In the last couple of weeks I've gotten a really sluggish start in the morning, often dropping to the "Soft Batt" indicator on the panel. This morning I replaced the battery and it started right up and spun faster than it has in a long time. While letting it sit idling and warming up, I noticed an electrical smell and saw smoke coming from the big brown 3 wire connector. I immediately shut it off and found the center wire blistering hot and it had actually melted the connector to the point that I had to destroy it to get it apart. What has happened? I did nothing to it except swap the battery! Somebody please gimme some direction ASAP as I am getting everything sorted for a week of riding in the mountain twisties.

Note....it it means anything, only the center wire coming from the stator is hot.

Thanks for any advice!

Nevermind guys! I tested everything and it all came down to a corroded terminal from the oil leak when my oil gauge crack a couple of weeks ago.

I surely hope that the lack of response to my problem us from the vast time difference between me here in the states and about 90% of all other members of this site being on the other side of the world, plus the fact there are so very few of us! I promise I honestly tried to search for an exact match to my issue and found all kinds of voltage regulator issues, but only one mentioned anything about melted terminals!

When doing an oil change a lot of people let the oil from the filter on the tank drip down and it goes straight in to the wiring. Later the tidy ones try to wash it out...
Hence the corrosion.
Tip, tilt the bike over or make a funnel from a bit of alu foil or half plastic pipe.
I have to admit it could have been designed better.

I would keep a close eye on it, definitely sounds like a R/R eating everything. But if you've checked voltage outputs at varying rpm's and everything is ok, then perhaps you did find the problem indeed.

I'm pretty meticulous about my tinkering and have one of those funky for-a-funnel wijits that works great. My oil came from a tiny crack that occurred in the oil sight tube while I was on a long ride. I replaced the faulty hose with some low permeation Tygon tubing that costs about $.25 and is working great!