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Red wire from regulator

chuck hahn

chuck hahn

Forum LongTimer
Past Site Supporter
I am unsure of what R/R is on the skunk but i was doing some routine checks on all the bikes today and when I was checking the skunks charging at the battery i was maxing out at just 12.9 volts at 5,000 RPMS.

So I can in and got the QUICK TEST procedures and went thru it all and everything was spot on. Less than the 0.5 voltage drop as required, good shiney clean connectors, auxillary ground directly from one of the mounting screws right to the battery negative etc etc.

The red wire coming off the R/R was plugged into a red wire coming off the harness. So I thought what the heck and made a wire to go from the red R/R directly to the positive battery terminal and instantly had 14.1 volts at 5,000 RPMS and everything on the bike electrically was functioning as normal. Headlight, signals, horn, high beam / low beams..all working as they should.

Question is why the instant improvement just by going directly to the battery with the red lead and will unplugging it from the harness be detrimental in the long run? What is the red wire from the harness feeding to since nothing has changed electrically since i rerouted the wire from the R/R??
 
Chuck,
Did you do the test where you touch one probe of the volt meter to the battery positive post, and the other on the red output wire from the R/R? Doing so will tell you how much voltage you are loosing on the way to the battery. Sounds like you need clean all the terminals for the power output path between the R/R and battery, but measuring will tell the real story.
 
Nessism said:
Chuck,
Did you do the test where you touch one probe of the volt meter to the battery positive post, and the other on the red output wire from the R/R? Doing so will tell you how much voltage you are loosing on the way to the battery. Sounds like you need clean all the terminals for the power output path between the R/R and battery, but measuring will tell the real story.
Click to expand...

Yea, going to the battery direct is the easy way out, but not prefered.
 
Ed..every wire conector under the seat is a shiney as new and all have had dielectric grease on them since as long as I have had the bike. Dirty connections is well ruled out.

I guess what I am asking is why the direct route after unplugging the wire from the harness was such a dramatic improvement. I am not interested in changing anything as its charging so nicely now.

My questions was more of when the red wire was plugged into the red female connection on the harness (1) where does that lead go to on the bike and (2) is there anything wrong with me having redirected the red R/R wire directly to the battery instead.
 
Maybe this is the problem I'm having since I cleaned up all my connections, those red wires. I think I ran the +from the bat to the fuse box and the R/R to the harness and I should swap the red + to battery to R/R and the red harness wire to fuse panel. That make any sense.:confused:
 
Chuck , on the skunk you had 2 red wires originally, because of the separate regulator/ rectifiers. One as I recall goes into the harness going forward to the ignition switch and the other feeds the fuse box. Which wire are you plugged into? on mine I tied the 2 together. Also what kind of shape are the connections on your fuse box and then your ignition switch
 
chuck hahn said:
Ed..every wire conector under the seat is a shiney as new and all have had dielectric grease on them since as long as I have had the bike. Dirty connections is well ruled out.

I guess what I am asking is why the direct route after unplugging the wire from the harness was such a dramatic improvement. I am not interested in changing anything as its charging so nicely now.

My questions was more of when the red wire was plugged into the red female connection on the harness (1) where does that lead go to on the bike and (2) is there anything wrong with me having redirected the red R/R wire directly to the battery instead.
Click to expand...

chuck, if all the connections were as you say there wouldn't be the loss you are experiencing. On my 1000S I measured significant looses in the R/R power output on the way to the battery. Removing the brass terminals from the plastic shells, cleaning them with acid and a stainless steel wire brush, then pinching the female terminals closed restored the lost voltage.
 
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Got me Harry. I will take pics of the stuff tomorrow. I cant follow a wiring diagram to save my own life. Now if someone writes down the path the current follows I can do that.. For example..if the power comes from the R/R them goes up to X switch..then from X switch to the headlight etc etc I can trace things.

Also having a weird form of color blindness where colors fade together on me, its a real biitch to do wiring for me.
 
And this R/R has 5 wires...three that the stator hooks to, the black with ( i think its green) tracer, and the red. Obviously the older two piece deals had been swapped out at some previous point.
 
chuck hahn said:
And this R/R has 5 wires...three that the stator hooks to, the black with ( i think its green) tracer, and the red. Obviously the older two piece deals had been swapped out at some previous point.
Click to expand...

Which would be 3 for the stator , red to positive , black with tracer ground would be my guess. Now the question would be, which red wire is the regulator attached to, the one going to the harness or the one to the fuse box? on both of my bike's I have them tied together. But I also cleaned up the fuse box real well. It is amazing how much of a drop you can get through a fuse if the connections are bad. On one of my bikes I was tracing the harness cleaning things up and a buddy showed up and was laughing at me because I was chasing a 1/2 a volt. I found it it was in the fuse box.:D
 
According to the wiring diagram that red wire from the regulator tees off and goes to a fuse in the fuse panel and to the hot wire on the ignition switch. That is how it is setup on my 550 but the hot wire goes to the positive cable from the battery on the starter solenoid. I just installed an sh775 on mine and ran the positive and negatives from the regulator straight to the battery. Everything works and it charges great.
 
jbthomp said:
According to the wiring diagram that red wire from the regulator tees off and goes to a fuse in the fuse panel and to the hot wire on the ignition switch. That is how it is setup on my 550 but the hot wire goes to the positive cable from the battery on the starter solenoid. I just installed an sh775 on mine and ran the positive and negatives from the regulator straight to the battery. Everything works and it charges great.
Click to expand...

Congradulations that is really "great"
 
chuck hahn said:
Ed..every wire conector under the seat is a shiney as new and all have had dielectric grease on them since as long as I have had the bike. Dirty connections is well ruled out.
Click to expand...
There's more to the wiring the just the visible connections. The usual route for the voltage also includes going through the fuse box and ignition switch which yours does in this case. One portion of red wire (the red wire splits into two) goes to the fuse panel (15A fuse) then on to the battery. The other portion connects to the ignition switch.
 
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