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Blowing regulators. Suzuki GS450 1982

  • Thread starter Thread starter GmanGS450
  • Start date Start date
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GmanGS450

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Problem:
Blowing regulators on my cafe project after 10-20 min of riding. Have fried two in the last week.

Cause: Possible over voltage due to not using one of the 3 legs from the stator to run the headlight.

Solution: Possible upgrade to Ricks motorsports reg/rectifier & stator.

-additional information.
Using 4cell ANTIGRAVITY battery, luckily the 20 amp fuse I originally had in there blew before the battery fried. So I think Iam still ok, but who knows with these batteries. It still hods a 13.40v charge. I will have to do more analysis on it.

Attached is a diagram of my wiring.

What could be the problem?
 
Dang- have you checked all your grounds? I have a Ricks- and love it.
Double check all your grounds with a meter before starting your bike with new R/R.
Might also try hooking up the third wire and do a continuity check(power off) and see if it matters. Run the rectifier ground to the negative side of the battery as well.
 
Last edited:
GmanGS450 said:
Cause: Possible over voltage due to not using one of the 3 legs from the stator to run the headlight.
Click to expand...
One of the stator legs did not "power the headlight". :-k

True, one leg was cut out when the headlight switch was turned OFF, but all three stator legs contributed to the total load, there was not a separate circuit for the headlight.

I looked at your diagram and it looks good to me. Are you blowing regulators or just the fuse? Just because you blew a fuse does not necessarily mean that you blew a regulator. Wired the way shown in your diagram, ALL of the output of the stator is going to go through the MAIN fuse, all the time. That includes the load to run your bike and whatever the battery needs to recharge. Normal running on a bike will be about 4.5-5 amps for headlight, 2 amps for tail light and all the various instrument lights, and 3-4 anps for each coil. That can be a total of 15 amps, just to keep going down the road. After using your battery to start the bike, it will take a bit to recharge. Not familiar with the electrical characteristics of your battery, but if it allows a charge at more than 5 amps, even for a short time, you will blow your 20 amp fuse. Suzuki got around that by putting the regulator connection between the fuse and the ignition switch. That way, when the bike was running, it would take its 15 amps through the switch, anything left over would go back through the MAIN fuse to the battery to charge it. Since the stator could not put out more than 30 amps (it was more like 25-27) and the bike was using 15 of that, they were safe with using a 15 amp MAIN fuse.

Try relocating your regulator connector and/or get some voltage measurements to verify that your regulator is, in fact, failing. If you find that you need to replace the regulator (again), consider installing a Polaris SH775 series regulator, instead. It is cheaper than a new one from Rick's (or anybody else, for that matter) and will help with stator longevity, as well.

.
 
Thanks for your help Guys.

Grounds are good, I know my way around an electrical system but this has me stumped. All electrical mounts are welded studs on the frame.

There is continuity between two leads on the R/R when there should not be.

I have checked the stator/ regulator before using the methods explained in the CLYMER manual and found 5OHMS resistance on the regulator and 35 volts ac between each leg of the stator.

The output voltage of the regulator while the bike is running is only 2volts at idle and 5 volts at 5,000rpm.

The regulators get HOT FAST, I am thinking iam gona add a thick aluminum spacer below and a CPU fan on top to handle the heat problem.
 
Sounds like a bad R/R- what was the situation of the last one that went bad? It looks like your R/R is under your seat- needs more airflow in my opinion for proper cooling. Anyway you could move it horizontal?
We knew our way around everything electrical as well- too much so we thought and the instructor would destroy us with a simple unplugging of the part in question. Banging home the idea of first rule of troubleshooting- ensure your power source.
 
Last edited:
The first had a similar problem, only was putting out 10volts at the most!

The location has to stay the same, the bike is all re-done Iam thinking I might have to mount it on the underside of the frame to get airflow. Or the DC fan to keep it cool.

I will try relocating the regulator to after the ignition in the wiring, then fusing the charge circuit to protect my battery. I wired it up this was to protect my battery, but that may be causing more problems.

Thanks for the help.

Steve-Do you have a link to that cheap Polaris SH775 series regulator, I can't find one on EBAY.

Here is a picture of the bike.
 
"The regulators get HOT FAST, I am thinking iam gona add a thick aluminum spacer below and a CPU fan on top to handle the heat problem. "

your mini R/R is likely fried- getting "hot fast" spells trouble. Forget the spacer and CPU stuff- that's just a bandaid.
 
