Hi all,

I purchased a CBR F3 back in October, I’ve put about 1000 miles on it since I got it and I’ve had three regulator rectifiers go bad. The first one went bad the first week I owned the bike. It took me a few days and the help of a forum post to figure out what was actually wrong with the bike. Once I got a new regulator rectifier installed it ran great until about a week ago. I was riding it down the road and it started sputtering and died, similar symptoms to when I had it go bad the first time. I assumed that was the issue and ordered a new one. My new regulator rectifier came in a couple days ago and I got it installed. I rode down the street to the gas station to fill up and back to my house and it ran great. I took it out two hours later and it died less than 5 miles down the road. I was able to get it started a couple more times and limp it back home but it continued to die every couple miles. I am confused as to what the issue is, a Regulator rectifier seems to solve it but only temporarily. I was wondering if anyone has experienced anything similar? Or if anyone knows what could be causing the regulator rectifier is to be going bad so rapidly. Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

 

Sounds like we need to do a little troubleshooting on it. We want to see if any of the stator coils is shorted to ground. We also want to see what kind of voltage we're getting from the stator, as well as the the R/R is putting out to the battery.

 

I am a carpenter and not a great electrician 😂, what’s the best way to go about this? I do have a volt meter. Thx

 

This is what my bad one looked like. You can see how it looks like it was bleeding from melting when it overheated. That connector has 3 yellow wires in it. Unplug the connector and then check for continuity from each of the yellow wires to the frame. That green wire with the screw attaching it to that aluminum plate would be a good location. There should be no continuity to the frame. You would put your meter setting on Ω Ohms. I'd suggest the 2K Ohm scale, but that setting is dependent on what meter you have. You're essentially looking on the lower end of the scale. Then check for continuity between each of the 3 yellow wires to the other. The reading should be really low, almost reading a dead short just like you put your two meter leads together while measuring Ohms. If any of them read above 1Ω then you may need to check the intermediate connector under the seat. It's a 3 pin connector with those 3 yellow wires in it. It's really important that these connections be tight and secure due to the amount of current running through them.

 

Right on, I’ll try that when I get a chance to work on it and send an update. Thanks for the help.

 

just a quick observation, that rr looks like a totally unsuitable kind, hadto replace mine (1998 fw) within 6 months of owning the bike, should have heatsink / fins to keep it alive! else it will fry.
due to my own internal mistrusts i ended up with a spare, just looking to include pics to show...


standered oem reg rect

standered reg rect rear view

 

You are so right. But you'll have to tell the engineers at Honda that back in the day. That is OEM original from the factory. I couldn't agree more with you.

 

So I took multi meter readings but I think I was doing it wrong because they didn’t even come close to the examples above. I went ahead and replaced both the stator and regulator rectifier and took my battery to get tested (it was good, I bought it last fall). I thought that would cover all the bases. I got it put together last night and took it out around the block today. It ran great the first 5 minutes I rode it, so I parked it and grabbed my riding gloves to take it on a longer ride. I started it back up and made it a mile down the street and it started sputtering and died. I waited 5 min and it started up but didn’t run right. It seems to run fine until everything gets warmed up then it dies. I noticed the regulator rectifier was hot to the touch. Am I missing something? Should I swallow my pride and learn how to use a multi meter right and take readings? I’m somewhat at a loss as to what to do. I’m contemplating selling as my R1 doesn’t have these issues.

Also as a note none of the three regulators I’ve replaced have external signs of damage as mentioned above.

Also I’ve read online that the ground is supposed to take the excess current from the r/r my ground seems fine. My old stator hadn’t ground out from what I could tell but it was likely original from 1997.

thanks!!

 

What did the connections for the stator and R/R look like? Where did you get the stator? Was it new or used? Being able to use a meter effectively would certainly help you in "knowing" if something was good or not.