Motorcycle Repair: charging system, shadow vt1100c, regulator rectifier

Question
Hey Rich, I have a 1988 honda shadow vt1100c with charging problem. I have no voltage output. I found an overheat condition in the wiring harness connector for the stator. Looks to me ot be a bad connection that overheated not stator overheat. this connection is at 18 inches from stator. I cut out the 3 way connector and hard wired using solder. Then rechecked charge system. still not charging. My question is what unit is most likly to fail,,the vr or the stator?


Answer
That was a pretty common problem on those bikes.  I've had to replace all of those connectors on my 84 and 85 Hondas. Well, either one could go bad but it pretty easy to check the stator.  Take a VOM and measure the resistance between each of the three stator wires.  They should have about the same resistance and none should have continuity to ground.  If that checks out, it's not the stator. You're probably looking a a regulator/rectifier problem.

Regards,
Rich