Story of the Alternator, Rectifier & Connector Inbetween

In full red-faced shame, I unearthed my 83 750 Maxim from my father's driveshed exactly 3 weeks ago. It had sat there for a little over 12 years (job/marriage/kids/divorce/etc all got in the way). Life's back on track now and so should be my bike.

It runs, new tires & painted tank.. all is good. However, the one wire harness connector right below the seat, almost riding beside the fuse panel (next project.. I know), is a rather cooked connector with 3 wires (originally all white), that lead down to the alternator. One wire has burnt completely off.

My question is this : if the alternator puts out AC on 3 wires, to the rectifier, which converts it to DC (and only +voltage DC), does the order of the wires make any difference ? I cannot even get the connector appart, so can I cut the 3 wires, and connect them directly together ? And would it matter if I don't necessarily get the original pairings ?

Any insight is gladly appreciated. PS: I checked that the battery is indeed receiving additional volts when the bike is running... up to 13.5 or so.

 

You are right sir - pairing is unimportant. They can be connected in any fashion.

 

No particular order is necessary, just don't run the bike with the lead off. It'll mess up the rectifier! You may have dodged a bullet with the voltage you are seeing but it should be producing 14.2-14.7 volts at 2000rpm.
Go ahead and hack into that blob and splice the wires back together. Don't worry about matching parings, just get them together, one for one.
Good luck!

 

Thank you, gentlemen. The bike hasn't run for long, or hard at all, so I am hoping the rectifier is alright. I should be on the road by this weekend...

PS: This site has been exceptionally helpful. Thanks to all.

 

As instructed, I carved out the hunk of plastic that used to be a connector assembly and butt-spliced the wires together. Promptly read 14.5 V at the battery. Problem solved. Thanks fellas.

Within minutes, I was headed down the road for the first time since the fall of 1995. That bike purred like it had just come out of the factory, with me as giddy as a kid at Christmas.

 

Yeah team! One more bike on the road again!