Three white wires on r/r?

[outthebay]

Hey guys,

I have a replacement r/r (from salvage) here to put on my 1979 GS850G. It has 3 white wires, 1 red wire, 1 black wire and 1 brown wire. I think the brown is the sense wire........ anybody know for sure? Don't know what make bike this came from.

Thanks

[doctorgonzo]

Wow (not from a suzuki obviously), that would be my guess too. The three white have to be the stator. The red is the hot to the harness/fuse box, the black the ground, which leaves the brown that must be the sense wire.

[spyug]

I think you've got a normal rectifier and not a regulator/rectifier as there are not enough wires. From the white wires I'd say it is something from a Yammie or possibly Honda.

Combo R/Rs would likely have 3 whites (or yellows), 1 heavier gauge red, 1 h/g black, 1 brown and 1 green for the regulator part. At least that is the setup on Yammies.

Friends Duaneage and Bakalorz are the gurus so hopefully they will chime in shortly.

I've been looking at hundreds of these in the last few days as the mechanical regulator on my XS is toast and I was looking to fix it with a combo unit. So far no luck.

What a pain these charging systems.

Good luck with yours.

Cheers,
Spyug.

[Craiger]

Very curious to know if the wire count (or color combo) is what specifies the type of rectifier, single or combo unit. I just installed one I bought off eBay that was listed as a R/R from a 2003 Honda CBR600. However, when I installed it, I noticed it had 3 yellow, two green, and two red (no black and no brown). Is this confirmation that it's a combo unit?

[doctorgonzo]

Very curious to know if the wire count (or color combo) is what specifies the type of rectifier, single or combo unit. I just installed one I bought off eBay that was listed as a R/R from a 2003 Honda CBR600. However, when I installed it, I noticed it had 3 yellow, two green, and two red (no black and no brown). Is this confirmation that it's a combo unit?

Don't know if that's confirmation, or not, but pretty sure it is. That is the colors we are used to seeing. The three yellow go to the stator. The two red are hot, and the two green are ground. I think one of the red is the "sense" wire that you take to the battery (after putting an inline fuse on it). I got one from an 04 CBR and it didn't have the extra wires, just 3 yellow, one red, one green.

[Craiger]

Okay. I was thinking that was the case, but wanted confirmation. I tied the two red together and installed an inline fuse between them and the battery. The two green went to ground.

Thanks!

[BassCliff]

Cooking with electrons

Hi,

I think a good practice with the 7-wire Honda r/r units is to connect the yellow wires as usual (to the stator), connect one green wire to the negative terminal of the battery and the other green wire to a good frame ground. Connect one red wire to the normal charging system red wire in the harness and the other red wire directly to the positive terminal of the battery (with an inline fuse - 10 amp or so). I have one of these parts too, as does Mr. Nessism. I consulted with Mr. Nessism and this is his (trusted) recommendation.

Mr. Craiger, the way you have it wired will work, but I think spreading out the (+) and (-) connections may be better to balance the charging system.

Mr. outthebay, without knowing where your part came from it is difficult to know exactly what the pinouts are. And as Mr. spyug mentioned, it may not even be an actual regulator/rectifier combo unit. I think it would be better to get a known good part. Does Mr. duaneage have any stock yet? Is there something else on ebay that you can pick up?

Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

[Craiger]

The way I understood it, to have one red wire connected to the + on the battery and the other with an inline fuse connected to the normal charging system red wire would allow the R/R to run even if the inline fuse blew. Thus, hurting the system. But to have both connected to the inline fuse, when/if the fuse blew, the bike would just shut off.

I've always been more mechanically inclined and easily get confused when it comes to electricals, so....if somebody wouldn't mind....help me understand what the correct way to wire it up would be. I don't want to cause any premature damage.

If what you're saying is true, Basscliff, then I need to do some re-wiring.

[BassCliff]

Cooking with electrons

You do raise an intriguing point Mr. Craiger.

Taking the r/r positive output (2 red wires in this case); Plugging one into the normal wiring harness (red) input will route that r/r output through the fuse in the fusebox on its way to the battery. Connecting the other directly to the battery (+) terminal does require its own fuse for safety. If there is a problem, and both of the fuses are the same value, they should both open almost simultaneously. That's my theory anyway. This is an important issue that I will present to Mr. Nessism and get his opinion. That's also the way he's wired his 7-wire regulator and he reports no problems.

Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

[Craiger]

You do raise an intriguing point Mr. Craiger.

Taking the r/r positive output (2 red wires in this case); Plugging one into the normal wiring harness (red) input will route that r/r output through the fuse in the fusebox on its way to the battery. Connecting the other directly to the battery (+) terminal does require its own fuse for safety. If there is a problem, and both of the fuses are the same value, they should both open almost simultaneously. That's my theory anyway. This is an important issue that I will present to Mr. Nessism and get his opinion. That's also the way he's wired his 7-wire regulator and he reports no problems.

Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

Okay....that was a bit different than what I was thinking. I understand the need for the inline fuse between the R/R and the + on the battery....and to run an inline fuse to the normal charging system red wire would be two fuses in series. Doesn't seem like it would hurt anything as I would think one would fail right after the other (I could be very wrong).

For some reason, I was thinking to have a fuse inline connected to the + on the battery and one in parallel to the fuse box would require twice the amperage/voltage/or whatever it is that takes it to fail....to fail....but again, I get easily confused when it comes to electricals.

I'll be patiently waiting for a layman's explanation to how I should have it wired. I still need to check the resistance across my battery terminals while the bike is running to verify that the R/R is working properly.

Does anyone else get as confused as I do with this stuff?

[Nessism]

If you look at the 1980 850 wiring diagram, conveniently posted on BassCliff’s web site, the hot wire leaving the R/R splits – one leg goes to the ignition switch and the other goes to a fuse which then connects to the battery. The ignition switch leg, once it’s switched to ON, goes over to the fuse block and feeds three different fused circuits.

My CRB R/R is wired into my 850 with one red feeding the harness and the other feeding the battery with in-line fuse. Not sure its strictly necessary to feed the ignition direct from the R/R like Suzuki did, but I followed their lead and wired mine that same way. The power feeding through the ignition then goes into fuses of their own so the power is fused either way.

At any rate, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.