The Famous Aprilia Failed Brown Connector! Regulator Connector Fix.

[Smithers]

SO it finally happened to me. My battery had been slowly running out of juice and if I didn't have it connected to the Battery Tender then it would lose power after 5-6 days. Not that is discharges. The system just wasn't charging much while riding. I can't say if it can't keep up with the increased draw from the HID light I installed, but it should. I had visually checked my brown connector before I installed the HID and it looked ok. The wires just looked dirty to me and I didn't think they were discolored from heat. I was wrong.

I had taken a spill a year ago and I had torn down the bike for all the work I had done. So the connector was disconnected and connected a couple of times. Things worked fine for 3-4,000 miles until recently. I did have some problems in the past starting my bike in the middle of a day's ride. The engine would crank but not fire. This is what happens when the battery gets low and just doesn't have enough power to turn the engine over as well as fire the 2 pairs of spark plugs at the same time.

Here is a look at the connector as it has heated up so much that I wasn't able to pull it apart like normal. I had to use a screwdriver to pry it apart and the release tab actually broke out as it was melted.



Time to take care of this!

[Smithers]

Here is a dead giveaway your connector is bad. It's old! Plus from my example the yellow wire sheathing has discolored with a brown tint.

[Smithers]

Now here is a look at the brown connector cracked open. I used a Dremel to cut it open nice and easy. I HIGHLY recommend you bring out your Dremel to have on hand for cutting the connector apart as well as to cut the male and female pins that are crimped onto the wires.

Mark the wires with matching lines or dots to easily tell which wires go together.

[Smithers]

As you can see in the above picture the pins don't make much contact with each other when the are connected. Judging by the size of the wires you can see that there is a lot of constant energy going through them and the connectors are anything but adequate in my eyes. I have pondered what types of connectors to replace them with. I don't see myself removing the regulator anytime soon and if I do I have no problem cutting the wires back and using connectors that I might decide on. The wires aren't so clean looking but I broke out the flux and the soldering iron to get ready to fuse them together anway. I didn't cut them back for cleaner wire as I didn't want to do that unless I had connectors to crimp on. The wires are short enough as it is and a soldered connection will easily be good enough, even with these crappy wire ends.

[Smithers]

This is a pretty boring topic and it's time to add some color. As an intermission topic here is the quickest way I take off my rear cowl from the fairly large rear passenger subframe. I just remove the tail light (4 screws) and let it hang. Then I remove the four bolts underneath the cowl and the seat of course. I prefer to remove the seat lock side since it's easier to pull it out and away from the lock than it is the big ol' regulator which is on the right.



My rear bodywork easily flexes and pulls out over the seat lock. Then I lift that up while keeping an eye on the right side for anything that might snag.



Then the rear cowl simply pulls further over from left to right and you just have to keep an eye on anything that might scratch. The first couple times removing this it took me a little while to scratch my head and do it. Now it takes a few seconds.

[Smithers]

Now it's time to get the soldering tools prepped. I got my trusty SA1000 out and red hot. These big wires soak up SO much heat that you must have a really hot iron to maintain the heat so that the solder will saturate the copper. The flux helps clean out the copper wire and allow the solder to get a better grasp of things. The heat gun will shrink the heat shrink tubing for the finish work.

[Smithers]

Here are the connectors I cut off the wires with the Dremel. That tool really makes nice cuts so taking the crimped connectors off really doesn't take long. The hard to see corrosion is just bound to happen on everyone's bikes.

[Smithers]

A couple shots of the crud wires being soldered together. Not so pretty but it will work a hundred times better. When you push the strands together they like to fray out so I took a strand of copper from a piece of wire and twisted it around the strands and turned them with surgical pliers. Being twisted together like safety wire twists it really helped pull all the wires together for soldering. It's the only way to go.



Once soldered you can cut away any strands or twist off any wires that were used to safety wire the strands together. If you need to grind down any barbs or sharp wires sticking out with your Dremel or a file so they don't stick through the heat shrink.

[Smithers]

Here we are all done and shrink wrapped.



I had some sticky side foam padding I had installed previously. Wrapping the wires closely and securing them will keep them out of the way for a long time.

[Smithers]

Now it's time to install my carbon fiber rear cowl instead of the mean fluorescent one I just took off.

[Smithers]

Hows it working so far. FREAKIN AWESOME!!

Here is you guys' answer: The charging system isn't keeping up your bikes battery charge. This wears them out and you will have problems. This is due to the brown connectors that is right in front of the regulator located on the back right side of the bike under the rear cowl. Even if it looks good it's still causing havoc. REPLACE IT or SOLDER the wires together and you won't have any more problems.

I had every single electrical problem everyone talks about. - gotta go don't have time to finish this post until later.