You Let The Smoke Out!

For the last week or so endo and I have been learning about motorcycle charging system. What does this mean? Well our instructor, Brad Chorney has a single overruling principle that guides every action in class. "Electrical components - all of them - have smoke trapped inside. So long as you keep that smoke inside your stuff will work. If you let the smoke out, it won't work anymore." The whole class has subscribed to this theory and we're progressing rapidly.

On the Thursday before spring break we decided to test Project: Darkside to make sure that everything was peachy keen. Battery voltage, amperage drain, and most of the wiring all checked out nice and clean. All the lights functioned, the starter started and the horn horned.

However when it came time to check the AC voltage output of the three coils we ran into something interesting.

We were both rather shocked at what we found in there, but rather then leaping to conclusions we decided to investigate a little more.

After 10 minutes of fighting with the darn connector we realized that it was fused shut... literally melted together. Okay this seems bad, but hopes remain high.

One solid tug revealed this. And we promptly did what any bike owner (or mechanic for that matter) worth his salt would do in this situation. Freak the FUCK OUT!

Fast forward five minutes and a whole bunch of words our respective mommies don't know that we know and we were able to look at the problem with a somewhat level head. Meaning I kicked endo in the knees until he was at eye level for me.





Endo decided that suicide was the only option and hauled out the razorblade but missed his wrist and cleaned up the connection a little bit he got his finger though, see the mechanic's bandaid? Five minutes of cutting allowed us to disconnect the plugs. It was UGLY in there, I've not seen that much burning/corrosion in a long time.

At about this time we enlisted the help of our instructor Brad (who is a journeyman electrician in addition to being a journeyman motorcycle mechanic) for his expert advice. A quick assessment indicated that while the connector was pooched (like I had to tell you that) and although the wires were cooked for quite a bit of their length it was not overly bad.
In a matter of minutes the old connector was gone and a new set of waterproof ones were installed. We lacked a triple connector plug like the one that was originally installed so instead three separate connectors were put in place. Disaster averted, but we owe the original owner a friendly visit.
I guess we figured out why the battery didn't like to hold a charge. We're real mickiniks now.














In other news the charging system on my bike was perfect. Go Honda!!!