Honda R/R Users Poll

[850 Combat]

I have installed at least eight Shindengen R/Rs. Some only have 5 or 6 thousand miles, some have at least twice that. I have boiled one battery dry by having too much voltage drop to the sense wire. I now hook them straight to the battery, with no problems. The battery draw with that set up seems to be all theory and no reality. I JUST STARTED MY RED 1000g which had been sitting six months. It had enough juice to start the bike. That is enough proof for me. I've been doing it that way since 2009.

[Sandy]

I have installed at least eight Shindengen R/Rs. Some only have 5 or 6 thousand miles, some have at least twice that. I have boiled one battery dry by having too much voltage drop to the sense wire. I now hook them straight to the battery, with no problems. The battery draw with that set up seems to be all theory and no reality. I JUST STARTED MY RED 1000g which had been sitting six months. It had enough juice to start the bike. That is enough proof for me. I've been doing it that way since 2009.

Hmmm. Thanks for the info. I put in the relay to run the sense wire and then added my Dyna ignition and a small voltmeter to it. The ignition switch contacts, grounds and connectors are all healthy so it sounds like I can toss the relay mod at some point.

[duaneage]

Duaneage,
Can you give us any statistics especially as to any stators that you have seen fried while running a HONDA R/R? Is it 1 in 10, 1 in 100, 1 in 10,000 failed stators using the Honda OR NEVER?
Jim

A bad RR, whether OEM or some other brand, overheats the stator by shorting the leads out. This damage might not be apparent immediately but eventually can lead to a failure.
Hot oil goes to work on stators too. So does time.
I don't see anyone on Honda forums complaining about dead stators too much, that's probably a better way to judge it.

[duaneage]

Bump

There is some evidence that even the much heralded 6 wire Honda RR will in fact fry a stator sometimes. That is to be expected but the statistics are certainly much better than the standard 5 wire shunt R/R.
Post away any results your have on one of the three polls (see page 1)

For a long time the Honda 6 wire has been the best ( longevity over cost ratio) solution for many. Even with the Compufire Series R/R the Honda is popular because it costs some much less. With the SH-775 SERIES R/R coming out and prices well under $50 used we will see if it pans out and supplants the Honda 6 Wire.

Doesn't seem to cause much problem on the millions of engines using them all over. Boats, bikes, etc.
The action of the RR doesn't damage the stator.

[posplayr]

Doesn't seem to cause much problem on the millions of engines using them all over. Boats, bikes, etc.
The action of the RR doesn't damage the stator.

Maybe only the complainers show up with pictures of burned stators but there have been plenty with the SERIES r/r virtually eliminating further stator/ charging problems.

[pete]

I never knew this poll existed and just answered it before I realised how old it was

Anyway, technically I have a Kawasaki R/R but it's a SH532 just like the Honda ones and it's going like a champ, no stator issues since installing it.

I have it installed under my electrics tray under the seat so it gets reasonable air flow and I also have a Gammatronix charging indicator from eBay in the UK which tells me my charging health. It shows holding steady/not charging at idle, and charging nicely once the throttle opens.

The charging indicator showed when my cheap dodgy Taiwanese R/R carked it and over charged with the headlight off and under charged with it on. Saved my stator, Acewell, Dynatek, bulbs, etc. I reckon.

My suggestion... regardless of what R/R you install, make sure you have some sort of charging indicator... cheap insurance!

[tom203]

...

My suggestion... regardless of what R/R you install, make sure you have some sort of charging indicator... cheap insurance!

Yeah,have two like me- meter plus backup LED/zener combo in case chinese meter fails.
Do your stator a favor and upgrade to the SH-775 series R/R when you can- no sense having stator put out 50% more power than bike needs.

[850 Combat]

I intend to upgrade some of my bikes to a Series R/R in the future. I changed out a bunch of GS to Shindgen Honda stuff in the past. Some, I used bullet connectors. On some, the sense wire is still to the tail light power. Addition l groundingvaries on some of the older conversions I did. I bought 7 R/Rs from Duane, and probably 4 more elsewhere. I like the big ones off a Wing. I don't run high RPMs for extended periods. I like to tour on two lane roads in the country, where 5000rpm is high. Maybe that helps me.

One thing is certain: I have only seen 2 bikes that I have bought that did NOT show damage to the 3 stator wire connections from overheating. I have never bought a GS that did not charge. I never ever suspected a charging problem on a GS I bought until I checked the function of the system (voltage at the battery). I never had a GS that charged correctly before I worked on it. Each and every one was down on voltage to the mid thirteen range, usually 13.3 to 13.8 or so. Fix connections, add grounds, put on the Honda R/R or not, and they were back at 14.5 volts. I was getting a group of my old bikes ready for a cross country family tour, and had no idea that they had been charging poorly for as long as I had owned them. I will say that if a GS owner has not checked their charging voltage, and made appropriate corrections, they are doing a disservice to the bike, and more than likely to their pocketbook.

[pete]

I do intend to go the SH775 point at some stage, but other things demand the $$$ in the meantime. If something was to happen to the SH532 in the meantime then I wouldn't bother with anything but a SH775.

[silverbullet132]

Funny, Honda guys ditch these R/R's quite quickly. I replaced the one on my 2000 VFR as soon as I got it so I would not get stranded at the side of the road. They are known to be total ****.

[tom203]

Which R/R's on these hondas are NG ? later non alternator models would have had mosfet shunt units, some with large output ratings-

[posplayr]

Bump ..........

[pete]

Funnily enough my SH532 now seems to be a bit sad... my stator still measures ok but with the headlight on it undercharges and with it off it charges fine.

I have a new SH775 on the way from Partzilla...

Mind you, that's something like 2 years out of the 532 and it was a second hand purchase off eBay.

And while the commute doesn't have the rev's that high, when I'm out having fun the rev's are usually 5 - 6K RPM minimum.

[Grimly]

I've just found this thread, through it being referred to by another, similar poll.
I had one stator failure after fitting a Honda R/R to one of my 850s, but thinking on it, that engine was out of a parts bike that had already done at least 10K on the factory R/R, so who knows how long it had to go. It failed eventually, after another 20K miles on the Honda unit. That same Honda unit is still there, working fine.
I will certainly replace it with a series R/R, simply because the parts are now getting too old to trust.

[posplayr]

bump........................