A good reason to check your bike over...

[VTRamen]

Surprise! Melty mess...

Hello - thought I'd post this up to the rider safety part of the site. This serves a reminder to check your bike over once and a while. I was thinking today that I hadn't checked the coolant level for a while, so took off the side cover to take a gander under there and see what's up... (I haven't noticed any change in the operation of the bike at all over the past while, but figured I should give things a quick going over anyway.)

Well, the coolant level was A-O-K, but then I noticed that I had a "slight" problem with the Reg/Rec connectors... (see pics)

It didn't take long to fix, but is certainly a lot easier to do at home with all my tools and supplies at hand than it would out on the road somewhere.

Peace out and keep your rubbers right side down.

[John Hilmer]

Yep,

Good advice.

Though I think this is a bit odd. Most failures I've seen are at the connector pins.

Most folks cut out the connector and add about 6" of wire, all soldered and heat shrink insulated.

John

[squirrelman]

The best place to check coolant level is under the radiator cap. Coolant overflow bottle may OR MAY NOT correspond to the system's fluid level.

[VTRamen]

Good point! Will get right on that!

[VTRamen]

Was looking over my past posts and am happy to report that this issue has not (knock on wood) reared its ugly head again.

[John Hilmer]

Greg,

It is certainly a good thing to hear that your repair is holding and that all is well on that front.

However, you didn't really say what you did to resolve the resistance/melting issue.

Could you enlighten us?

John

[VTRamen]

I actually purchased a completely different connection entirely - it was one for a trailer, I think. The main thing was to get something that would provide for a solid connection. I think that part of the reason that the previous connection failed was because something had come loose. I had tried to get connectors that were the same as the original ones, but obviously something wasn't right with the set up.