Bike died when running WOT (doing nothing I or the guy who lost wish to put in writing in a public forum). Bike was completely dead and it turned out that the voltage regulator had died, gone short circuit and blew the main fuse.
Prior to this total failure I have been experiencing charging problems and had to recharge the battery every month to keep it cranking properly. I also had the hot start problem with typically weak starter motor cranking when hot. I did all the mods to solve the hot starting problem but nothing really fixed the symptoms. They may simply have been a set of symptoms generated by a failing / out-of-spec voltage regulator-rectifier:confused2:
Have you have ever wondered what was in these units :ummm: I have too. Now you can satisfy your curiosity by checking out the first pic below. I picked the epoxy off the thing to see what was in it.
The epoxy came off surprisingly easily once I broke the outer seal. The epoxy was not bonded to the components and may not have had a proper heat transfer capability to the heat sink packaging.
I decided to get rid of the standard unit and replace it with a unit out of an R1 after reading this article http://imageevent.com/jkvmax/regulatorrectifier
The unit featured in the article is from a late model R1 or MTO1 and does not have as large heat sink cooling fins as the unit I obtained (pictured below) from a 2004 R1. Both systems are MOS-FET type voltage regulators and run way cooler than the old V-max units.
That makes it a bigger package to mount than the model featured in the article. Still, for $59 I will make it fit somewhere.
My bike still has a standard air box so mounting it near the instrument cluster was out of the question.
I elected to use the old wiring harness and socket connectors from the old regulator. I soldered new connectors to the bare wire end and hooked it up to the R1 regulator per the instructions in the article. I emailed Johan, the guy who posted the original article to confirm the connections for the stator wires. It doesn’t matter which of the three stator wires you connect to the three pins on the R1 unit, just so long as all three are connected.
Where did I mount it?
For the moment the voltage R/R lives under the pillion seat in the tool box compartment. To make it fit I had to remove most of the heat sink fins, but fit it does. Nice and snug and no vibration because the retaining clip for the tool bag rubber strap braces the unit and the strap lashes it down. Some adhesive foam protects the rear mud guard under the pillion seat.
How does it go?
The unit does not even get warm when running but what a difference to the electrics of the bike! There is not even a hint of a flicker in the instrument lights at idle and no detectable dimming of the headlight either. Battery is constantly charged and the hot start issue has not happened since installed. (it’s summer here).
I’ll relocate the unit to a permanent home when the air-box goes.
Worth the effort :clapping:
Prior to this total failure I have been experiencing charging problems and had to recharge the battery every month to keep it cranking properly. I also had the hot start problem with typically weak starter motor cranking when hot. I did all the mods to solve the hot starting problem but nothing really fixed the symptoms. They may simply have been a set of symptoms generated by a failing / out-of-spec voltage regulator-rectifier:confused2:
Have you have ever wondered what was in these units :ummm: I have too. Now you can satisfy your curiosity by checking out the first pic below. I picked the epoxy off the thing to see what was in it.
The epoxy came off surprisingly easily once I broke the outer seal. The epoxy was not bonded to the components and may not have had a proper heat transfer capability to the heat sink packaging.
I decided to get rid of the standard unit and replace it with a unit out of an R1 after reading this article http://imageevent.com/jkvmax/regulatorrectifier
The unit featured in the article is from a late model R1 or MTO1 and does not have as large heat sink cooling fins as the unit I obtained (pictured below) from a 2004 R1. Both systems are MOS-FET type voltage regulators and run way cooler than the old V-max units.
That makes it a bigger package to mount than the model featured in the article. Still, for $59 I will make it fit somewhere.
My bike still has a standard air box so mounting it near the instrument cluster was out of the question.
I elected to use the old wiring harness and socket connectors from the old regulator. I soldered new connectors to the bare wire end and hooked it up to the R1 regulator per the instructions in the article. I emailed Johan, the guy who posted the original article to confirm the connections for the stator wires. It doesn’t matter which of the three stator wires you connect to the three pins on the R1 unit, just so long as all three are connected.
Where did I mount it?
For the moment the voltage R/R lives under the pillion seat in the tool box compartment. To make it fit I had to remove most of the heat sink fins, but fit it does. Nice and snug and no vibration because the retaining clip for the tool bag rubber strap braces the unit and the strap lashes it down. Some adhesive foam protects the rear mud guard under the pillion seat.
How does it go?
The unit does not even get warm when running but what a difference to the electrics of the bike! There is not even a hint of a flicker in the instrument lights at idle and no detectable dimming of the headlight either. Battery is constantly charged and the hot start issue has not happened since installed. (it’s summer here).
I’ll relocate the unit to a permanent home when the air-box goes.
Worth the effort :clapping:
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