Hi all. Lately my bike has been acting up. The headlight would only work 20% of the time, gauge lights would flicker, the HID ballast would emit a highly annoying tone, and when hot, the bike would lose power. Checked voltage, 12.2V at idle and 12.4V at 5000 rpm. How I never got a dead battery is beyond me. I was hedging my bets that it was the R/R, and I turned about to be right (so far, knock on wood).

The R/R I used was a eBay unit 'designed' for a GSXR 1000 or a 'busa. Suzuki GSXR 600 GSXR 750 GSXR 1000
Basically any R/R for a 12V bike will work, but this was the cheapest. $37 shipped. You want to make sure its a 5 wire (3 yellow, 1 red, 1 green).


This one also had a decent sized cooler, as they get HOT. This DIY relocated the R/R from its oem location. More on that later.
First, assemble your tools, you will need:
- R/R
- Basic socket set
- Soldering iron, solder, flux (recommended)
- Butt-connectors or spade connectors (not recommended, only if you can't solder... but seriously learn)
- Wire cutter/stripper
- Jewelers flathead screwdriver
- 16 or 18ga. Hook up wire. If you have different colors, great, if not, no worries.
- 2 nuts/bolts that fit your R/R holes
- Drill/drill bits
- Multimeter
- Electrical tape or wiring loom (to keep everything neat)
- Optional (maybe?): ~6"x4" piece of aluminium


We are only working on the hind quarters today
1. Remove the rear side panels, seat, and fuel tank.
2. Locate the 2 connectors we will be working with. One is white with three yellow wires (to stator) and one is red with 2 red/white wires and 2 green wires. Disconnect both of these.

3. If you look under your air filter box where your coils are, you can see the R/R in the middle. I opted to leave it in until I am working there next because it seemed like too much of a hassle to remove it.
4. I decided to relocate the new R/R to under the service book holder. I never had one.

5. I opted to put a large peice of alum between the plastic and the R/R to act as a sink, as well as to spread the heat over the plastic (no hot spots). This may not be the best solution, but it hasn't given me a problem yet.

6. Drill holes in the plastic and aluminium to attach the R/R.

7. Obtain your hookup wire. Cut 5 lengths ~2 feet long (from the CDI box to the connectors approx. Longer is better.

8. Using the jewelers screwdriver, depress the tabs in the R/R plug and remove the spades. Cut the wires off ~ 2" from the spades. Tin the tips.


9. Solder (or butt connect) the hookup wire to the R/R, then attach the cut spades to the hookup wire, effectively lengthening the R/R wires.

10. Using your jewelers screwdriver, remove the red and white connectors on the oem R/R.

11. Wrap the new R/R wires in electrical tape, or loom. Attach the R/R to the bike and run the wiring alongside the harness.


12. Clip the 3 yellow wires from the new R/R into the connector you removed from the old R/R. Order doesn't matter. Connect it to the stator.
13.Clip the red and green wires into the red connector. Look to make sure the red wire lines up with the red/white on the bike, same with the green. You'll notice the bike has 2 red/whites and 2 greens, but you are only plugging into one. Thats okay - they are redundant. Plug it in.
14. Start the bike up and let it warm up a bit. Make sure there is nothing abnormal happening (e.g. fire) that would ruin your day.
15. Use your multimeter to test the function. Idle should give you around 13V, while 5000rpm should be around 13.5V-15.0V.
16. If eveything checks out, clean everything up and go for a test ride. Notice I just zipties the old R/R wires in place until I remove it.

 

Brilliant thread corruptfile and a very good neat job. I'll remember this one for when mine goes bad. So that's what that tray under the seat was for! I thought it was a good place to hide a sandwich When I got my bike the yellow wires from the generator were twisted together with the others where the connector should've been and taped round - needles to say the tape had melted on the wires.

Good stuff bro.

 

Awesome thread but how come you let that bird crap on your seat?

 

It's gone now. Tonnes of seagulls as I live by the ocean

 

great write up! One question for you... With your R/R in the old position, did your seat ever get hot around the middle of the front riders part of the seat? Mine seems to be doing this and I'm wondering if this may have anything to do with why after i start mine up and ride for a little while why it likes to give me a super hard time restarting.

 

Good write up, but the RR you replaced it with has a smaller heatsink than the stock one.
A good thing to remember is when lengthening wires you need to upsize them to account for the increased resistance. I would have soldered in some 12AWG to make up for the increased length.


Cobra989
The RR's stock location is further forward, under the tank and will not transfer heat to the seat. The heat you are feeling is from the radiator. If you are missing the air blocks (dams)around the carbs and airbox the hot air from the radiator goes straight back. It heat soaks the carbs and makes the seat super warm. If you have the plastics and airdams all the radiator heat goes out the side panels onto your thighs/knees.


I still suggest Electromotive's RR and (stator)alternator. You get a much larger heatsink by about 50-75% larger than stock. You get better diodes with better design with all 3 inputs being regulated, not just the stock 2. And the alternator puts out more amperage at idle and throughout the rpm range than the stock one. Basically you get the charging system the bike should have always had. I don't get a cent for recommending them, just from personal experience and 16 years as a MECP Master electrician.

 

I never noticed it was really hot on the seat. The R/R is pretty far from the seat. However, it gets pretty hot, so you never know. Why they located a heat producing part that needs air cooling directly behind a hot engine where there is no airflow is beyond me.

 

Thanks drakito. I used the largest gauge wire I had kicking around. The I held up this R/R to the oem one and it didn't seem much smaller. The oem fins were a bit longer maybe. I'd like to think having much better airflow across it will offset the smaller sink size (if it is that much).
If this R/R goes prematurely, I'll look into the electromotive one you suggested. Thanks.

 

I think mounting it right side up, further away from the heat producing engine is going to make the slightly smaller heatsink size actually work in your favor.

In addition to what you said about Honda mounting it where they did, why the hell did they mount a heat producing item upside down with the fins on the bottom? Standard thermodynamics, heat goes up, not down.

 

Nice write up. I am planning to tackle my charging problems soon and this is one thread I will definitely be referencing. While I am sure the stator is a big part of my issue, just based off the damage to the cover, I am sure the r/r is going to have issues as well. I have been jumping it a lot over the last couple of seasons and from what I've heard the r/r doesn't like that at all.

*Edit:
So I ordered the one you reference in the write up from Hong Kong, unfortunately my bike died on me today and I am not going to wait a month for this one to come in before I get my charging system back under control as that appears to be the cause of death. I found a company in Tennessee that makes regulators so I just ordered one from them and am having it overnighted, so it will hopefully be sitting on my doorstep come Friday. Anyway, from what I have gathered from your write up, it really doesn't matter what r/r you've got as long as it is for a 12 volt battery (are there any bikes that aren't?). I was hoping for a little nod whether this one: http://www.rakuten.com/prod/new-volt...247716971.html should work or not... I hope so, it's been ordered.

*Edit:
I am not so sure about mounting it underneath that manual holder. The piece of plastic that covers up the back wheel has long ago been busted out. Which means that every puddle I hit is going to splash the r/r. I am not so sure that that is probably the best plan of action here. Not really seeing any other good spots to place it though.