Wife was out riding her '86 Savage with me last fall and engine died and would not restart.  Got off the road and opened the battery side cover and immediately noticed low electrolyte in every cell of the battery.  A couple were very low, but plates were exposed in all but one cell.  Battery was a few years old and I confess I do not check it regularly.  Called the nearest Walmart and went to pick up a replacement battery.  

After installing new battery the bike started right up and we headed for our destination.  End of story....Nope!  After we finished lunch we got on the bikes and went home.  When we got there my wife was just ahead of me and waited for the garage door to open and the bike went to idle and just died.  Would not restart. Checked the battery and it was nearly dead.  Pulled the battery and put it on the float charger.

Well, with the crappy winter we have just had the last thing on my mind was working on cycles.  Finally we have a nice day today so I opened garage door to put some light on the situation and start my investigation.  I pulled off the seats and started looking at the rectifier and the connectors.  The connector with the RED, BLACK, and ORANGE wire was toasted on the black side.  

I could actually see exposed metal on the back of the male side of the connector and initially thought it had backed out of the housing and shorted on the metal of the rear fender.  But there was no sign of any arcing or burns on the fender.

It was plain to see the both halves of the plastic connector would have to be replaced since they were burnt clear through on the black side.  So I used some cutters on the plastic to free up the metal connectors inside.  When I was done I was surprised to see the male side of the black wire was actually all there.  It was black (just like the female side) but wasn't burnt away like I initially thought.

So I made all the connections and clipped them up so they could not short against each other or something else.  Then I installed the battery and fired the bike up.  No problem so far.  I don't have a tach so I cannot say for sure I revved the engine up to 5000rpm for testing, but I was getting 14.3-14.5v at the battery with the engine really humming along as fast as I was comfortable with for a 24 year old bike. I get comparable readings from the red rectifier wire.

After testing that I decided to try testing the alternator output.  Supposed to be 100v AC between all 3 yellow wires.  Not sure I did that right though because I was up to around 65v AC and the motor died.  I had the multimeter set for 200v AC with the black connector on one yellow wire and the red on another.  This sorta freaked me out a little since I was afraid I just fried something.  Reconnected the yellow wires and the bike started right up.

At each stage during the testing I noticed the black rectifier wire became hot to the touch.  So did the red one, but not as hot as the black.  Since there is no way for the home mechanic to test the rectifier, what should I do next?  I am fairly suspicious of the rectifier and feel pretty sure it it the culprit.

Maybe another member could check the same connector on their bike to see if it gets hot after runnng the bike for a short period of time.  I am talking about 1 minute run time at the most.

Thanks for the reply.  I'll go over the wiring closely tomorrow and see if there are any visible problems.

I did not see the post just before this until after I got it fixed.  Or at least I think it is fixed.  Previously I did test the voltage on the black wire and if I remember correctly it was -.54v.  

In the end I believe the male spade connector had come loose and was slowly backing itself out of the plastic housing.  Once it got far eough away from the other half it started arcing which burned up the plastic body of the connector.  When I first separated the two halves of the connector I actually thought the male part had been burned away.  After I busted up the connector to get the wires out I found the male spade was blackened but no shorter than the one for the red wire and it certainly did not appear to be melted or actually burnt.

So I went to Autozone today and purchased some nice weather proof connectors, cut off the old fittings, and put the new ones in place.  Fired up the bike and was still getting acceptable charging readings at the battery terminals so I took it out cruising the neighborhood.   After 30 minutes of riding went back home and pulled the seat off to take a look.

Wires looked great and they were not the slightest bit warm,  I believe the arcing had caused the black wire connectors to become glazed or carbonized or something which made for poor conductivity.  If I actually checked the voltage now, I bet I might get a different reading too.

We may go for a ride tomorrow, so we'll see what happens next.  If I get a chance I'll check that voltage on the black wire too.

mistereman1 wrote on 03/27/10 at 19:45:39:


Yep, that would do it.  Even old age will do it eventually.

To prevent this, use a bit of dielectric grease in the connectors.  They sell it at most auto parts places.

Joe

I'm glad this turned out to be a cheap fix for what started out as a mystifying problem.  I will definitely grab some of the grease next time I am parts store.  The replacement connectors are 3 individual ones, but they seem to be high quality and really click together tightly.  This makes me think they will last a long time.

Can't really complain too much about the OEM connector though; it lasted 24 years!!  

Two great things about the LS650:

1.  Easy to work on
2.  SuzukiSavage.com