Recently I was having troubles with my charging system, so I somewhat pinned it down to the rectifier. When i pulled the old one off, one of the yellow wires (from the stator) had melted the wiring harness. So i replaced the rectifier and the harness, rode it for about 2 weeks and everything was going great.

Now out of the blue i pulled up to a stop sign and the bike's power just totally shut off- headlight and all. Then the lights came back on and i could start right up. But now i when i try to get the bike into first gear (1-3 mph) the power just shuts all the way off and the bike dies. It idles fine, just shuts down as i start to move.

I pulled the rectifier off and it was oozing a little "white paste," and one of the yellow wires (a different one from before) has melted the harness slightly. Any help at all? When it comes to electrical stuff I'm pretty much in the dark.

Drew

 

I would wonder two scenerios:
if you have a short somewhere...making it draw a lot of power.
or if the stator windings are bad somehow and cranking out too much voltage and frying the rectifier that way.

I don't have a service manual...it should tell you how much voltage to test for out of the stator and rectifier when the bike is idling. Actually it might be resistence you test for. I'd recommend you get a $20 manual off ebay, and go get a $20 digital voltmeter from sears or radio shack or your local hardware store.

The three yellow wires going into the rectifier are from the stator and are an AC voltage, the red and green (black sometimes) are ground and positive and make 14+/- volts DC.

The white paste on the back of the rectifier is heat transfer compound. The rectifier is mounted to an aluminum plate, and the paste helps it transfer its heat to that aluminum plate...without the paste, it will fry. Its normal for there to be a little of that around the edges....you notice that the newer bikes use a rectifier thats has fins on the housing these days....less fuss, no mess, more reliable.

You could adapt a rectifer from an cbr600 F1 (hurricane)...they are more robust....but I suspect you have a problem to fix first.

 

you can actually get a rectifer from alot of other bikes.
I actually have a gsxr? maybe on mine. It is a hell of alot bigger with cooling fins.
almost all rectifiers have the same color wires going to them to.
If you replace it replace it with one with cooling fins.

 

Most of the rectifier wires are NOT the same colour, Honda are diferent to yams and suzukis & Kwaks

Have you checked the output from the stator?? you should be getting 50v A/C out of all 3 yellow wires

Also it's worth checking the starter relay mounted on the left side of the bike under the seat/fuel tank.. make sure the terminals aren't green and crusty,

 

My friend had the same problem on his F1. He went from point to point and figured out that it was the VOLTAGE REGULATOR. I personally do not think the stator was ever bad but the VOLTAGE REGULATOR is bad.

 

Update-

I finally fixed the problem. After my initial problem (read above entry) i bought a new rectifier and installed it. For a while i had no problems, then my bike started losing all electrical power, lights and everything. From there i knew it had to be a short somewhere which caused the initial burnout of my rectifier. After searching the bike some and not finding much, i went to roll it back into the garage and noticed that when i turned the handle bars i could hear an electric spark and the lights would flash on briefly. Turns out on of the wires on the back of my ignition switch had broked at the solder joint. Quick fix- resoldered the damn thing and now runs like a champ again. Good thing i didn't end up taking it into a shop for something that easy.

Thanks for everyone's help on this.