I always believed that going on a trip charged the battery.

[Anonymous]

I ride my trusty old GS 1000 to work every day, the battery is always a little low - 13V max - I put this down to not enough charge during the 20 min. trip. Went down to cheer for Troy at Philip Island . . . wouldn't start the next morning. This has happened four times now. An hour on the highway and the motor does the occasional little miss, push start to ride home with the headlight off (illegal here in Victoria in Oz.), and she starts and runs beautifully again for all those little trips to work. I recon it must be to do with the regulator, I read the stuff on this site about it, but looking at the wiring diagrams in my manual, it seems that it was only the early models that were wired funny. Should I put in a Honda ( I'd rather eat worms ) regulator or something. It's Christmas Holidays and Lorraine and I want to go away for a few days next week, but seeing as how Suzi seems to love going to work and hates holidays, we have a problem.

[Dink]

You only need a new regulater/rectifier these are available brand new aftermarket, for about $120 Aus.
Dink

[SqDancerLynn1]

The third leg of the stator runs thru the headlight switch I would check the stator & rewire the headlight loop direct to the regulator

[focus frenzy]

I would check and replace the stator connectors to the harness first.
these connections are prone to corroding and loosing contact.

[Nerobro]

I am all for the honda regulator. I know you'd rather eat worms but you never hear anyone complaining about honda electricals.

the Electrex regulator/rectifiers, and stators are the top shelf stuff. But I can vouch for the honda stuff. :-) I can even give you a hand on hooking up the honda bits.

[SqDancerLynn1]

Fix the wiring first, like I said. Check the stator. Do not replace the reg with out checking the stator. If money is tight The Honda reg is a great replacement & will probably mount in the same holes as the original. I have had a honda reg on my 850 for two years now. Paid $15 for it

[Dink]

I am all for the honda regulator. I know you'd rather eat worms but you never hear anyone complaining about honda electricals.

the Electrex regulator/rectifiers, and stators are the top shelf stuff. But I can vouch for the honda stuff. :-) I can even give you a hand on hooking up the honda bits.

Dont hang around too many VFR owners do you? or ST owners?
Honda electrics were as dodgey as everyone else's around that period, there were just more of them sold.
There are brand new replacement Rec/Regs made these days that are only slightly more expensive than second hand stuff, so why would you bother to go secondhand.
Dink

[Nerobro]

$15 versus $134?

[Dink]

$15 versus $134?

I suppose this is the difference between Oz and the US in Oz a s/h Rec/reg will cost about $45, and a brand new aftermarket replacement about $90.
Dink

[Nerobro]

That seems odd. I thought electrex was a brittish brand. :-) I have purchased two r/r's for less than $15 each. I just went with the largest physcial one I could find. (that happened to be one from a CX500)

[martin]

BTW i wouldn't bother riding around with your headlight on in the day either...
it's not illegal in Victoria, and never has been.
there was a short lived Australian Design Rule (ADR) that mandated head lights on all the time, but that was repealed a while back after pressure from bike groups.
if you're in melbourne you might see me on my black GS1000G (with a silver rack) riding to work every day!

[Keith Winter]

First off, don't run the headlight wire from the stator to the reg. The switch for the headlight turns on the AC from your stator directly to the rectifier. This is unregulated voltage and is generaly why the battery will slowly over charge on the old 1000's As the voltage when you turn on the headlight is unregulated and your battery runs down when you have the headlight on, it may not be your reg at all. My 78 1000 did the same as yours when I got it and it was the stator that was bad. The reg and rec worked just fine. I tested the output of the stator and it was no where near the 80 volts AC on each set of wires. After I re-wound the stator, it took about an hour and cost $3 for the wire, I have more than enough power. If you have run your battery down that many times, you will have to get a new battery. Any voltage testing you do with a shot battery will produce incorect readings. If you have any questions, feel free to e-mail me direct.
Keith

[Poot]

Going on short trips doesnt really charge the battery much, as opposed to longer rides which would recharge the battery more.

[Anonymous]

Thanks everyone for the input. Spent yesterday afternoon really getting stuck into the old thing. Cleaned the grungy Alt-V Reg. connections. The problem MAY be that I found there is no little metal slider in the headlight switch - the one that connects Reg & Alt. It was probably there a long time ago as there is wear on the circuit board track. So only 2 segments of the Alt have been connected! So I wired it directly as you suggested SqDancer and saw 13.5V across tthe battery when I fired her up ! A first! Didn't see your post until this morning Keith, but in the light of what I know now, that all makes sense, so if she does start overcharging - glory be, a too full battery ! - I'll hunt around for another switch block and put the wiring back to standard. I did a volts check on the Alt. some time back and it was pretty close to the 80V that Suzuki specify.

[GARYEIN1]

I ALWAYS BELIEVED GOING ON A TRIP CHARGED THE BATTEREY

BOUGHT A NEW REG/REC FROM DENNIS KIRK FOR $80 US
REDID THE CONNECTORS NOW GETTING 13.5-14.5 VOLTS
OUT OF THE CHARGING SYSTEM
81 ACROSS THE BOARD FROM THE STATOR ON A 85 GS550L
IT WAS WORTH THE MONEY