GmanGS450 said:
The first had a similar problem, only was putting out 10volts at the most!

The location has to stay the same, the bike is all re-done Iam thinking I might have to mount it on the underside of the frame to get airflow. Or the DC fan to keep it cool.

I will try relocating the regulator to after the ignition in the wiring, then fusing the charge circuit to protect my battery. I wired it up this was to protect my battery, but that may be causing more problems.

Thanks for the help.

Steve-Do you have a link to that cheap Polaris SH775 series regulator, I can't find one on EBAY.

Here is a picture of the bike.
Click to expand...

If the current R/R is acting the same as the last- it would more than likely be your wiring. Not a 100% thing with parts quality these days but a very good chance.I'd fine comb the wiring hookups and check it again. I got my Ricks R/R for 68$ delivered. Underside would be better than a DC fan- if fan fails then so does your regulator- airflow is free and plenty of it when you ride fast!
 
The r/r will stay in regulation (I.e continued shorting of the stator) with bad enough connections between the battery and the r/r. Based on your measurements you have a 8-9v drop between the r/r and the battery at 5k rpm. That is going to force the r/r to a virtual continuous stator short mode. Disconnect your battery and ohm out the connections from battery to r/r there has got to be significant resistance there ( but still less than 10 ohms).
 
GmanGS450 said:
Problem:
Blowing regulators on my cafe project after 10-20 min of riding. Have fried two in the last week.

Cause: Possible over voltage due to not using one of the 3 legs from the stator to run the headlight.

Solution: Possible upgrade to Ricks motorsports reg/rectifier & stator.

-additional information.
Using 4cell ANTIGRAVITY battery, luckily the 20 amp fuse I originally had in there blew before the battery fried. So I think Iam still ok, but who knows with these batteries. It still hods a 13.40v charge. I will have to do more analysis on it.

Attached is a diagram of my wiring.

What could be the problem?
Click to expand...

Got to a computer so I can now see your schematic. The main 15A fuse is to protect the bikes electrical from any short that the battery will try and supply current to. It is not protecting the electrical from the R/R.

You should run the ignition switch from the R/R side of the fuse not the battery side.
 
Badooka said:
If the current R/R is acting the same as the last- it would more than likely be your wiring. Not a 100% thing with parts quality these days but a very good chance.I'd fine comb the wiring hookups and check it again. I got my Ricks R/R for 68$ delivered. Underside would be better than a DC fan- if fan fails then so does your regulator- airflow is free and plenty of it when you ride fast!
Click to expand...

Yes wiring problem somewhere.
 
GmanGS450 said:
The regulators get HOT FAST, I am thinking iam gona add a thick aluminum spacer below and a CPU fan on top to handle the heat problem.
Click to expand...
I would be concerned if you have enough electrical 'load' on the system so that the R/R doesn't have to shunt all the excess current.
 
rustybronco said:
I would be concerned if you have enough electrical 'load' on the system so that the R/R doesn't have to shunt all the excess current.
Click to expand...

Not sure if that is what he is seeing at the moment, but if he runs a bunch of LED's he could well have a problem there or with the stator unless he gets a Series R/R.
 
I questioned it because his drawing didn't show any turn signals or instrument panel lights.
Problem:
Blowing regulators on my cafe project after 10-20 min of riding. Have fried two in the last week.
Click to expand...
 
Load, This is probably my biggest problem.

Very stupid of me not to take into consideration, when I built the new harness. I only have one halogen headlamp, the rest of the lights consist of 25 3mm LED's at 20mA's each I am not drawing enough load off the R/R. The wiring should be okay to stay the way it is, I just need to burn off current from the R/R in some other way, I can make a variable resistance coil to burn off energy as heat, I have room for that.

Thanks for the help. I will repost my results, and the creation I come up with to make a little heat!

Thanks guys.
 
The problem with adding a load is that you need to make it variable with speed. :-k

As your engine speed drops, so does your stator output. If you forget to turn your load down when you get into traffic in town, you will quickly drain the battery. I have no idea what the reserve capacity of your battery is, but I suspect that it's a rather small battery, therefore, not much reserve.

As stated more than once, get a series regulator. A brand-spanking NEW one is less than $64 (link given in post #8).
Install that, verify that you have a good stator, you will be good to go, regardless of your load.
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