Looking at the bike, I noticed the turn signals in the rear weren't working. So off come the covers and a broken connection was found. No biggie.
Then, looking at the battery area I noticed some crusty wires at the reg./rect area. The guy told me it had issues with keeping the battery charged but I figured it was becasue he wasn't a "loyal" owner and didn't stretch it's legs often enough.
So here's the question, Has anyone had a problem with the regulator/rectifier sizzling on there 99 900RR and what would caus the wires to run so hot and burn the insulation?
Thanks in advance,
Mike

 

Mike,
I would check all the fuses and make sure they're the recommended sizes. If you don't have a good mantainence manuel I suggest getting one. I have the Clymer (link below) book and it has great electrical diagrams. You can probably check it out at the public library if you don't want to buy one. I've used mine countless times, it's awesome. With the diagrams all the electrical will become a lot less confusing.

http://www.clymerbooks.com/item--Hon...l--M434-2.html

 

Rectifier problems are supposedly common with 900RR's and they are hard on batteries. This is only what I've heard. I never had a problem with mine, but I've read this in other areas. 24k miles and not once did mine have any battery issues.

 

I have a 95 and my yellow wires were all burnt up. I made new connectors, soldered them together and got a new regulator. problem solved. Before that the thing would eat batteries like crazy and wouldnt stay running.

 

Thanks to everyone, I followed a flow chart supplied by ??? and it turns out that the culprit is the RR. This is a new unit (one with the cooling fins) and the wiring has been replaced before it looks like. So what makes these go bad? I did read that it is possible that it may have not been grounded well so I did run a ground wire from the case of the RR to the - batt. post. I'll cross my fingers and hope it works. Thanks for the help.

Peace

 

Heat is what kills these things.

 

Chrisf nailed it. The 600's had the same problems, that's why the new one has fins on it. I've seen some people put computer fans on them.

 

Honda made crappy R/R for the 900rr. It has no heat sink to disipate the heat. When you replace the unti make sure you clean the aluminum real good that it is grounding to. Don't waiste your money buying those supposedly better aftermarket R/R for the 900rr, they are junk I know. Get an oem R/R from another model of bike that uses 3 wires from the stator and a positve and a ground wire, a5 wire recitifier will work fine. tape up all your connections so they are water tight.

 

Ok, got a R/R from the LPS. Not a OEM but it has cooling fins and was 1/2 the price. Added an extra ground to the housing and pulled all of the shotty wiring job out and replaced about the last 4 inches of wire with good quality wire and soldered the connections. It's been a week and about 250 miles with no problems yet.

 

The best rectifiers are from a UK-spec Honda Superdream. I too burn through two rectifiers and even tried the fan method. None of this worked. It just gets too hot. Since switching to the Superdream RR, I've had no problems at all. It isn't even hot to the touch. However, it is a bit larger than the original Honda RR, so packaging may be an issue on a bike. I have all the room in the world on my car, so it was no big deal.

EDIT: The Superdream is a 5 wire RR: Three yellow wires to the stator, one to the ground and one to a switched live feed (i.e. a tail light).

--Chris