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9 pin connector toasted by engine heat

  • Thread starter Thread starter LarryJ
  • Start date Start date
L

LarryJ

Guest
One of the strangest issues that turned up on my GK this spring was the failure of the headlight & signals to work.
I didn't know if a mouse had gotten into the wiring, or what?
So, I started tracing out the wiring, from the fuse panel on.
When I went to pull the signal, headlight beam & horn switch to check it out, I found the it's pin connector, that's located all the way right on top of the engine, all deformed & toasted pretty bad from decades of engine heat. Some of the wires & their insulation are really brittle from that heat too.
So, as I replace the connector, I'll be certain to get it tucked farther up, between the coils, away from that heat.
Anyone else ever see this. I think that the factory would have tucked that connector up a little higher originally. But, the way it was tied to the frame there, with an original aluminum tie. I think it's always been there. That thing was really cooked!
 
On both of my 1100g's there is a 9 pin connector in the headlight bucket which were melted. I wouldn't rule out something besides engine heat for melting the connector.
 
Charlie G said:
On both of my 1100g's there is a 9 pin connector in the headlight bucket which were melted. I wouldn't rule out something besides engine heat for melting the connector.
Click to expand...

Not very likely engine heat. Contacts and crimps corrode, current flows through and heats up teh resistance. Hotter it gets the more resistance, the more corrosion sooner or later the thing melts together into a blob unless it shorts out first.
 
Get new ones from Vintage Connections. Solder the wires where they crimp into the pins. Get one of those multi tools for removal of pins from the connectors and swap one wire at a time over to the new connectors.

20408.JPG
 
Well, after changing out two distorted 9 pin connectors & still not getting the headlight or signals back, I started looking elsewhere.
The culprit turned out to be a broken ground wire in the fairing. It seems that a PO had spliced into it previously &, when I took a ground off of it for my 12V accesory plug, I pulled his splice apart. I redid the splice a lot more durably, & everything is back working!
As it turns out, identifying that disconnnted ground would have solved the original problem that I was dealing with. However, replacing those distorted 9 pins & the brittled wires on them has made a noticeable difference in the electrical system(all the lights are a lot brighter!). So, it's reinforcement that ALL the electrical connections need to be gone over on these bikes as we get them going from their years of neglect.
I know that's definetely on my "todo" list as I start working on Penny (1000G project).
 
LarryJ said:
Well, after changing out two distorted 9 pin connectors & still not getting the headlight or signals back, I started looking elsewhere.
The culprit turned out to be a broken ground wire in the fairing. It seems that a PO had spliced into it previously &, when I took a ground off of it for my 12V accesory plug, I pulled his splice apart. I redid the splice a lot more durably, & everything is back working!
As it turns out, identifying that disconnnted ground would have solved the original problem that I was dealing with. However, replacing those distorted 9 pins & the brittled wires on them has made a noticeable difference in the electrical system(all the lights are a lot brighter!). So, it's reinforcement that ALL the electrical connections need to be gone over on these bikes as we get them going from their years of neglect.
I know that's definetely on my "todo" list as I start working on Penny (1000G project).
Click to expand...


While you should clean all of your connection with something that will also protect them, don't think that a bad ground on your fairing melted your 9 pin connector.
 
Is the connector in question the one that contains the white/red and white/green stator wires? Connects with the LH hand control?
 
I guess that i wasn't very clear. I actually pulled the fairing gound wire connection apart, where a PO had spliced it together, when I was adding a 12v accessory recepticle onto the fairing. I was attaching an unused groung connection to the plug when, apparently, I pulled apart the splice the PO had put in the ground wire,disconnecting it from the lights in the fairing. I didn't imediately realize it was the culprit because my new 12V plug was working fine. It was still connected to the good ground, just the lights no longer were!

Thinking that it was broken &/or crossed wires, I originally started tracing out power from the fuse box to the lights. THAT was when I found the distorted 9 pins right above the engine. & YES, the worst was the one with the white wire with the red and the white wire with the green stripe on them. The jumper on the other side connecting them, on the other side was VERY brittle from resistance generated heat. That connector was the most distorted of the two! I think only thing that connector did, relative to the lights, was supply power to the headlight hi/lo switch. The other 9 pin, that had most of the lighting connections, wasn't as distorted, but was getting there.

Anyway, it's all working now & I can get back to changing the front tire, synching the carbs & getting rid of a couple of minor oil weeps. Then I'm back on the road for this summer!
 
chuck hahn said:
Get new ones from Vintage Connections. Solder the wires where they crimp into the pins. Get one of those multi tools for removal of pins from the connectors and swap one wire at a time over to the new connectors.

20408.JPG
Click to expand...

Do you have a source for that? I'd like to pick one up.
 
The problem is not engine heat, it's the stator loop wiring. This is a very common problem. It's included in the list of Newbie Mistakes linked in my signature. As Jim mentioned, you need to rewire your R/R. Too bad you weren't able to do it earlier so the damage could have been avoided.
 
Nessism said:
The problem is not engine heat, it's the stator loop wiring. This is a very common problem. It's included in the list of Newbie Mistakes linked in my signature. As Jim mentioned, you need to rewire your R/R. Too bad you weren't able to do it earlier so the damage could have been avoided.
Click to expand...


It is not really clear if the OP still thinks that it is engine heat or a bad ground (or some combination) that melted the connector. :(


It is starting to get easier to understand why electricity is such a mystery to most and it is not due to the complexity of Ohm's Law.
 
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