96 or newer voltage regulator.

Bill Seward · Jun 25, 2007

My '85 has a piss poor charging system. I tried the crimp fix, soldering the 3 stator wires to the r/r unit, and running a ground wire from the unit to the battery. I just finished wiring the positive wire from the r/r directly to the battery, too.

Start things up cold. (Battery reads 12.6v.) Immediatly on starting, I read 14.2v at the batteryHowever, after I run it a few minutes, the voltage drops slowly to about 12.1-12.2v.
The r/r unit gets quite hot, while this is gong on....

I hear the 96 and up units have a real ground wire built in, and use an entirely different principle to regulate volts and charge battery....(They have a genuine heatsink, and do not get hot anyway)

VMaxoutlaw.com has a source for them at about $70.00.
Or are there any recommended aftermarket ones out there that work?
Or anyone got a used new style unit for sale?

Any ideas out there?

Bill Seward · Jul 7, 2007

I bought a Electrosport R/R unit from MC Superstore. $72.00 . They had free ship on orders over $75.00 , so I tossed an oil filter on the order, and wound up saving $3.00 .

Soldered everything. 3 wires to stator, and lengthened the hot and ground wires to reach battery. Note this unit has a real ground wire, not relying on the unit to ground itself through the frame. Also has generous finning to keep things cool, and mounted as stock.

How'd it work?

14.4volts on startup, 50 miles later 14.4volts!
Motor cranks like new! Took her out for another 50 miles this morning, 14.4volts! Headlight brightens when motor is revved - this didn't happen before. I have one of the Kuryakyn LED voltmeters. Ther bike keeps both green LED's on constantly. Before, it ran yellow (not good) about 90% of the time, with the occasional flash of one green LED.

I'd say it's fixed. I bought the bike new in 1985, and this problem has been with it since new. The battery going dead just happened for the first time this year, but the charging was weak since day one. I have a pair of old Gold Wing horns on the bike, and the best they could do before was manage a little squeak. Now, they blast full volume!

:hippy biker:

Buster Hymen · Jul 10, 2007

Bill Seward said:
I bought a Electrosport R/R unit from MC Superstore. $72.00 . They had free ship on orders over $75.00 , so I tossed an oil filter on the order, and wound up saving $3.00 .

Soldered everything. 3 wires to stator, and lengthened the hot and ground wires to reach battery. Note this unit has a real ground wire, not relying on the unit to ground itself through the frame. Also has generous finning to keep things cool, and mounted as stock.

How'd it work?

14.4volts on startup, 50 miles later 14.4volts!
Motor cranks like new! Took her out for another 50 miles this morning, 14.4volts! Headlight brightens when motor is revved - this didn't happen before. I have one of the Kuryakyn LED voltmeters. Ther bike keeps both green LED's on constantly. Before, it ran yellow (not good) about 90% of the time, with the occasional flash of one green LED.

I'd say it's fixed. I bought the bike new in 1985, and this problem has been with it since new. The battery going dead just happened for the first time this year, but the charging was weak since day one. I have a pair of old Gold Wing horns on the bike, and the best they could do before was manage a little squeak. Now, they blast full volume!

:hippy biker:

I've heard good things about the Electrosport R/R units, I'm glad it fixed your hot starting problems! :banana: I have an older bike with the 2 brush starter also, and if you don't have full voltage on your battery, starting is almost impossible when it is hot.

Bill Seward · Aug 22, 2007

Update on the R/R replacement...

1000 miles later, working perfectly!

Kinda makes me want to sell the Roadstar, and do a total restoration of the Max!

gleno · Nov 7, 2007

Here's another regulator upgrade/replacement/fix that should do the trick.

Lots of pictures on installation. Should be able to pick up these units second hand from the bike re-cycler / wreckers.

http://imageevent.com/jkvmax/regulatorrectifier

BLKMAX · Jun 8, 2008

Good price for a new late model R/R on ebay.
http://tinyurl.com/5svf8d

Joe

Akatora · Jun 8, 2008

Hello,

It's definitely better to upgrade to the r/r unit of the new model. I had also this problem before and decided to get the newer type. It has been working really well. I asked the genuine Yamaha unit first (cost over 200 euros here), and then ended up to buy an aftermarket unit. This was - however - also made in Japan. I just don't remember the maker.

Anyway, don't even consider getting a unit which is made for older year models. The new is bigger and it has same kind of cooling method as the air cooled cylinder heads have - and then that separate ground wire. The other connector fits directly to the existing plug. So it's bolt-on, only the ground wire must be connected somewhere.

Oh yeah - and the price for this brand new thing purchased from a dealer was half of the genuine part's price!

Hercules · Jun 8, 2008

I started my bike up the other day and noticed something was smoking, it turned out to be the rectifier[bad ground,it was fried] I will be upgrading to a newer unit

BLKMAX · Jun 8, 2008

BLKMAX said:
Good price for a new late model R/R on ebay.
http://tinyurl.com/5svf8d

Joe

Gone!

Bill Seward · Jun 10, 2008

Someone stole that one!

96 or newer voltage regulator.

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