Interesting comparison: Elextrix RR versus Suz RR

[Anonymous]

A little history. Bout 3-4 yrs and 10K miles ago. My original stator died at 35K miles. I replaced the stator and RR with the Elextrix units. As I recall at the time I was not sure of the cond. of the RR. But I was advised and it seemed wise just to replace both.

My charging system wked great till now when it again quit charging.
Following the Stator papers and Earlfor's excellent! post to the recent stator papers post. I checked the charging system. I had 80 volts on all 3 stages of the stator. But the RR tests showed it to be toast. No charge seemed to be getting through from the Stator.

So just for grins, I dug up the 23 yr. old RR and installed.
Problem fixed. Now get 14 volts at 5K rpm ( with the headlight fuse pulled. I could not get out of the 12's with the Elex. Anyway not knocking the Elex unit at all. I am sure it is a fine piece.

O yea I also renewed all the connections to make sure they were good.

Of course I have not tried the RR long term yet. But I just took a 70 mile test ride. Stopping along the way and doing about 10 starts. No problems
(yet).

It was fun actually trying to fix something and having it work. Didn't even have to wait for new parts. Thanks again to Earlfor for his always excellent posts on anything GS.

LM

[scotty]

Many folks elect the part swap as a quick fix and miss the usual problem of poor conections and grounds. The real problem gets eliminated while installing the new part.

[SqDancerLynn1]

DO YOU HAVE an extra ground wire for the regulator-- from the battery
(-) to the case of the reg?? A bad ground can contribute to a low voltage reading and a short reg/rect life

[Anonymous]

RR Ground

Lynn,
Thanks for pointing that out.

Yes I do have a separate ground wire from the battery to the ground lead on thr RR.

Unfortunitely my good fortune did not last to long as after 100 miles riding the battery ran down again.

I am still getting 80 volts on all 3 fields of the stator. With the headlight fuse pulled I can get 14 volts at the battery at 5 K RPM. But with the lights on only getting about 12.5 v.

I am trying to follow all the tests on the stator papers 5. But I am not getting the test results that make sence to me.

Kind of at a loss here.

Back to the drawing board.

Charlie

[SqDancerLynn1]

The third leg of the stator that runs from the stator to the light switch and back to the reg. Run it direct from the stator to the reg. Re check all of your connections---- failing that go back and recheck the reg/rect

[Anonymous]

The third leg of the stator that runs from the stator to the light switch and back to the reg. Run it direct from the stator to the reg. Re check all of your connections---- failing that go back and recheck the reg/rect

Thanks Lynn,
I am trying to understand. There are 3 wires from the stator run to 3 wires on the RR. Then there is a red lead from the RR that runs to the red into the harness that leads to the light switch (I presume). And the black ground lead that I have run direst to the neg side of the batt.

So I am not quite following. It seems all 3 legs of the stator are now running directly to the RR. Then the red lead runs from the RR to the light switch. But my bike is over in my buddies house and I am doing this from memory. I will have to look it all over again and see if I am missing something. Does what I am trying to describe make sense?

I really don't mind laying out the $115? for a new electrix RR. I just want to make sure that I don't get a new one and that not being the problem.

Thanks so much for the help. Sorry this elect stuff seems to always confuse me.

Charlie

[SqDancerLynn1]

THE red wire goes to the battery (+)

[Anonymous]

Thank You!
I will give that a try.
Charlie

[Sandy]

Go buy bag of bullet connectors and replace (crimp and solder) any connectors that look flakey. Replace both the male and female connector at the same time. Also check all grounds and use a star washer under the ring connectors. If one of the stator wires is running to the headlight switch, bypass it and run it directly to R/R. If you are still having problems then a new R/R is probably in order, but at least you don't have to worry about any bad connections. Poor connections are usually what causes the charging problem to begin with and can also result in inconsistent meter readings when trying to diagnose where the problem is. Otherwise, changing parts will usually only fix the problem temporarily and you'll be back doing the repair again.

Added: On my 79 GS1000 there is a red wire in wiring harness that is +12VDC all the time and is where the original R/R is plugged in. What I do is plug the red wire from the R/R into that as well as run a wire directly to the positive battery terminal. If you only want to run one wire, run it to the battery. As the now vacant bullet connector is exposed make sure you tape it up to avoid any shorting to ground.

[Anonymous]

Thanks Sandy,
I am getting ready to go over and do what you suggest. I did solder the connections from the stator to the RR and renewed the connections in the immeadiate area. But I have a windjammer and over the years various radios/lights/horns and the like have been installed and removed etc. Plus the main harness from the windjammer etc. etc. Could be screwing up things.

Like I said, when I pull the headlight fuse the chage rate at 5K goes from around 12.3v to 14 V. I don't know if that is normal or not. But sounds like to big a difference to me.

Sooooooo Here goes ripping out the old the suspect jury-rigged wiring and hoping to get everything ship shape again. I always hestitated to attack the wiring as all present lights and such are working. But I want to eliminate that as the culprit here.

BTW I have tried another low milage (Suz 850) RR and getting exactly the same results. I will try to go thru the wiring before buying a new RR>

Thanks,
Charlie

[Sandy]

Glad to be of help. Also those connectors that came with the old windjammers are garbage for long term use. You know, the ones that allow you to splice a new wire onto an existing wire by crimping them together. I forget what they're called, but get rid of them too.

[Nerobro]

You got the name right, they are crimp connectors..... solder is my friend. :-)

[Anonymous]

Well, I spent the afternoon going through my wiring. It looks like the dual horns and relay may have been the root of my problems. I pulled the relay and associated wiring. And I am now getting 12.7 v with the lights burning (80/100 bulb) and better than 15.2 v with the light fuse pulled.
Best I could get before was 12.3v and 14v.

Getting the better numbers with all 3 RR units that I have tried. I have not been able to test ride yet to confirm if my charging problems are solved. But it looks like all you experts saying that wiring was the usuall culprit were spot on. I know I have to road test this before I get to excited. But it may be I have 3 good RR units instead of laying out the bucks for a new RR.

Thanks again for all the help!!
Charlie

PS. I will post back when I know for sure if I have this problem solved.