TOPIC:

Ok didn't get very far yesterday on the bike but I did confirm my cheapo meter that I was taking with me has lost its accuracy, when checked with my bench meter I got a constant 13 VDC from the battery.

Oh and I have a 10amp blade fuse on the relay box I built on the bike for the coil mod and the 2 headlight relays.

I spent most of the night re-routing and checking connections from mid bike back, hopefully tonight I can get things like I want them now from there to the headlight bucket wiring nest.

I've decided to go ahead and order a replacement R/R, probably the Electrosport one as it is a different mfg., before I continue with my tinkering on the fuel system I'll verify the new R/R fixed the issue and report it here.

I posted some ramblings on 79MKII's reg/rec thread. I think you are getting the same unit he got from electrosport?

KZ_Rage wrote: That Electrosport trouble shooting guide is one of the best I've ever read, thanks for that link!

Yes, they have a great guide, but I do NOT recommend their reg/rectifiers. I fried at least 3 of these on my 82 kz750 e3 before replacing it with a Rick's reg/rect. Though, I do have an Electrosport stator and that is holding up nicely.

Well I will have to look at the Electrosport unit again today before ordering anything as I have the 6 wire R/R. The odd thing about the way my R/R went bad was that it would sometimes at first just delay the turning off of the Brown wire circuit lights and such, then as it progressed it would take more time as if it were cooling down to a pint where the diode worked, that kind of goes against my experience with diodes as they usually are or are not good and not intermittent.

I tried Ricks website link MFolks had posted but it is definitely hacked or incorrect, anyone got a different link?

Yeah, I forgot about the temperature related symptoms. So it's probably not just a simple diode, then.

Here's the one for 77/78 1000A.
www.denniskirk.com/jsp/product_catalog/P...afCatId=&mmyId=10274

Here's the one for 79 1000ST.
www.denniskirk.com/jsp/product_catalog/P...eafCatId=&mmyId=1656

Ok I decided to hold up on ordering as I sort this out in my head a bit. The Dennis Kirk/ Ricks is the same one that Z1E sold me before, it has a very distinctive casting (guess it could be just utilizing the same casting but that seems unlikely).

The oreganmotorcycleparts has my attention but I noticed that the unit they have for big 4's is a 5 lead so that got me to thinking, if I got that unit then the only thing it could ever do would be to send 14.5VDCto the battery as long as the battery's voltage was under that value, since it doesn't have a Brown lead it can't "see" the Brown lead's power like the old one does to determine if that lead was indicating a battery discharge below the 14.5 threshold right? Would the 6 wire behave the same or would it just continue to charge and toast the battery if I just left the Brown lead unplugged?I'd like to not toast my glass-mat battery.

I'm thinking the newer R/R has the sensing circuitry built in and doesn't need the brown sensor wire...but not sure on that. Hopefully someone will chime in to confirm. Especially since mine is now wired without the brown wire!

Either of you two try a Diode in your brown sense wire, to stop the feedback, and see if the rest of the unit functions properly.

Nope.

Can you spec one from America's #1 Source of Remote Control Toys for Christmas? (AKA: Radio Shack) If they don't we have several places here but they are bulk qty shops so I'd use 1 and store 99-999 in my shop until the end of the world!

Never placed a diode in a circuit before so any guidance on which end to put toward positive would also be helpful.

In my case the R/R was just wired incorrectly...I had the output feeding into the brown wire instead of the battery.

In KZRage's case though, it sounds like a faulty regulator and the diode would be worth trying.

I should think that this should do it easily, that is only a sense circuit and not a charge circuit, so the current should be well under this.
www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2062591
In your brown sense wire you want the currant to flow one way Only. I would suspect that the diode on the R/R assy has failed, or is leaking. So on the pigtail that is part of the R/R cut the brown wire so you have room to work, in 1/2 or something. Then with some solder and heat shrink place the diode in where you made the cut. Now you will see the gray stripe on the diode, this is the end which will be facing towards where you want the current to flow. Which is Into the R/R. It also may have an arrow on it as some do. This is the direction of current flow. It is just a 1 way valve, like a door that opens from 1 side only. So with this end facing towards the R/R assy. attach it with solder and heat shrink over for insulation. then hook back up and retest your charging system, Voltage across battery @4K RPM.

79MKII wrote: In my case the R/R was just wired incorrectly...I had the output feeding into the brown wire instead of the battery.

In KZRage's case though, it sounds like a faulty regulator and the diode would be worth trying.

so you had the Red/ White striped wire out of the R/R hooked into the Brown wire circuit? How long was it like that? The RW is like 12 gauge and the Br is only 16 or something. The RW would try to recharge the battery through the BRN back through the Ign switch and fuse panel, back through he main fuse, to Batt +