the proper grease for this application.

The first thing that caused that was the clown who put it all together. The second thing that caused it was the heat from the R/R. You avoid it by getting the correct connectors and contacts and cutting the splices out of the system. Get a good R/R as well.

I went to ghetto wiring.com and as we can all see I got bit in the ass.....

LOL:crackup:

Hey Jdo, since the bitter taste is still fresh in your mouth, check out the connectors from Eastern Beaver. This guys has a ton of cool stuff but some real beefy RR connectors.

Motorcycle Electric Connectors, cheap worldwide shipping.

It is very worth doing since you can ride a bike to many places that you would rather not be stranded in. (NYC for me)