2500 miles from an OEM finned R/R?!? WTF???

Alright... This burns me.

Bought my bike in April, an pristine 15k example. Guy tells me that he just replaced the R/R after it crapped out on him last fall during a tour through NY state. "Cool." I think, well aware of the bike's Achilles heel. "I'm all set now."

Two weeks ago, I noticed that the VFR battery wasn't holding a charge. Knowing that the R/R had just been replaced less than 8 monhs ago, I figured it must be the battery. Dropped $45 on a new battery, had no issues for about a WEEK. Then, after a 15 mile work commute, and sitting 8.5 hours out in the sunshine, no start, just clicking. Dammit! Push started it, and noticed that the fuel light is now on. OK - ride to the gas station, and d'oh! Gotta shut it down to re-fuel. After contemplating on a still running bike for a few minutes, I shut it down and refuel. Of course it won't restart, and it gets the old push start. I get it going and ride the 15 miles back home.

Spend most of the next afternoon testing just about everything but the R/R, figuring that it coudn't possibly be bad. Stator checks out.Battery drain test checks out. No blown out fuses. No dead shorts anywhere. So I unplug the R/R to check the wiring from the stator to the R/R for a dead short or something else fishy...

I find the plug very difficult to remove, and once it's off, notice that pin #4 is burned pretty bad. Still salvageable, but toasted nicely. Pin #4 in the R/R is pretty melted, too, WTF? THIS IS THE RE-DESIGNED OEM R/R... IT SHOULD LAST LONGER THAN 10 MONTHS AND 2500 MILES, RIGHT??? Does Honda warranty parts? I doubt it as most parts stores don't have returns on electrical items...

So the thing must be pretty destroyed inside, based on the 1.976 M ohm reading (almost an open loop) and climbing. Finished killing it running juice through it with my meter. OL...

Anyone have any idea what could've caused this? I want to not spend $150 every 10 months on this bike...

 

Honda wiring where the r/r is concered is not the best. If the wire is melted then there is a higher resistance due to the continuity of the wire breaking down and becoming brittle somewhere. On my 93, I just bypassed the harness altogether as it appeard the OEM wiring was part of the problem. I ram 3 yellow wires (12ga I think) to the stator, a red 12ga + wire to the battery and a 10ga black wire to the - battery post. I also installed a Kuryakyn volt meter so I could keep an eye on the charging. It seemed to fix the charging issue as I did not have any problems after that. So yes, the r/r SHOULD last more than 2500 miles, but defective parts and other issues such as bad or degraded wiring can exacerbate the issue.

 

+1 to vman38....always take the wires from the R/R to battery and ground direct. Honda chinced out on the wiring size, and the crimp connections also add resistance. Don't cut the existing wires, just add to them for more flow possibilities.

 

Every connector will have a voltage drop of .1 volt if it is good. If that connection was not good for whatever reason, it will get hot and melt the plastic around it. It is that connection that was bad in your case, not the R/R. The R/R gets blamed for a lot of things, but is rarely the cause of the issue, just the victim.

 

A voltage drop of .1 would be excessive(think of the number of connections on the bike). .01 maybe? There will be some, but as long as there is still a connection it shouldn't be an issue. Cleaning the connectors is always a good thing, to provide the best shot at a good connection.

 

The .1v drop is considered acceptable. Does not matter how many total connectors there are on the bike, it is per circuit that matters. How many connectors on a single circuit are there (keeping in mind that the ground side is also in the circuit)? And the higher the drop at the connection will be due to increased resistance, and if you increase the resistance you will generate heat at the resistor.