Have you killed your regulator/rectifier?

[Greg Cothern]

Trying to learn something about regulator/rectifier issue's and habits that may cause them to die early..

I reworded the question and possible answers.

[Indonlire]

How should I answer the question?

Before I replaced the regulator/rectifier I used the kill switch.

After I replaced the regulator rectifier I use the key.

???

[thermoalex]

Hi, after how miles do most regulator's go out?

[Cadmandu]

Hi Greg,
   I just lost two paragraphs of info on stators and R/R. So I will hurry. It seems like the Suzuki guys which I am one of also have a lot of answers to electrical problems. They even use a Honda 650 regulator for an up grade. Check out the bottom of Cliffs site called the Stator Papers.

http://members.dslextreme.com/users/bikecliff/

[TLRam1]

Hi, after how miles do most regulator's go out?

Look here for a list of bad regulators.

http://www.magnaownersoftexas.com/forums/index.php?topic=2622.0

[Curtis_Valk]

Hi Greg,
   I just lost two paragraphs of info on stators and R/R. So I will hurry. It seems like the Suzuki guys which I am one of also have a lot of answers to electrical problems. They even use a Honda 650 regulator for an up grade. Check out the bottom of Cliffs site called the Stator Papers.

http://members.dslextreme.com/users/bikecliff/

First post and offering information .........very much appreciated.  Welcome!

Curtis

[Chad in Michigan]

well, i think i cooked my r/r today.  had the bike idling and wanted to go for a ride. I smelled burnt plastic so I turned it off. Saw smoke coming from under tank, thought it may have been something I added, but nope. the three yellow wires were melted, one more than the others. I replaced all those connectors on my bike last year so they were new and weatherpacked. I ohm checked the wires on the alternator/stator side, all were within spec. I checked the other three, and two of them had infinite resistance and one showed 3 ohms, basicially shorted to ground. I have yet to get out the manual and do the offical checks, but it is looking like this one fried. Bummer too as I really wanted to ride today it finally hit 50 degrees up here in Michigan.

[lragan]

Chad, please keep us updated on this.  This is the first report that I have read of a r/r going out at cooler temperatures.  The preponderance of failures reported so far are on very hot days.

[TLRam1]

There always has to be one in the bunch to throw the theory out of keyster. 

[hootmon]

extenuating circumstances.  This may be caused by something other than the normal cause of failure.

[Chad in Michigan]

Chad, please keep us updated on this.  This is the first report that I have read of a r/r going out at cooler temperatures.  The preponderance of failures reported so far are on very hot days.

I just ordered a used r/r off of ebay from a place in ohio for $40 bucks. it was off a '98 with 10k on the odometer. I'll see how that checks out. what I checked out so far leads me to believe that something in the r/r went bad. the stator checks out fine with no shorts to ground and 30 VAC on each line. I checked the 3 yellow wires from the r/r under the seat. I checked each wire to ground and one has 3 ohms on it, which from what the book shows is wrong, there should be very high resistance there/infinate readings.  the wires to the r/r go to yet another connector behind the battery tray/in between the fender and frame, then to the r/r. I didn't check out that connector to see if this short connector could be the culprit or not, but it could be possible to rub on something and short out a wire and then the weakest point starts melting.  this could have been my fault too, but i don't think so. when my bike died on me last year, i found the connector next to the three alternator wires under the seat to be bad. two of those wires go to the pulse generator, and as soon as i replaced that connector, the bike fired right up. While i was there, i replaced the alternator connector as well. i used male & female insulated spade connectors and weatherpacked them with dielectric grease. I then tied the wires with wireties to the metal tab (part of the frame) where the old connector was mounted. when I found the smoke, i looked at the connectors, one of the three was melted and the insulation was pulled back. I wonder if the wire was chaffed against the frame and wore through? I usually look at that stuff real good when I do it, but anything is possible. I rode with that repair most of last year. either way, I'll redo the connections and replace the r/r and then check it out before I ride it again. I'll save the old r/r for anyone who may want it for testing or diagnosing problems.

[Chad in Michigan]

Well, this seems to be a common thing on the older magna v65's. There is currently a thread on the Honda v4 BBS site about this exact same thing on one of those bikes where the 3 wires are extremely hot and melting. From what was posted, this is the way some of their failures begin. sometimes the voltage begins to degrage and then poof, it's gone/ maybe mine failed in a different way than normal, but it still seems to have failed. here's the thread over there and a little snippet from the conversations:
http://v4hondabbs.com/index.php?topic=49308.0


just changed out stator[many,many thanks to raymond in houston, he is a great guy] old one was shot. did the three yellow wire fix again, when I put the other stator in,but now at the connection where the stator wires connect to the rectifier,the wires are getting so hot that they will start to smoke. dont think there should be that much heat! it is so hot I cant hold either of the wires. I connected a male/female terminal,on each wire,then soldered,heat shrink. the rectifier gets very hot to the touch to, could the rectifier be causing this, or do I have a kick-ass stator that is just doing its job? the bike only has 16'000 miles on it, but I am about to the point of selling bike as is,and getting another bike 

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  Re: stator wires getting hot
« Reply #7 on: Today at 04:28:30 PM » Quote 

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Raymond & All,

I've taken apart a number of the R/R's after failure to try and determine the failure mode.

I have yet to be certain about what I have found other than it appears that there is a significant amount of heat involved and I suspect that the bridge becomes weak, generates heat as it deteriorates and finally blows. If my suspicions are correct this would say that when near the end it would probably produce the proper voltages but as it gets nearer and nearer to failure it generate more and more heat.

I think that the Ohm meter tests might give an indication of this prior to catastrophic failure.

If I recall correctly the manual specifies specific meters to be used for those measurements. Of course I don't have them and you probably don't either. However I think that those measurements would remain worthwhile because there would be an imbalance when the devise would be in this pre-failure mode.

Dang, I hope that makes at least a little bit of sense.

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yeah it will charge fine for a few minutes,then the wires slowly get hotter and hotter,to the point where they start smoking slightly. I redone the wiring today as raymond said to do,twisted wires together,soldered,then heat shrink.tried to check it,but cant get it to start.will wait till I get the choke cable from raymond,and then try again. 

John

[Chad in Michigan]

Yep, the regulator was the culprit. Installed a different one in it, and voila, it is fixed

[hootmon]

Great to hear Chad.. If been through two of them..
I also had the hot Yellow wires, but I still have the original Stator..
All has been good since I bought my ofter market R/R.. (Knocks on wood)

[Jigger]

Chad, please keep us updated on this.  This is the first report that I have read of a r/r going out at cooler temperatures.  The preponderance of failures reported so far are on very hot days.

Sorry I did not post the type of day it was. Up here in the Northeast it's not exactly warm. Been haveing a high of the day around 50-53 but cools down to around 38-40 at night. But have been wondering if these regulators are frying out due to the heat from the engine or just old age.