Honda Regulator/Rectifier

[Thomas Kenny]

The female black end is attached to the black wire that used to go to the old regulator. I don't have any tailight plugs under the seat of my GS550ES, at least that I can see. Thanks

[chef1366]

The female black end is attached to the black wire that used to go to the old regulator. I don't have any tailight plugs under the seat of my GS550ES, at least that I can see. Thanks

You have the sense wire going to ground?

[duaneage]

Sense wire to ground would cause +17 volts for sure.

Refer to the diagram below, find the orange wire that goes to the Rear brake light switch and tap into that.

[Thomas Kenny]

OK Duaneage, As I have the R/R hooked up right now, I have the three yellows plugged to the three yellows, the red to red, and the black wire female end plugged to the black/white wire from the old RR. The black male plug is not connected to anything yet. So you are telling me to hook this up to the orange/white wire from my tail light switch? If this is true I will do it but will have to splice in a piece of wire to reach my tail light switch wiring. I will await your reply before I touch anything. Thanks

[chef1366]

OK Duaneage, As I have the R/R hooked up right now, I have the three yellows plugged to the three yellows, the red to red, and the black wire female end plugged to the black/white wire from the old RR. The black male plug is not connected to anything yet. So you are telling me to hook this up to the orange/white wire from my tail light switch? If this is true I will do it but will have to splice in a piece of wire to reach my tail light switch wiring. I will await your reply before I touch anything. Thanks

If you have a Honda R/R the green wire from the R/R is ground. This should go to the frame or the negative terminal of the battery. The Black wire from the unit needs to go to a switched (on with ignition switch) 12 volt live wire. I used the rear brake switch wire. Find the rear brake switch and follow the wire where it plugs into the harness. Make a Y by soldering two wires together in a shape of a Y. The bottom of the Y will plug into the black wire off the Honda R/R. The other two will plug into where you unplugged the brake switch from the harness.
If you bought this unit from duaneage he should of included the Y wire.

[duaneage]

So you are telling me to hook this up to the orange/white wire from my tail light switch? If this is true I will do it but will have to splice in a piece of wire to reach my tail light switch wiring. I will await your reply before I touch anything. Thanks

Hook it to the Orange wire that feeds the brake light switch, it has 12 on it when the key turns on. Plug the other connector on the black wire into the switch to power the switch.

[bwringer]

It looks like there's a common misperception about wire colors on Honda R/Rs: once and for all, the black wire is NOT ground. The GREEN wire goes to ground (like house wiring), and the black wire is the sense wire -- it goes to a switched positive.


I've found that the brake light switch wire almost always has very low voltage. It goes through a lot of connectors on the way, so it's often not the best choice for the sense wire, although it is the most convenient. Test this with a voltmeter before just plugging it in.

Probe some other wires -- there are better choices. On my GS850, I tapped into a switched wire near the fusebox, and frankly, I have no idea what it does. But it reads very close to battery voltage. The down side is that I had to do some extra soldering and heat shrinking to install a pigtail for the sense wire connection.

On a couple of other bikes, I've also installed a relay on the sense wire to ensure that it gets battery voltage. That also works very well as long as you use a decent relay.

On another note, a properly installed Honda R/R barely ever gets warm to the touch, so you do not need a fan.

[Thomas Kenny]

Ok, I ran a jumper from the Orange wire to the black sense wire, and the 10 amp fuse blew. My neighbor is running some checks on the diodes with his electronic equipment. It just may be that this one quit working. When I initially installed the unit taped the sense wire to the wiring without it being hooked up to anything, and the rectifier worked fine. Then it quit working and we can't seem to get it to regulate itself. I am still getting 16-17 volts at 4000 rpm and around 14.3-14.5 at 1100 rpm idle.

Tom

[duaneage]

IF you connected the black wire to that black wire with the white stripe you effectively grounded the sense wire out. This would tell the RR it needs to up the voltage all the way because it thought there was no voltage on the bike. There is a chance the regulator did not survive this test intact.

Test the diodes first by connecting the red meter lead to the green and measuring each diode through the yellow wires. ALL wires should be disconnected from the bike.

Then put the black lead to the red and test all yellows again. Remember, nothing should be hooked to the bike.

You should read 500-530 ohms on each diode.

Next, measure the resistance between the green and the black. wire. Put the red lead to the green and black lead to black. SHould read around 1300 ohms (+- a few). Move the black meter lead to the read and it should read around 1000 ohms (+- a few). This checks the relative health of the regulator and all the RRs I come across measure the same (within a few ohms, obviously)

If you can't get normal readings on the regulator send me a PM. Meanwhile I am going to find a way to label the wires. I might put a length of orange wire on the black so it matches the feed to the rear brake light switch.

It's not easy supporting 10 years and 30 models of bikes, many I have never seen before. I just sent one to a GS300L, now that is a unique application.

[Thomas Kenny]

Well then, where do I connect the black/white wire that used to go to my Suzuki R/R???? Do I just leave cut it off and tape it over????????

[duaneage]

On some GS bikes they added these little ground wires to all the mounting plates in an attempt to improve ground returns. How well they work is a subject for another thread, but the green wire has a ring terminal on it so it can be put to the frame and dispense with the little wires.

I did not hook mine up to the RR, I used it for a ground elsewhere.

[Thomas Kenny]

http://i512.photobucket.com/albums/t327/Magnafique100/pa2205472.jpg

Here is a picture of the wires as they hooked to my old Suzuki R/R. Note the black/white wire. It was connected to the Suzuki R/R and plugged into the black/white wire in my wiring harness. So if I understand you correctly I am to avoid using this wire, and connect the black lead from the HONDA rectifier to the orange brake light switch. Correct ???

[Thomas Kenny]

http://i512.photobucket.com/albums/t327/Magnafique100/PA220549.jpg

Here is a picture of the other end of the wiring as it hooked up DIRECTLY to the Suzuki R/R body. I saved the wiring and plugs for future use but threw out the old Suzuki R/R. Tom

[duaneage]

Right. The black wire with two connectors goes to the orange on the rear brake light switch. Plug the switch into the other connector on the black wire so it has power too. Check your rear brake lights to make sure they work when you are done.

[bonanzadave]

Well then, where do I connect the black/white wire that used to go to my Suzuki R/R???? Do I just leave cut it off and tape it over????????

Tom,

Yes, disconnect it and tape over it. It appears to be a ground wire and is screwing up your whole system. I had 2 extra wires that I believe routed one leg of my stator through the kill switch. Those 2 wires are unused with my honda R/R and are now taped over and stowed. NOT used.

Lets look at your picture again....Yellow Stators are good. Red Pwr is good. Green ground is good. You can jumper from that green ground wire screw with another wire right to the battery neg (-). That will insure a good RR ground.

Now, again, disconnect that black/w stripe wire from the blue female plug and forget about it. Disconnect the orange brake light wire connector going to the brake light switch. One side is male and one side is female. Plug the male into the blue female where that black w/stripe wire was. Plug the female into that blue male thats just hanging in your pic. Done! Thats it !