Factory Electrical Pin Sizing

Fred W · Jul 18, 2009

As I mentioned in my Vacation Ride Report, I had an electrical connector mechanically fail just south of Punxsutawney, PA, of all places. One of the female electrical pins in the connector to the Starting Circuit Cut-off Relay physically broke in half, disabling the bike's ignition and starter systems:

Although I jammed the broken end of the connector back into the body and was able to ride the remaining 2 days to get home safe and sound, I am now researching a replacement pin for the connector. There is absolutely no help for any kind for electrical pins or connectors that I can find in the Yamaha parts lists. Remembering that some others have found this sort of thing in the Eastern Beaver web site catalog, here is what I assume these pins are: Eastern Beaver .090 connectors

I came to this conclusion based on visual similarities of the connector bodies, and also measuring the width of the male pins with a dial gauge says they are ~.090" wide, which I assume is what these .090" connectors are, though the technical specs and dimensions are conspicuously scarce on Eastern Beaver. The male pins on the bike appear to be a little different in that they are solid brass or gold plated, and are not a folded over construction like these. But I really only need the female side anyway as that is the side that broke on my bike.

Can any of you knowledgeable people out there confirm or deny for me that these are the connector pins that I need? Or if denied, where else I might look for the right pins?

Patriot · Jul 18, 2009

Fred W said:
As I mentioned in my Vacation Ride Report, I had an electrical connector mechanically fail just south of Punxsutawney, PA, of all places. One of the female electrical pins in the connector to the Starting Circuit Cut-off Relay physically broke in half, disabling the bike's ignition and starter systems:

Although I jammed the broken end of the connector back into the body and was able to ride the remaining 2 days to get home safe and sound, I am now researching a replacement pin for the connector. There is absolutely no help for any kind for electrical pins or connectors that I can find in the Yamaha parts lists. Remembering that some others have found this sort of thing in the Eastern Beaver web site catalog, here is what I assume these pins are: Eastern Beaver .090 connectors

I came to this conclusion based on visual similarities of the connector bodies, and also measuring the width of the male pins with a dial gauge says they are ~.090" wide, which I assume is what these .090" connectors are, though the technical specs and dimensions are conspicuously scarce on Eastern Beaver. The male pins on the bike appear to be a little different in that they are solid brass or gold plated, and are not a folded over construction like these. But I really only need the female side anyway as that is the side that broke on my bike.

Can any of you knowledgeable people out there confirm or deny for me that these are the connector pins that I need? Or if denied, where else I might look for the right pins?

I'm guessing you've thought of this; first, are you planning to replace both sides of the pins, i.e. male and female. I would and that would eliminate a perfect match need, and size to fit into the connector being the only question. I would assume pins are pins in connectors that size. I might pop out the broken pieces now, both sides, shoot a pic, and email it to eastern beaver for his observation with a quarter or something in the picture for visual size. I'm guessing he could see exactly what he has that would work. I know all this probably will take some time, but that procedure is what came to me in your situation.

Hope this helps some or somebody in the know themselves posts up soon.

Mike in Nawlins'

kurt · Jul 18, 2009

E-mail Eastern Beaver and see if he can help you size up the connector.

Edit: Nevermind, I see you already found him.

Zorlac · Jul 18, 2009

A matching pair of round military grade connector pins that fit, epoxied into the OEM Molex connector maybe?

If I was pissed enough, I'd just solder those two wires together and call it done.

stealth1 · Jul 18, 2009

Another solution would be to remove both sides from the molex and put them on a single wire plug you can get at any electronics or auto parts store.

Patriot · Jul 18, 2009

Zorlac said:
A matching pair of round military grade connector pins that fit, epoxied into the OEM Molex connector maybe?
If I was pissed enough, I'd just solder those two wires together and call it done.

well, yeah, agree one could just jump the wires on the outside of the connector with weather proof crimp connectors or even two positaps. I might go that route if frustrated enough, but I'm confident, at this juncture, that Fred is still trying to keep the bike's electricals the way it came from the factory, but if that one set of pins is different, & the connector is like factory functional, I would think that it's good to go.

Fred W · Jul 18, 2009

Thanks for all the alternative ideas guys. And I very well may incorporate one for a temporary patch (better than my "just jammed in" fix), but I would eventually like to get the connector repaired back to factory condition. I don't understand why Yamaha wouldn't list generic parts like these connector pins as I would imagine the need for these kind of parts has to come up fairly frequently.

