Huge Electrical Issue: Regulator re-wire almost caught fire.

[Danny955i]

THings you need to know: 2001 Tiger 955i, regulator re-wire direct to battery via instructions found ON THIS SITE.

Went for a 200 mile ride today in +90 degree weather. At the 140 mile mark my tachometer stopped working... then, I hit the brakes and all power cut out to all gauges/lights/etc... Pulled over, turned off bike, battery was dead.

Pop start bike, start riding, motor nearly over-heats due to FAN NOT RUNNING... Temp gauge ran PAST H WAY over red zone.

Pull over again, check fuses... 30A fuse to Regulator/Rectifier has MELTED OUT OF THE HOLDER and DID NOT BLOW!!!! Replaced fuse, bike pop started, did not hear fan kick on... rode it home last 60 miles above the red. Rode fine... and lights/tach/everything worked...

What on earth could have caused this? I am re-wiring my bike ASAP back to the stock configuration.

I almost set myself and my bike on fire.

[Danny955i]

OH, and, it's been an hour since I got home... the bike starts, so the battery charged on the way home... but it took a LONG time for the temp gauge to come down.... I don't think the fan kicked on once on the way home...

[walker]

things to check:

 * battery strap to ground - make sure the frame connection and the battery connection are clean, and tight
 * any crimps you have done - the more crimps inline, the more resistance you may get
 * make sure you are using a good gauge of wire, and not any more than you need (trim off all excess)

Personally, I would crimp, and then use enough solder to penetrate and fill in any gaps in the connections (some people claim solder joints are brittle, but most of those posts are referring to surface mount applications... heck, even a heavy power cable uses a solder slug to attach the large terminal).

I had a little extra heat from the fuse wire, but a little solder fixed it (one of the crimps wasn't as good as it could have been - and I'm using a nice crimper)

Also, no maxi fuse or micro fuses - I got a nice fuse holder from eastern beaver, it has a nice surface connection.... still an ATO type.... I run the bike, feel for heat, it gets just as warm as the battery beneath it. There is some resistance at the fuse, so the better of a connection the fuse holder has, the better off you are (the 630 metripack series fuse holders are great - larger connection surface, and the larger fuse dissipates more heat)

An alternative might be to crimp ring connections, and use one of those 12V inline breakers... there are some that auto-reset, some are manual, some require power to be removed to reset.... the bonus is you can use the nice ring connections and threaded posts to get a good connection. You can get them at most marine supply stores.

[Danny955i]

I did everything properly.

Soldered all connections, heat-shrinked the outside for protection, yadda yadda.

Fuse is a regular-sized automotive fuse (3/4") and it was a 30A, which was recommended. The fuse holder is a rubber style, not the "fancy plastic w/cover" style...

So... I think I may just need to hack it up and replace everything, or just plug in the regulator/rectifier normally, and be safe.

I plugged the bike into TuneECU, cleared the check engine codes (Coolant Temperature Gauge Failure/Short to Ground), and started the bike... soon as it hit 103 degrees C, the fan kicked on no issues, didn't throw another code.

Checked the fuse again and it was HOT HOT. Quickly shut off bike.

Checked ground/battery, all's well. So, it's probably something in the connection harness to the R/R. Under the tank.

[walker]

I have had the fuseholders be bad as well - even the larger diameter wire and the 630 metripack gets just a bit warmer than the surroundings.

sounds like some resistance somewhere in the wire. The metripack fuse holder, you use your own wire and crimp the ends - not the molded ones I have seen in other places. The larger diameter wire I used seems to be fine.

If a wire, or section of wire was hot to the touch, I replaced the ends / any fuse holders (or in my case fuse holder connections). After 3 connections were repaired, it no longer gets hot.

Even with a nice crimper you can run into problems.... I have a really decent one too (wiha porta crimp with some fancy dies)

I still want to explore using one of those circuit breakers.... I bet that would fix a lot of these problems.

[oxnsox]

Pretty much agree with Walker.If you Fuse Holder is getting Hot then replace it.
The only reason anything electrical gets hot is because it has too much power running thru it. So it's either 'under-rated' for the job, or (more likely) has poor internal connections that can't handle the power. (which means its rating is wrong).

A Breaker as Walker suggests is a great idea. I've used these breakers a lot.http://bluesea.com/category/3/10/productline/overview/150 in boats and vehicles.

Personally I'm not a fan of crimp-solder... If you have the correct tool for the crimp, and the correct cable for the crimp then any crimp connection won't have any room for solder. But it's the next best thing.

[Danny955i]

Well, as I said, its all getting replaced. It mustve been the rubber fuse mounting.. It was hot enough to melt the fuse itself... The prongs were welded in-place.