R/r temperature

[550ERAT]

83 GS550E how hot do the r/r's get? after an approximately 45 min ride, I checked to see how hot the r/r was. I could barely touch it it was so hot. I have been having issues with the bike not starting hot (no prob starting cold), and thought the r/r might be an issue. All electical connections are good, grounds are good, battery good. Anything I should be concerned about?

thanks

[Billy Ricks]

83 GS550E how hot do the r/r's get? after an approximately 45 min ride, I checked to see how hot the r/r was. I could barely touch it it was so hot. I have been having issues with the bike not starting hot (no prob starting cold), and thought the r/r might be an issue. All electical connections are good, grounds are good, battery good. Anything I should be concerned about?

thanks

Best thing to do would be to check the charging rate to see if it's putting out too much voltage. You should be at around 13.5 volts. I've added a CPU fan to mine to keep air flowing across the heatsink.

[Nessism]

Heat is a reall killer on these R/R's. For some reason Suzuki undersized these parts which causes them to run hot. Make sure your bike has a good ground for the R/R. Many GS model R/R's ground through the battery box which is not good - running a dedicated ground directly over to the battery is a much better idea.

Regarding hot starting problems, the R/R won't cause that kind of problem. Common issues are carb problems or your valves are tight. While you are looking at the R/R though you might want to check the voltage at the battery when the engine is reved up - should be in the 14-15 volt range. If it's too high - above 16V, the R/R has failed.

Good luck.

[Jaguarjoe]

I have a Honda R/R and it runs very hot too. Almost too hot to touch. The last I checked, it was putting out 13 amps- 7 to run the bike and 6 to charge the battery. My voltage is 14.2 volts. All my connections are soldered and the ground is to the battery.
I don't know if all that heat is normal either.

[Peter]

Even with proper grounding, clean connectors and passing all the stator papers tests, my 750's r/r would be too hot to touch after running for 10 minutes, regardless of load.

Provided your charging system checks out okay, I second Billy's fix. I bought a $10 low-profile 70mm PC fan and that cured the overheating. It's a perfect fit and a very easy install. I just used zip ties to secure it to the r/r mounting plate and wired it into the trigger for my coil relay mod. I don't have a way to measure the temperature, but all it does now is get a little warm.

[p_s]

Does it matter if it's hot? My duaneage RR gets hot and I've put 8k miles on it. You can boil an egg on a pentium.

[Billy Ricks]

Does it matter if it's hot? My duaneage RR gets hot and I've put 8k miles on it. You can boil an egg on a pentium.

Do yourself a favor and pick up a small case fan or a large CPU fan and and place it over the heatsink. Just hook it up to a switched power supply. Won't matter if you blow the air over the heatsink or pull it off.

[550ERAT]

Awesome...thanks for all the response. I will definatley check the charging system. The hot start issue is not carb or valve related. It almost sounded like a solenoid issue. I've since re-checked all the connections and today the bike started back up hot. (Fingers crossed now). As far as the PC fan, any pictures . The space my r/r is in is very tight, I don't think I could get a fan in the space.

[Billy Ricks]

You can get CPU fans that are only about 1/4" thick. I use a fairly large case fan with the R/R relocated.

[550ERAT]

sweet, i'll look for a new place to put the r/r and see about getting a fan. where is a good place to hook up the switched hot?

[Billy Ricks]

sweet, i'll look for a new place to put the r/r and see about getting a fan. where is a good place to hook up the switched hot?

Taillight wires.

[Jaguarjoe]

I believe any orange wire is a switched hot.