Should I replace functioning regulator/rectifier?

[Anonymous]

I have had it both ways. No question, Honda R/R made a marked improvement on my bike. A failure with the original R/R is not a rare occurance and when it goes, it most likely will take out the stator with it. That's what happened to mine.

The heat we feel on the outside of the R/R to a large degree is coming from the junctions in the diodes. Heat is an enemy of semiconductors.

There was plenty of room for the Honda R/R on my bike. It fit perfectly, though it wasn't 2 times as big as the original. I think mine was off a CBR 959. I had to take the connector off the Honda R/R, and put on bullets.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.... upgrade it.

Hope to hear the swap went well.

schu
1980 GS 850 with the Honda R/R upgrade

[Anonymous]

On the Honda R/R, here's the connections:
Three yellow wires ==> hook up to Suzuki stator wires in any order
Red Wire ==> battery + (positive)
Green Wire ==> battery - (negative)
Black wire ==> switched + (positive)

I'll need to run an extra wire to the switched positive, but that's no big deal.

.

Many thanks for the wiring! I just picked up a SH232-12 from a 81 CX-500 with 11,000 miles, running a month ago before being parted out. Supposed to be in good working order.

So... I plan on installing it once this rain passes through. I had posted about it last fall. My Electrix Stator still tests good. But the Electrix RR does not. Tried 2 old Suz. RR's. No luck.

So I am hoping the Honda RR does the trick. I will be a very happy man if it works.

Thanks again!
Charlie

[Mysuzyq]

The original R/R regulates the output of the stator by either sending the charge current to the battery or the charge current to the frame of the bike. It's called shunt regulation. Either way the stator is working as hard as it can full time. The R/R commonly will lose a diode (since they run hot) and cook a phase of the stator since it's hot from always charging something even if it is the bike frame. The late model R/R does a voltage sense. Either charge the battery or not. Much easier on the stator, and the R/R runs cooler. Best thing I ever did to my bike was to put the late model Honda R/R in. Been 2 years. It's like a new bike. Voltages are better and it tries to charge at lower RPM than the original R/R. It senses the voltage delivered at the load instead of internally (blind).

schu
1980 GS850

Schu by 'late model', what year what year/model Honda are you talking about? I think the Honda RR's most commonly used on the GS's are from the early/mid 80's 400cc bikes.......I hear they are an improvement over the stock Suzuki item, but they don't function in the way you describe, do they?

Tony.

[Anonymous]

1999 CBR959 is what was indicated that mine was from.

I think most Asian bikes obtained their R/R's from the same Mfr. during the 80's. Sukisakihoshimama or something like that. I chased them down on the internet once to try to find more specs. If you look at the older R/R's on ebay, you will often find that mfr. name on the R/R. I don't think Suzuki is the only bike that suffers from the R/R problems.

I also looked into the Electrix after market replacements. I searched pretty hard over many forums. From all that I read, I didn't feel that they were a sure bet either. Replacing R/R and Stator cost me $50 total.

[bwringer]

UPDATE:

I installed the Honda R/R this weekend, and sure enough, I now have a rock-steady 14.7 volts just off idle (usually around 14 at idle, depending on idle speed), whiter teeth, and fresher breath. Dang!

In order to give myself a path back to stock, I made no alterations to the stock wiring except a short pigtail "T" connection to the headlight wire for the voltage sense wire (the black wire on the Honda R/R that goes to a switched positive wire).

I also bypassed the wire that routes one of the stator wires all the way up to the headlight bucket and back again. On my bike (83 GS850GD), the wire from the alternator isn't even connected to anything up there. It's just connected directly to another wire back to the R/R. That's the way it was from the factory -- this connection is just stuffed into the headlight shell in a little sealed clear plastic pouch. Talk about a total waste of wire...

The stock R/R had spade terminals (I think earlier GS models used different connectors), so I simply removed the female terminals from the wiring harness side of the connector by pushing the lock tabs down with a small wire. That way, the wiring harness could remain stock -- I could simply push the terminals back into the connector shell any time if I wanted to return to stock.

I then soldered male connectors onto the Honda R/R leads. I made sure the connections were tight, added a little anti-oxidant connector grease to keep things purty, then sealed each connection inside waterproof adhesive-lined heat-shrink tubing.

Better results than I ever expected, and not all that hard. I can toss the tiny stock R/R and connector shell in my bag "just in case", and put it back to stock in a few minutes if I need to.

I'll probably have to watch my battery acid level a little more closely (I've never needed to add water before), but I'd say it was well worth the effort and very minor expense.