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Replaced Regulator/Rectifier
The bike 1980 GS(x)750L 16 valve one.
The rider 1958 non mechanical skinny Scotsman.
Now this might be old news to most folk on here, but for the sake of the electrically challenged , such as myself, I thought I'd put this up in the hope that it gives somebody else a bit of courage.
I have had a wee problem with my gs750 since I have owned it, just really losing power and flattening the battery after a while, but nothing desperate, I could work round it.
Anyway, a few months back I ordered a replacement (refurbished) r/r from Duanage on here. He does a great job of them, packages loads of wee handy bits, even the mount bolts, to replace the phillips screws that hold it on. Even with postage to the UK it was one of the best bargains I ever bought. Thanks , you do a grand job.
Anyway, I was a nervous wreck about doing mine, but finally plucked up the courage this evening, as I had the starter motor out for a wee tinker about (never seen the inside of one before, they are proper wierd things)
While the battery was on charge (again, yawn) I whipped off the main power lead to the fusebox to have a nosey, since it had some suspicious looking electricians tape on it. Sure enough, peeled back that horrible tacky plastic stuff, and the wire had been cut for some reason, then twisted together and covered with elec. tape.
Time to get the trusty soldering iron out. (I say trusty, but I have only used it once before, and that was to try and figure out how it worked). Joy of joys, 20 minutes later, a burnt knee (we won't go into that, ok) and I had the wire back on, gloriously soldered (about 3lbs of solder actually) and covered in heat shrink thing (first time using that, heat gun did it a treat)
On with the show. Remember I mentioned that I had the battery on charge, well, on my gs(x)750, you need to remove the airbox to get to the battery. This is a 1 minute job, I have done it so often I could do it in the dark. I mention this because, with the airbox out of the way, you can get at all the wiring with tons of space for hands, tape, bandages etc.
I would never have thought to remove it, thats why I mention it
So, I can see my r/r, I track all the wires, one wire came out of the r/r and connected back onto the r/r mount. I decided that that was almost certainly the earth.
There were 3 yellow wires going up out of it, and there was 1 red wire going up out of it.
I checked the new r/r. Oh nooo, it has 6 wires. I have one too many wires. To make matters worse, the 6th wire had another connector dangling off of it, eeek, end of project. (Well, nearly). I made a coffee and decided to stop being a complete coward and get this thing sorted.
Read through http://members.dslextreme.com/users/bikecliff/ site section on replacing r/r , and spotted the bit about some bikes have a 6th wire , a sensor or something. Aha! So I went for it, and taped the bugger up, out of harms way
The other wires, I traced the red from the original r/r, it went into a big rubber cover. I got right into it, and pulled it out from the bullet connector, keeping a hold of the end it came out of. Stuck the new red one in there in it's place.
The yellow ones, I traced the yellow ones from the original r/r, they went over to the left a bit. I pulled the three out of their bullet connectors, and plugged in the 3 from the new r/r.
The green wire was clearly the replacement for the earth wire, but , having seen many times people mention earthing to the battery being an improvement, and with the bit of wire being long enough (Duanage, yay!!) , I went the whole hog and put it onto the negative (BLACK) battery terminal.
Job done. Took me about 2 hours in total, because I went over it and over it and over it in my head till I was clear about what exactly needed doing.
I hope this is some sort of encouragement to folk to have a go. Just keep looking at it and thinking about it, and reading the stuff on here, even if it is not relevant right now, it sticks in your head.
I honestly was scared I would screw this all up and my beloved gs would never go again. It was easy, it just was new to me, and because I didn't understand every single aspect and reason behind it all I was lacking confidence.
Now this is about a r/r , but if you've not done your valves yet, maybe take encouragement and have a go. Or balance your carbs, or change brake fluid. Whatever the challenge is, it is doable, and there are some really helpful folk on here (there are some right twats as well, but hey, can't win them all)
My next mountain is stripping the carbs, but I've got a cunning plan. I'm gonna buy a 2nd set, and strip them and fiddle about, till I have 1/2 a clue what all those horribly complicated and tiny things are. It'll need to wait, I need to get out on the bike and remind myself of the sheer joy of being on it.
Big thanks go to
Duanage (when do I get my commission for all the publicity)
BikeCliff/BassCliff/MisterGreetyMan (awesome site mate)
Mr Basic (for the awesome 16 valve adjustment guide)
Mister Suzuki (for building my bike in the first place)
The rider 1958 non mechanical skinny Scotsman.
