17 V to Battery

[mshowe]

I put everything together last night from my Starter Clutch Bolt repair.  During the repair, I soldered RR, Stator wires and everything that was corroded, etc.  I thought that would fix my 17V going to my batter.  Well, it DID NOT.

I have an extra RR that I got off ebay; however, I am not sure if it's good.

Any recommendations?  Can I test my RR?  Can I test my replacement?  Maybe I should get a new one from Rick's?

Thank you for any thoughts.  BTW, it started and ran great! I believe I do need a carburator clean job as I have to pump the throttle on my first start unless I've ridden her the last couple of hours.

[supervision]

If Your R/R has a brown wire, cut it and splice it to the red wire, before it goes the main harness.  If that doesn't cure it, you need a R/R

[The Prophet of Doom]

OK, but splicing the red into brown wire will give you a diagnosis, not a cure.  If you splice the red into the brown, you will only ever trickle charge, and so will risk running the battery flat over time with lights etc on.  If the splice does fix the voltage at battery, you have a voltage drop somewhere in your system that will need attending to.

Testing your r/r is fairly easy, and best to do before you fry your stator and/or CDI.  Follow the electrex fault finding and diode testing guides here:
http://www.electrosport.com/technical-resources/diagnosis-center

Pumping throttle on first start is not unusual - all visions have their own starting sequence

[supervision]

 The sense wire is a case of over thinking how to tell the regulator when to shunt off extra voltage. The way it is stock, causes likely overcharge condition because the poor old junk wire has a voltage drop, and so it tells the reg were not at 14 1/2 yet, keep charging! And so that is why your seeing 17. If you cut the brown wire before the r/r plugs to the main harness, and splice into the red wire, you will have a no voltage drop condition, thus making for correct regulation at 14 1/2     Late model R/R's only have 3 ac wires, and 2 dc wires for that reason. 

[fret not]

Mshowe, you need a meter to test the Reg/Rec and the stator, simple enough and not expensive for one that will do the job.  $20 will get a fairly nice one and $10 will still get a decent one.  Radio Shack and Harbor Fright have them.  I hope your other Reg rec is good.

[davexz]

I installed a newer R&R (FH010BA) from a Kaw ZX10 or other Yamahas, etc.  It is a transitorized unit that is not a shunt circuit but I'm thinking/hoping a circuit that duty cycles the stator current as needed to maintain the correct voltage.  If the stator current is duty cycled it should run cooler, if it runs cooler and heat is the cause of failures then there stator should last longer.  Anyway that whats I did.  I haven't put a lot of miles on it yet but I am getting a rock solid 14.4 volts at idle and I can tell it is keeping the battery charged better because after working on the bike I sometimes put the charger on it to top off the battery, now when I put the charger on it the charger green light is solid green and it says I don't need a charge.   So far I'm a believer in the new R&Rs.

[jasonm.]

R/R brown wire, brown wire, brown wire.....not the stator

[mshowe]

I finally got back on this project last night.  Thanks for everyone that commented.

I joined brown wire to red prior to main harness and still 17V to battery.  I had a RR that I got off ebay, broke my solder on old RR and joined new RR and same results. 

I have a multimeter, but I am not sure I can go through the flow chart for diagnosis as provided by another post.  So, I may bring it to a shop and see if we can debug it together or I may spend some time and sift through the flow chart.

My question is this, any hunches from you fellas?  2 bad R/R?  Bad connection?  I checked my ground connection from the battery.  Where does the ground from the R/R go?  The harness is a bit dicey to see where things actually go.

Thoughts?  Advice? 

Thank you!

[Lucky]

I think if you can solder, you can do the Elecrosport chart.
read it thru a time or two, ask questions & save the $$ you'd pay someone.
plus you'll have the satisfaction of doing it yourself, & being able to do it again if you need to.

could you have 2 bad R/R's?  sure anything is possable. it wouldn't be the first time...

[The Prophet of Doom]

could you have 2 bad R/R's?  sure anything is possable. it wouldn't be the first time...

I have a little pile of four or five r/rs that all test bad.  My theory is that defective r/rs are the primary cause of buggered stators

[Walt_M.]

Any chance your voltmeter is reading high?

[mshowe]

I did some more debugging.  It appears I have two bad RR.

What are the current thoughts on getting a "known" good R/R?

Thanks fellas.

[Lucky]

if your going to buy a used one, & your picking it up, test it before you buy it.  print off the simplified chart from my site: http://www.xz550.com/RRTESTS.jpg & bring a voltmeter.

if your buying it sight unseen, make sure you can return it first..