diagnosing melted insulation on stator - regulator wires

[misterpancho]

Hi, I've recently purchased a 2002 40 hp 3 cyl and I've noticed there is some melted insulation on one of the wires - you can see in the photo. I've got the service manual for it and I'm trying to walk through some of the steps for testing the stator. The manual says to test for resistance of 0.16 to 0.19 ohms between the yellow and yellow wires. My general understanding is that this is the charging part of the circuit that runs back through the regulator/rectifier which converts AC to DC and charges the 12v battery.

Using a multimeter I've tried to check the resistance between the yellow wires. At 20k I get 0.00 ohms, at 200 I get 00.5.

So a few questions:

1. I've read on other posts on in this forum that you have to disconnect the strator to test it - and all the youtube videos show it completely removed from the engine. The service manual just says "check the stator for correct resistance" which is pretty vague. I've circled in red where I was testing it on the motor. Is testing it completely connected valid?
2. The other issue with the service manual is I can't find what setting on my multimeter I would need to match the stated 0.16 to 0.19 ohms range - this is one of those "there's no such thing as a stupid question" questions I'm sure.

So either 1) I'm doing this correctly and the 0.00 ohms reading is suggesting there's a short in the stator, or 2) I'm doing something completely wrong and this isn't valid data.

Thanks for your help! I've got all winter to teach myself electricity 101.

 

[tommarvin]

Good for you, boating season is over for months. Plenty of time to check everything.
I would remove the flywheel which can be hard, use the correct puller.
Remove stator, make sure you mark all the wires so you can reinstall it.look for burn marks on the bottom and top of the stator, make sure the magnets are solid on the flywheel.
Test stator with multimeter, test regulator/rectifier, and any other ignition parts.Try all the ohms setting on your multi meter,to get the decimal point in the correct spot.
CDIelectronics.com explains how to test all ignition parts. Theres a lot of dealers that sell CDI ignition parts.
This is a good time to check every inch of wire and pull the connector to see if you can pull it off.
Make sure all the connections are clean with good contact.