Now this might be old news to most folk on here, but for the sake of the electrically challenged , such as myself, I thought I'd put this up in the hope that it gives somebody else a bit of courage.
I have had a wee problem with my gs750 since I have owned it, just really losing power and flattening the battery after a while, but nothing desperate, I could work round it.
Anyway, a few months back I ordered a replacement (refurbished) r/r from Duanage on here. He does a great job of them, packages loads of wee handy bits, even the mount bolts, to replace the phillips screws that hold it on. Even with postage to the UK it was one of the best bargains I ever bought. Thanks , you do a grand job.
Anyway, I was a nervous wreck about doing mine, but finally plucked up the courage this evening, as I had the starter motor out for a wee tinker about (never seen the inside of one before, they are proper wierd things)
While the battery was on charge (again, yawn) I whipped off the main power lead to the fusebox to have a nosey, since it had some suspicious looking electricians tape on it. Sure enough, peeled back that horrible tacky plastic stuff, and the wire had been cut for some reason, then twisted together and covered with elec. tape.
Time to get the trusty soldering iron out. (I say trusty, but I have only used it once before, and that was to try and figure out how it worked). Joy of joys, 20 minutes later, a burnt knee (we won't go into that, ok) and I had the wire back on, gloriously soldered (about 3lbs of solder actually) and covered in heat shrink thing (first time using that, heat gun did it a treat)
On with the show. Remember I mentioned that I had the battery on charge, well, on my gs(x)750, you need to remove the airbox to get to the battery. This is a 1 minute job, I have done it so often I could do it in the dark. I mention this because, with the airbox out of the way, you can get at all the wiring with tons of space for hands, tape, bandages etc.
I would never have thought to remove it, thats why I mention it
So, I can see my r/r, I track all the wires, one wire came out of the r/r and connected back onto the r/r mount. I decided that that was almost certainly the earth.
There were 3 yellow wires going up out of it, and there was 1 red wire going up out of it.
I checked the new r/r. Oh nooo, it has 6 wires. I have one too many wires. To make matters worse, the 6th wire had another connector dangling off of it, eeek, end of project. (Well, nearly). I made a coffee and decided to stop being a complete coward and get this thing sorted.
Read through http://members.dslextreme.com/users/bikecliff/ site section on replacing r/r , and spotted the bit about some bikes have a 6th wire , a sensor or something. Aha! So I went for it, and taped the bugger up, out of harms way
The other wires, I traced the red from the original r/r, it went into a big rubber cover. I got right into it, and pulled it out from the bullet connector, keeping a hold of the end it came out of. Stuck the new red one in there in it's place.
The yellow ones, I traced the yellow ones from the original r/r, they went over to the left a bit. I pulled the three out of their bullet connectors, and plugged in the 3 from the new r/r.
The green wire was clearly the replacement for the earth wire, but , having seen many times people mention earthing to the battery being an improvement, and with the bit of wire being long enough (Duanage, yay!!) , I went the whole hog and put it onto the negative (BLACK) battery terminal.
Job done. Took me about 2 hours in total, because I went over it and over it and over it in my head till I was clear about what exactly needed doing.
I hope this is some sort of encouragement to folk to have a go. Just keep looking at it and thinking about it, and reading the stuff on here, even if it is not relevant right now, it sticks in your head.
I honestly was scared I would screw this all up and my beloved gs would never go again. It was easy, it just was new to me, and because I didn't understand every single aspect and reason behind it all I was lacking confidence.
Now this is about a r/r , but if you've not done your valves yet, maybe take encouragement and have a go. Or balance your carbs, or change brake fluid. Whatever the challenge is, it is doable, and there are some really helpful folk on here (there are some right twats as well, but hey, can't win them all)
My next mountain is stripping the carbs, but I've got a cunning plan. I'm gonna buy a 2nd set, and strip them and fiddle about, till I have 1/2 a clue what all those horribly complicated and tiny things are. It'll need to wait, I need to get out on the bike and remind myself of the sheer joy of being on it.
Big thanks go to
Duanage (when do I get my commission for all the publicity)
BikeCliff/BassCliff/MisterGreetyMan (awesome site mate)
Mr Basic (for the awesome 16 valve adjustment guide)
Mister Suzuki (for building my bike in the first place)
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