[Edit] Come to think of it, I believe that this is the same size connector pin as those used in the auto-windshield retract cable. I vaguely remember a discussion about sourcing pins to be able to tap that connector for triggering a 12V accessory relay. Time to spin up the way-back machine (aka Google search engine).

I will remove the connector parts from the connector body and get some better pics and check with some resources, (including Eastern Beaver) on their availability.

By the way, maybe because I do this kind of system level electrical troubleshooting all the time at work, but for whatever reason when this connector failed it was a pretty low stress event. I managed to find the broken pin in about 15 minutes of troubleshooting and we were back on the road within 20 minutes or so.

buf2phx · Jul 18, 2009

Here's a crazy idea. Go to your local dealer and ask them to sell you the terminals.

Mike

Patriot · Jul 18, 2009

buf2phx said:
Here's a crazy idea. Go to your local dealer and ask them to sell you the terminals.Mike

and the crazy response will be "we can sell you the bike electrical harness..." :blink:

BkrK12 · Jul 18, 2009

Fred, Friendly local Yamaha dealer has those parts. When I had my "grounding block issue", it was a broken female pin. They had them in stock and put a new one on for me. My guess is, if you talk to the service guy and explain the problem nicely, they'll just give you one. The parts guy will spend 20 minutes not finding it in any of his documentation. Take the broken one with you. Dan

P.S. Try the people in Concord. Under the new regime, they are much more helpful. The people at Mom's can't find their ***** with both hands.

Fred W · Jul 18, 2009

BkrK12 said:
Fred, Friendly local Yamaha dealer has those parts. When I had my "grounding block issue", it was a broken female pin. They had them in stock and put a new one on for me. My guess is, if you talk to the service guy and explain the problem nicely, they'll just give you one. The parts guy will spend 20 minutes not finding it in any of his documentation. Take the broken one with you. Dan
P.S. Try the people in Concord. Under the new regime, they are much more helpful. The people at Mom's can't find their ***** with both hands.

Dan,

THANKS!! I will definitely do just that. It was such a wild idea I never considered it. Imagine that, going to a dealership for the correct parts...

v65 · Jul 18, 2009

Fred W said:
It was such a wild idea I never considered it. Imagine that, going to a dealership for the correct parts...

Yeah, our local dealer seems to be OK too. It's a bit irritating, having spent years collecting stories about awful dealerships it really pains me to find a decent one. :angry: :lol:

SCRider · Jul 20, 2009

Fred W said:
I came to this conclusion based on visual similarities of the connector bodies, and also measuring the width of the male pins with a dial gauge says they are ~.090" wide, which I assume is what these .090" connectors are, though the technical specs and dimensions are conspicuously scarce on Eastern Beaver.

I bought some 6 pin connectors (6 Position 090K-SMHM Connector,Item# 6P090K-SMHM) from Eastern Beaver to match up with the stock brake light plug and they are .090" pin versions. Yes, the pins are .090" wide. They fit perfectly and were identical to the stock connector. I would assume that Yamaha uses the same pins throughout but I could be wrong.

painman · Jul 20, 2009

If the dealer can't help I've had good luck with these guy's...... McMaster-Carr. And be sure to put some di-electric grease on that mother. PM. <><

Fred W · Jul 21, 2009

Thanks again, friends.

This past weekend I rummaged around in my connectors and found that I already had some female .090 crimp connectors but, after extracting the remains of the old broken female connector, I found the new ones I had were not keyed to fit into this style of connector body. Being an impatient SOB, I attached the female pin to a length of wire, threaded it through the connector body and manually pushed it onto the male relay pin. After seating the rest of the connector body onto the relay, the wire was then attached to the end of the broken wire.

Problem fixed. I can wiggle those wires till the cows come home now and no loss of ignition.

The reason I opted to go with this kind of a kludgefest is that while attempting to extract the remains of the broken connector, I realized that this connector body sucks to work on. It is incredibly difficult to release pins from the body if they don't have a wire still attached to them. If I do eventually decide to rework the copnnector (permanently) I'll do it with a different style of connector entirely.

Thanks again for all of your assistance. This kind of stuff is what makes this here forum the best. :yahoo:

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