will england :: motorcycle notes and tips
will england :: motorcycle notes and tipsWhen replacing the burnt wires and connectors, you need to make both a good electrical and mechanical joint. The best way I know of to insure both is to solder the connection and use heat-shrink tubing. I assume you have a soldering iron or gun of some sort. Use only 'electronic' solder (the kind that is "rosin core")! Get some shrink tubing of appropriate diameters... I would get some that is ~3/16" unshrunk, maybe 1/4" for the individual wires, and some larger for the whole repair area, get some that is about 1" unshrunk, large enough to go over the whole thing. First, go back on the burnt wire as far as is necessary to get past all the burned insulation. Be sure this is not too far for the length of the wire in the connector replacement kit, though. Cut and strip the wire for about 1/2" to 3/4". Have a similar amount cut and stripped back on the connector replacement kit's matching wire pieces. Thread all the wires together through a piece of the 1" shrink tubing that is about 6 or 8 inches long. Then thread each individual wire with a piece about 3 inches long of the smaller (3/16" or so) shrink tubing. I'd thread all of these onto the bike side of the wires, if you have enough free wire. Push the shrink tubing up the wire out of the way for now... Spread the wire strands out on each bike harness wire and its matching connector replacement kit wire, lay them on each other and twist them together. I'd do one at a time... you need to have some kind of interlacing. Twist the wires so they hang together. Solder the twisted area, make sure you melt in enough solder to fill the whole area, and that it gets well melted in, you don't want a 'cold solder' joint. After the soldered connection is cooled, use a wet rag or sponge to wipe off any flux residue from near the solder joint. Then push the small-diameter shrink tubing over the soldered connection, until it is centered inside the tubing. I use one of those hot-air guns to shrink the tubing. Do this with each wire that you are replacing. The shrink tubing should support the wire and go from insulation on one side to insulation on the other side, with about a 1" overlap with the wire insulation. You need to hold the wire so there isn't a lot of flexing where the soldered area meets the stranded wire. When you've soldered and individually shrunk-tubed the wires, align them all next to each other and push the large-diameter longer piece of shrink tubing over the whole bundle. Shrink it down, sealing all the individually shielded connections, then zip-tie the 'blob' in place where it won't get vibration or excessive heat. Probably back in the place where the factory harness would have routed is fine. You should have a solid and lasting repair that will not lose excessive juice in connection load. Crimp connectors are not as reliable electrically or mechanically, although they can be useful if you get the bare metal kind and then fill them with solder afterward. That would be an alternative to fanning and twisting the wires together. FWIW, you can do this to the crimped connections on the factory wire harness if you want to... pull the little lugs out of the connectors, release them with a tiny screwdriver of the special tools you can get. Flood the crimped area with solder, then push the lug back into the connector shell. I think its funny that Honda doesn't admit to any reg/rect problems, but they have a 'connector repair kit'... -- Jim Brokaw Mon, 09 Sep 2002
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