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1978 gs1000 regulator/rectifier Swap

  • Thread starter Thread starter Wigginton49
  • Start date Start date
You can do it either way. If you use the stock feed, it is already fused through your fuse box. It seems to be the general consensus that It is more efficient to run the positive from the R/R directly to the battery. If you do that, you need to supply an inline fuse between the R/R and the battery. Either way works, so that is up to you. If it is less confusing, use the existing feed directly to the R/R. It can always be changed later after you have had more time to understand how the system works. Whichever way you choose to set it up, it will be a vast improvement over the factory system and far more reliable. The black wire from the R/R should still go directly to the battery. You can't have to many grounds. instead of trusting the frame members to supply the ground where rust between bolted parts may inhibit a good ground, you can run a heavy ground wire to a central point and run from there to any point on the bike. This will eliminate multiple ground wires on the battery, but be the same as running all grounds to the negative terminal of the battery.
 
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I agree with oldvet66 there are a several different ways to connect the r/r to the battery and harness. On the positive terminal side of the R/R it largely depends on whether you think you can get the original wiring to work properly and you can remove any voltage drops including those in the fuse box. If you cant then wiring directly to the battery (through a fuse) is virtually the same thing.

As far as grounding, again several ways to do this but you need to collect all the current that is returning to the R/R(-). Every thing that leaves the R/R(+) has to come back into the R/R(-) so that means you need connections from the harness B/W , the frame and the Battery(-) to get as direct as possible to the R/R(-). I prefer to have all the connections meet as close to the R/R(-) as possible and use an R/R mounting bolt.

See a general over view here.

http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum/showthread.php?t=152769&highlight=charging+system+health

Make sure to measure the voltage drops in Stator pages Revised Phase A.
 
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Alright makes a lot of sense guys. So basically I should run the black (-) wire to a bolt on the frame as a ground and the Red (+) positive i can either use the red feed thats already their or the better option is to just remove that wire completely and run a fused wire directly to the positive terminal of my battery. Is that basically it?
 
Wigginton49 said:
Alright makes a lot of sense guys. So basically I should run the black (-) wire to a bolt on the frame as a ground and the Red (+) positive i can either use the red feed thats already their or the better option is to just remove that wire completely and run a fused wire directly to the positive terminal of my battery. Is that basically it?
Click to expand...

R/R(-) needs (3) connections
1.) Frame
2.) Battery(-)
3.) B/W from Harness

Depending upon your bike, just connect to the existing R/R(+) to the red feed and measure how bad it is (stator pages Part A). Fall back is to go direct with the fuse.
 
posplayr said:
R/R(-) needs (3) connections
1.) Frame
2.) Battery(-)
3.) B/W from Harness
Click to expand...

How do I accomplish this? From the picture that tom23 posted it looks like he has just one black (-) ground wire coming off the R/R.
 
Run the black wire from the R/R directly to the battery. You have a ground wire from the battery that runs to a bolt above your transmission. It most likely needs to be replaced. That is what Suzuki used to ground the motor and frame. Run another ground from the motor ground bolt to a bolt on the R/R's heat sink. Run another ground wire from the R/R's heat sink bolt to the black with white stripe wire in the wiring harness. The nearest one you can reach is real near your starter solenoid near your R/R mounting point, tie it into that wire or bolt it to the same bolt for the ground connection to your harness. If you are not any good at wiring heavy cables, go to your local car stereo shop and have them make up two cables out of that big assed stuff they use for amplifiers (as big as your little finger) to replace your present ground from battery to transmission, and from transmission to the R/R's heat sink. Have them put ring ends on each end of the cable, then get some waterproof heat shrink for underground use to seal the cable insulation to the ring connectors (that type of heat shrink has waterproof glue in it). The cable is very soft and flexible because the wire strands are very small, extremely prone to corrosion if not sealed. If you can handle heavy cables, make your own, I used 4AWG wire for my grounds. The wire to the black/white wire does not have to be any larger than what is in the harness. At this point you need to sit down with some basic electricity tutorials. Everything has been repeated several times for you. I know it is scary venturing into uncharted territory, but if you expect to ride a 35 year old bike, you need to become your own mechanic and have a better understanding of what is going on. Not trying to be mean, I started where you are now and was dragged kicking and screaming to having a bike I would not hesitate to ride coast to coast.
 
Suzuki relied on one ground point to the motor to provide a ground to all metal parts bolted together. This is not the best system because of rust, and corrosion degrading the grounds. The best way is to run a ground from the battery - to everything that needs it. What I described in the last post basically does that.
 
Alright i think i got it. Thank you so much Oldvet66. I really apperiate it.
 
Wigginton49 said:
How do I accomplish this? From the picture that tom23 posted it looks like he has just one black (-) ground wire coming off the R/R.
Click to expand...

There are at least two detailed pictures at the bottom of the link I provided

picture.php
 
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I am planning on using one reg/rectifier, in place of the seperate regulator and rectifier on my 78 GS1000...
Some of the links/pics are dead on here. Any updates or newer threads showing what wires are no longer used in the harness and generator?
 
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