F80 Smoked the Rectifier / Regulator - Have Questions

[JRad]

Early in the season, My 2002 F80TLRA stopped charging. I deferred doing anything about and charged the battery on shore between trips.

Yesterday while preparing to go out, the motor stalled and electrical smoke began pouring from the cowling. Today I pulled the covers and found only a little fire evidence just above the Rectifier / Regulator pack. No burned wires or other damage; just a blown main 30A fuse.

I disconnected the pack from the coils and the electrical system by unplugging the wires and will replace it in the spring before next season.

I have two questions...

Is it safe to operate the motor for a few minutes to flush the cooling system / drain the fuel system with the pack disconnected?

Why would the pack decide to burn months after it first failed? I'm pretty sure no one can really answer that, but it is puzzling.

[Sequoiha]

With out the regualtor the stator puts out voltage constantly, the faster the flywheel turns the more the voltage. no it is not safe to run,, since you cannot store ac voltage you have to have a regulator to dump it to ground, this is the reason for the fire. it just finally had all it could take..