1989 FJ1200 Not holding/building a charge

[fj johnnie]

...9 hours standing in a permanent cloud of dust...

Nasal filters. Paper or foam?   

Don't get him started.

[FJGiddyUpGirl]

Holy cow gang!!!  Thanks for all the awesome suggestions.  The FJ and I are going to sit down today and have a conversation about her issues  I will go through each part that ya'll suggested and I'll let you know what I find. I had her on a trickle charger so the battery should be full for accuracy. Changing out the front brakes today too.

Thanks again for all the direction. 

[FJGiddyUpGirl]

Welcome Kris, too bad you don't live closer or I could help you with your new FJ. I just picked up an '89 myself after owning an '86 for the last 18 years. Don't just look at the connector, pull it apart. Mine looked mostly normal till I cracked it open.

Looks good on the outside....



But melted on the inside...




The fix is simple, cut the offending connector off and crimp on new spade connectors. Make sure you mate the connectors so you can't miss-connect them. Each side gets one each male and female connector. This helps if you ever need to pull them apart in the future. 

Keep posting, we will help you get your FJ sorted out and running in the Kookaloo zone... Just in time for the West Coast Rally.

Ok... here's what I have.  Looks like they attempted to repair. Red wire was loose as hell and not really connected.  Fixed that. Back to good.  Now..... what about the above clip. The plastic is destroyed but the fittings look good ..

[Pat Conlon]

Looks can be deceiving. Did you ohm check while wiggling the wires? The male/female connectors could be ok but with that type damage, the crimp connection between the wire and terminal could be cooked.

Personally, I would change it, be done with it.

[FJGiddyUpGirl]

I am changing out the fried connector. As for the alt. positive.  It fell right out of the fitting. I see the similarity in colors of the wires coming from the alternator so I'm going to do the reverse male / female trick so there is no chance of mixing them up later on.

Thanks for the help!!!

[Pat Conlon]

Good for you Kris. That way, you will never be in doubt as to the quality of the connections.

As much as I like to torment Noel, we all acknowledge that he is a very smart fellow. His suggestion about where you put that female connector is a good one. If I recall correctly, that red power wire is hot on the battery side of the connection, so put the shielded female connector on that side so you don't accidently ground it to the frame if or when you ever need to take the connection apart in the future.

[FJmonkey]

Good for you Kris. That way, you will never be in doubt as to the quality of the connections.

As much as I like to torment Noel, we all acknowledge that he is a very smart fellow. His suggestion about where you put that female connector is a good one. If I recall correctly, that red power wire is hot on the battery side of the connection, so put the shielded female connector on that side so you don't accidently ground it to the frame if or when you ever need to take the connection apart in the future.

Pat, both sides of the spade terminals are fully insulated in my picture, other than the connection opening. If the male spade connector is not insulated, then Noel is spot on with his recommendation. There is another good reason for full insulation on both terminals, they help hold them together as a second friction lock.

[Pat Conlon]

Mark, I know you used shielded m/f spade connectors, per your pict. Those are good...

[FJmonkey]

Mark, I know you used shielded m/f spade connectors, per your pict. Those are good...

I probably should not provide any information that diffuses your chances of tormenting Noel.... I ask for forgiveness...

[ribbert]

Pat, both sides of the spade terminals are fully insulated in my picture, other than the connection opening. If the male spade connector is not insulated, then Noel is spot on with his recommendation. There is another good reason for full insulation on both terminals, they help hold them together as a second friction lock.

Mark, yours may well be and that solves the problem, but insulated male terminals are not common and not what most folks have laying around.

As sure as the sun coming up tomorrow, people will do that mod with standard connectors.

And then there is the simple task of attaching them properly. Ha, easy you may say, well, clearly not for everyone. It is disturbingly common when disconnecting them to find the wire pulls out of the terminal with virtually no resistance. It is also common to find where the insulation is not held in the terminal that many of the strands are broken from movement, or the connectors themselves not a tight fit etc.

Almost all the old cars I work have had many owner fitted electrical add ons. Indicators, brake lights, fuel pumps, instruments, lights, alternators and so on, all done with spade connectors. The general standard of fitting of these simple little things is poor.

It is easy to assume when giving advice that the people taking it have your own skill level and common sense, they don't.

The other risk of spade terminals is that you might use them for some other purpose in the same vicinity and still end up with the risk of an incorrect connection. That's why every connector block on the bike, even if they all only have two wires, is a different shape.

Pedantic? Maybe, but there are many standard practices I was taught that are ingrained, one of them was to idiot proof wiring.

Noel

[FJGiddyUpGirl]

Alright. .... here's what I did. Now mind you I have minimal experience with a multimeter.  I can figure out the logic of it.

Battery sitting is at 12
Started at 2000 rpm. 10
Disconnected from battery, not running, stator has a om of 500
Disconnected from battery, running,  minimal z~.

Logic tells me that the volts should go up at 2000 rpm. And that the stator should be sending out something significant.  

I think I need to open the stator and see if I can clean it up or rebuild it?

[Tapartacus]

Any luck with your charging issue? I'm having the same problem, would love to know how this turned out.

Andrew

[sooptime]

I have had the same issue. Battery died (new battery). Did research. Ordered and installed regulator from Randy at RPM. Shop recharged battery for me. Battery now in the bike.

Now I'm needing to know what the voltage should be at the terminals at idle and rpm. Anyone have some knowledge or a link to the info? Until then I'll keep searching.

[racerrad8]

Idle will be battery voltage and 14v, 28a @ 5K

Randy - RPM

[sooptime]

Idle will be battery voltage and 14v, 28a @ 5K

Randy - RPM

Thanks Randy. Again, appreciate the help.  I am going to have to recheck and run it for a bit. When I installed the battery and started it up, the voltage seemed to drop a bit when I went to 3k. If it's dropping, aside from the red connector issue, my charge system isn't doing it's job?