charging system up grade

[duaneage]

They can be had just about any day of the week on Ebay for about the same money. Not trying to step on Duane's toes here, just stating the truth. These R/Rs are only a year or two old. Unless things have changed Duane's come from bikes from the early '80s. The newer Honda regs are also about twice the size of the GS units.

Either is a great option, but some people don't have soldering irons, heat shrink tubing, or crimp tools. And waiting for an ebay seller to ship an item can be trying, Lord knows I have experience in this area. Sometimes they send a totally different model than pictured.

I've tested Honda RRs from early as 78 and they still work. And they are still charging GS bikes today. At 450 watts of capacity, they double the capacity of the charging system regulator over OEM. I don't have specs on the newer RRs so I can't comment on what they put out.

Don't worry about my toes, I'm wearing safety boots. I try to stay with the same Honda RR everyone is familiar with because I don't know if the newer RRs will turn out to last as long as the old ones. How do we know the new RRs are going to stand the test of time? After all, they are most certainly made in China at the lowest cost point possible. So far I have not found a defective SDG Honda RR yet and I've tested more than anyone.

[Tazman001]

Ya, picked up two

off fleabay..

Looks to be the same part as the 1000RR. Hooks up the same as your GS regulator. Three yellow wires from the stator, red for positive, and green for ground. Also no sensor wire to hook up. Just wait for a good deal on one. I've picked up two of them off Ebay. One cost me $30 plus shipping and the other $40 plus shipping.

Got the 929 one for 99¢ +shipping and a '07 600RR regulator for $10.50 +shipping. A good deal on both I think. You're right, three yellow wires, two reds, and two greens. Thanks for the wiring help! Haven't checked the charging on either GS yet, but I think the 750 ain't charging from the explanation I got from the PO. Gotta finish the carb cleaning yet.

[highmileage]

A lot of you have resorted to the Honda r/r conversions with excellent results. They seem to be less fragile than the OEM GS part.

But after much discussion here, it was determined that what fries the GS r/r is heat and a bad ground.

Your GS r/r is mounted to the battery box which is rubber mounted to the frame, and the only ground is a puny wire. Another wire run from the mounting bolt to either the frame or the negative battery terminal helps.

To combat heat, at least GSer has resorted to mounting a little computer fan to blow on his r/r.

But here's what I did. I extended the wires to the r/r, ran them under the tank, and mounted it up front next to the horn where an awful lot of other bikes have them (some others put it on the lower triple clamp or down near the bottom front of the motor). Mine's bolted to the frame and it's in the wind. It looks clean and it works. Superior grounding and cooling over the stock position with no parts replaced.

I have since put over 30K miles on this GS and it still has its original r/r and charges just fine, thank you.

[jacora]

Not installed R/R as yours

Billy;
I already purchased a R/R from Honda CBR1000RR.
How is working the no sense wire R/R in your bike??
Does it gets hot??
Does the stator wires gets hot or melt down??
Honda sense wire units looks to be better because provides charge modulation to the charge system and avoids overheating of R/R.
So, I am curious about the fact that Honda provides sense and non sense wire in their bikes. Please let me know.
I WOULD LIKE TO BRING TO DISCUSSION DIFFERENCES IN OPERATION IF ANY.

[CB900SS]

I am very curious about this thread myself. My 1150 burned the R/R when I first purchased it, a used replacement swapped in and it charges fine. But I think I would like to keep my eyes open for a newer honda unit from ebay, then go through and test the stator and swap in the honda R/R.

Question- What is this sense wire I keep hearing about eliminating?

[tkent02]

As far as Suzuki RRs go..... If it aint broke, ride 500 miles from home and it will be.

My ass!
Lots of Suzukis here, no failures.
Maybe it's just me.

[dardoonk]

My ass!
Lots of Suzukis here, no failures.
Maybe it's just me.

GOD!!! Your luck is better than mine! I even managed to eat up a Dunnaege R/R.
I think my stator cooked it before I could figure out it was bad too... Ended up with a freebie from a local guy who used to work on Gold Wings... Perfect now!

[srsupertrap]

Sense Wire Explanation, please

Looks to be the same part as the 1000RR. Hooks up the same as your GS regulator. Three yellow wires from the stator, red for positive, and green for ground. Also no sensor wire to hook up.

I have seen some newer Honda CBR R&R listed on EBay with what appears to be three yellow wires, 2 Red wires & 2 green wires. Are the extra red & green wires the sense wires other have mentioned? I could use an explanation regarding their function and wiring into the GS harness.

Thanks

[rustybronco]

srsupertrap,

The three yellow wires connect to the three wires from the stator.
then connect the two reds together and connect them to the wire that was going to the fuse box (usually a red wire also).
connect the two green wires together and connect them to a GOOD ground. some suggest connecting the green ground wires to the negative post of the battery. I don't do it that way, I just find two clean grounds to connect the green wires to.

The sense wire (if used) will usually black or brown.

using a separate sense wire is just one of many methods used to read the battery voltage level, so the R/R can properly set the voltage output of the charging system.

makes "sense" now?

[srsupertrap]

Rustybronco,

Your explanation made a lot of sense to me. Last question, if you were to install a Honda CBR R&R with a back or brown sense wire in one of our GS's would you hook it up the sense wire to the Battery positive terminal or leave it disconnected?

Thanks for making sense of this . . . hitting the road now

[BassCliff]

Hi,

The sense wire gets connected to any 12v source that is active once the ignition switch is turned on. Most often this is connected to the rear brake light switch, but there are other places.


Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

[rustybronco]

Rustybronco,
would you hook it up the sense wire to the Battery positive terminal or leave it disconnected?

Thanks for making sense of this . . . hitting the road now

If you leave the sense wire disconnected, the R/R wont charge properly (the charging system voltage will be all over the place).
you must connect it the way basscliff suggested.

make sure the wire you connect it to, has the same voltage on it (or within about .2 volts), as the measured battery voltage. you may need to clean all the connections going to the source of the voltage "tap" you connect the sense wire to, in order to obtain proper a voltage signal for the R/R.

a wiring diagram will help greatly to find those connections.
the diagram is found at the back of the owners manual, or basscliff has some links to them.

making a little more "sense" now?

[Steve]

I have added several accessories to my wife's '82 850L, so I fabricated a terminal strip to power them. Power to the strip comes from the battery, through a relay that is triggered by a circuit that is controlled by the ignition switch. Sounds convoluted, but works very well, the voltage at the terminal switch is exactly what it is at the battery, so that is where I hooked up the sense wire.

I only got a picture during the installation, not after it was done, but you get the idea. The top two rows are connected together and are fed by the relay via the blue wire. The other wires there feed the sense wire, CB radio, volt meter, GPS and tail light (keeps the tail light from dimming when the brakes are applied). The third row is fed by the red wire, which is the NC terminal on the relay (87a) and is live when the ignition key is OFF. This is to allow decorative LEDs to be turned on when the bike is off. Wires going to the LEDs were added after the picture was taken. The fourth row comes from the two switches in the lower right corner of the picture, which determine whether the LEDs are on and whether they come on with the bike on or off. The bottom two rows are all the ground wires for all the accessories.

A little fabrication work like this really keeps down the rat's nest usually seen under the covers.



.

[not a biker]

Being that i am not having problems i think i will make a new groung cable from the r&r to a good ground and make sure all my connections are clean and tight.