No power, keeps blowing 30a fuse.

The r/r is on the right side near the front. It has (should have) two connectors, one with three large wires and another with either two wires or three smaller wires. Usually has some fins cast on it and is usually covered in road dust. Two of those wires go directly to the battery positive. One through a large fuse the other through a small one (5amp on my 6th gen). If you have a third wire from that connector then it should go to the keyswitch and the unit is grounded by a screw and the back plate. The other connector with three large wires crosses to the other side and goes to the stator (fancy name for the alternator, though our charging system is considered uncontrolled so dont use car knowledge as a base. Doesnt work quite the same).
Un plug both connectors and then put your meter on resistance/continuity (use the beep setting as that works best). Be careful, one side of the fuse goes to battery positive, the other goes to the harness. Make sure you put a probe only on the harness side, else you will be buying a meter again. The other probe can go to any ground including battery negitive, though disconnect the battery first. Now that it is set up. It should be all quiet, if it is beeping at you then you have a harness short. If you have a short then simply unwrap the harness and find it, look for burnt wire. Your nose can also help find it. Once found, use heat shrink tube and a small length of same size wire, min 6inches long though I usually use 10. Never use butt-splices, the proper way is to expose 1.5 inches and wrap the ends around each other so that the wire is inline with the splice. Then solder with a good iron of about 50 to 65w using electronics solder, pipe solder uses acid for flux so dont use it. Slide heat shrink tube ove so that iy covers the splice by 0.5 inches on each end then shrink it to seal. Do the same for the other end, cutting out the burnt section.

If no short found then plug in just the harness side of the r/r. Now it may not beep so reverse the test probes. It may beep for a quick sec but then stop, this is normal and should be ignored. Only listen for continuous beeping. If it doesnt beep then its fine, if it does replace r/r as they are non repairable by the layman. Some are coming sealed with a security seal type lacquer and are non repairable period.
If no beep then plug in stator, if it beeps now then you have a short between the r/r and the stator or in the stator. Unplug stator and set the meter to resistance x1 mode and then post resistances between each lead pairs and each lead to ground. Some bikes have a connector just above the stator that connects to a harness to go to the r/r try disconnecting there as well and testing the harness again. My bike had a spot wear a hole in this harness as it crossed over. This caused a short that was intermittent and blew fuses.

Happy hunting

 

fluke or Beckman I would recommend

 

Even a 20$ crappytire meter will work just fine for what a home or prrofessional mechanic does. Its not like you are tracing and fixing the computer (oh wait the crappy dvm can do that too). For what I use as a telecom engineer, a cheap 50$ meter that can read resistance, ac dc and pwm % plus checks small transistors and displays hfe during test. And it even does capacitance, covers way more than a fluke or other professional meter at 1/5th the cost......

Rant done, I suggest the use of a dvm as it give an easy way to read 1/10th of a volt which is important, but there are things an analogue meter is way better for so you should have one too.

Dont be too cheap but also dont buy an expensive meter just because. It must have a very specific reason to be that expensive. Imho just go to canadian tire or equivalent and get a mastercraft meter. That way when you break it your noy out 200$ or more.

 

That's the starter relay switch

The pink 4-pin connector plugs in to the starter relay switch, the housing of which contains the 30 amp fuse. This is not the rectifier or the R/R (rectifier/regulator), although the r/w wire into the 4-pin connector comes directly from the R/R and is the line that charges the battery.

You need to find the R/R and inspect for burnt wires and terminal lugs and plastic connectors there also.

You need at least a cheap ass $5 voltmeter from harburd freight in order to measure battery voltage and regulator output after replacing all the burnt parts.

 

I beg to differ, if it does not have at least 1 meg ohm input impedemce then it is garbage

 

Whom or what are you disagreeing to?

As for input impedance, 1 megohm is nothing. Most cheapy dvm have at least 10meg input and ability to reliably meausre 1meg to .01% accuracy. But this is not an engineering site nor the place to argue semantics of test equipment.

Suffice to say, just get a meter that does 300v ac/dc, x100k ohm, 10amp current and diode check (this is continuity check) and that meter will do 98% of what you need to do. The rest is simply just knowing what to test any why.

 

Here is everything you need to know to choose a basic dvm/dmm for simple work. http://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&sourc...4YCIBw&usg=AFQjCNHtOlsGQyB54n_mA71wfjvqqnMicA

 

For the record I own 4 multi-meters, a Fluke, a Radio Shack pocket meter (still going after 15+ years), a Harbor Freight "special" and one I got at Fry's electronics. The RS I carry in my computer bag, the Fluke with all my test gear, the Harbor Freight in my office and the Fry's one in my toolbox. That aside, I agree with Zen, let's concentrate on helping Mike.

Cheers!

 

1st thing, you need a new R/R, get a Mosfit one, Google it as I dont wana go thru the explanation and I am not an electrical engineer! All R/R work shunting excess power to earth (ground.) The Mosfit one is more robust, I was looking at some hi-fi amplifiers and was surprised to see that they use this technology too.

2nd, You need to cut off that block connector and use female spade connectors that will plug into your starter relay. Take a piece of paper, or cocktail napkin and draw yourself a little electrical schematic of the position of the wires based on colour, this way when you cut off the fried oot block, you will know which wire goes where with regards to the starter relay. I ran with this set up for a few years.

Thats basically it. Keep your battery juiced with a trickle charger. I use an Optimate aboot once or so a week, and take it off after its fully up. My bike gets ridden every week or so, so the battery stays charged.

More pictures of fried or destroyed parts are always appreciated too yah know, good luck and cheers...

 

Go to roadstercycle.com for your MOSFET R/R:

"Although the Mosfet is still a shunting type regulator which means (in layman terms) it takes all the extra juice that is not used by your motorcycle electronics and gets rid of it by grounding it to the frame or negative side of the battery. The great thing about the Mosfet R/R is that it has up to date technology. It uses Mosfet style transistors. The old diode types found on most motorcycles today are 60s technology. The up todate technology lets the regulator perform substantially better and run cooler."

More sage advice from research:

"Most any charging problem starts with defective wiring, and then one by one the expensive components start to fail. That's usually when you find out something is wrong. But do not make the common mistake of replacing the faulty component and leave it at that!"

http://www.thegsresources.com/garage/gs_statorfail.htm

How many posts have you seen where guys replaced stator and it failed again a month or two later? Make sure all wiring is 100% before spending a small fortune on a new stator and R/R.

I have a Fluke network analyzer great stuff, but a RS meter will do just fine, have one in my tool box.

 

Heat is the main enemy, there was a reason why we used to call them "diode-cookers." Everything gets hot on these bikes, finning on the unit helps.

 

You guys are a great help thanks for that. I took off of work today so ill start testing everything. I have a yellow maultimeter that's been laying around for years with a blown fuse.. How ironic. Ill test as much as I can and also unwrap parts of the harness and check it out. I need to learn how to use a DMM first hah.

 

0 OHMs = Dead short. Check DC Voltages, set range to next larger number than 12 (mine is 30 volts)

 

Welcome aboard Mike. That's the way to start off a membership - with crispy wires. Now you can fit right in.

 

Google idea multimeter basics and they have a pdf that runs through how to use any multimeter at a basic level. Remember, your only doing basic tests, not diagnosing a mainboard.