Honda R/R wiring advice please...

[tom203]

FWIW the spare terminal on the fusebox is NOT a switched terminal on my 650 ... it is constant on, thus not suitable.

In the interest of scientific research, I wired up my spare Shindengen R/R into my bike. I wired the sense wire direct to the unswitched spare terminal on the fusebox and measured its current draw with bike off. It measured .3 milliamps draw, not 30, not 3 but .3 milliamps. I used a LED indicator light to test my meter- it drew 15.2 milliamps. My spare R/R is a SH232-12, probably off a early 80's honda cx-500. A battery would last a long time at this low draw, so I doubt there is any problem with this hook up and apparently some members do so.

[cableguy]

OK I finally got the Honda unit installed.
Red#1 goes to Batt+, Red#2 goes to original factory lead from fusebox
Green#1 goes to Batt-, green#2 goes to frame
The yellows go directly to stator, bypassing the harness
Black sense wire goes to Brake wire, upstream of the switch

At idle I get 13.6v which is good. What concerns me is when I rev to 4k it goes up to and hovers around 15.3 which seems a tad high.

What could this be, or do I even need to worry?

Stupidly I did not perform the usual steps to test everything, and maybe that's the answer, but I wanted to toss this out to the you who are wiser.....And thanks so far for the great advice

[rustybronco]

A battery would last a long time at this low draw, so I doubt there is any problem with this hook up and apparently some members do so.

I hook up all mine this way.

[BassCliff]

Hi,

At idle I get 13.6v which is good. What concerns me is when I rev to 4k it goes up to and hovers around 15.3 which seems a tad high.

Yes, that's a tad on the high side. It means you still have some voltage loss due to corrosion in your wiring harness. It's important to clean ALL of the connections in the entire wiring harness, from headlight bucket to taillight assembly, from fuse box to blinker stalks, even the ignition switch connections.

The workarounds suggested will work just fine, but it wouldn't hurt at all to clean the wiring harness connections and grounds.

Have you measured the voltage loss between the r/r output and the battery (+) terminal? That number should be as low as possible, 0.25v or less. See this PDF file: Revised Phase A of the Stator Papers.

AGM batteries are a little more robust when it comes to a slight overcharge. But a conventional lead-acid battery will boil right out. Keep an eye on it.


Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

[posplayr]

All electrical parts reference the frame and draw from it.

Not really, but a frame ground is good for the R/R as all current paths need to be provided back to the R/R (-) a.) harness B/W grounds, b.) Battery strap from R/R (-) to battery(-) and c.) Frame returns.

[Sandy]

When I sold RR replacement kits I used male and female connectors on the sense wire in a Y so the rear brake light switch could be tapped at the orange lead. It was in a good place and nothing had to be spliced, soldered or cut.

If you have low voltage all around the bike as a result of dirty switches buy a can of contact cleaner and perform some maintenance. I've always considered the Coil Relay Mod a band-aid for other problems.

I guess I agree and disagree with this. On my GS1000 when I noticed about a 2v drop at the coils I considered the relay mod but first went around a cleaned all the switches and connectors and found the big drop was through the ignition switch and after cleaning everything had my voltage drop down to only .5v which was good and you would be hard done to make that any less. So I didn't need to do the relay mod. However because of the .5v drop the Honda R/R would overcharge by that amount (15.3V vs 14.8V.) and over a period of about 6 weeks and 4,000 miles of riding in hot weather the battery was very low on electrolyte. I did the relay mod for the sense wire and since then have had no issues regarding low battery fluid. It might not be seen as a big deal by most but I really hate having to break out the tool kit on a trip.

EDIT: Wiring the sense wire directly to the battery would work if you rode the bike everyday or so but mine might sit for weeks between rides. I guess you could put a switch on that wire to disconnect it for long term storage.

[BassCliff]

Hi Mr. Sandy,

That was an excellent discussion and a very common sense approach, taking all of the information available here and using it to formulate a solution for your bike. Well done and thanks for sharing.

Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff