Arri Posted December 21, 2013 Share Posted December 21, 2013 Hello, I would like to know your opinion about how to test the regulator of the R/R. With 1,8934V in battery there is not continuity in yellow wires With 14,04V in battery there is not continuity in yellow wires. With 15,49V in the battery, yes, there is continuity in yellow wires. Short-circuit. So the regulator is ok? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spud786 Posted December 21, 2013 Share Posted December 21, 2013 To my knowledge the only way to test the RR(a diode one) by itself, is that current will only run one way and not the other through each diode, use ohms setting for this purpose to recieve either continuity or no continuity depending on direction of leads. But that only says so much, as the rr can still have issues with leakage. You cant really know if an rr is good without a good stator, if your getting 15.5 at the battery thats pretty high and may burn up batteries, and 15.5 is normally the high end of the spec charge voltage wise, but its marginal as being too high. If your not having issues at 15.5 then then I wouldnt be that concerned, otherwise Id try a different RR. On a side note Ive never had an rr go bad on any bike, I have had stators fail, but never the RR as of yet. Although on the 5th gen vfr series, they seem to have kronic RR issues, due to the small size and heat location on the bike, the 6th gens are a huge improvement and have much less RR issues. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arri Posted December 21, 2013 Author Share Posted December 21, 2013 To my knowledge the only way to test the RR(a diode one) by itself, is that current will only run one way and not the other through each diode, use ohms setting for this purpose to recieve either continuity or no continuity depending on direction of leads. But that only says so much, as the rr can still have issues with leakage. You cant really know if an rr is good without a good stator, if your getting 15.5 at the battery thats pretty high and may burn up batteries, and 15.5 is normally the high end of the spec charge voltage wise, but its marginal as being too high. If your not having issues at 15.5 then then I wouldnt be that concerned, otherwise Id try a different RR. On a side note Ive never had an rr go bad on any bike, I have had stators fail, but never the RR as of yet. Although on the 5th gen vfr series, they seem to have kronic RR issues, due to the small size and heat location on the bike, the 6th gens are a huge improvement and have much less RR issues. Spud, Thanks for the reply and apologies for the inaccuracies that I made in the first message. Where I said "With 15.49 V in the battery" wanted to say "with 15.49V on the battery side of the R / R. Actually the regulator acted a little before 15, 49V. In fact about 14, 9V. I think that as to get to the battery there is a certain length of cable where voltage drops occur, maybe the regulator is calibrated slightly higher than the 14, 4V battery ideals. The idea of this thread was to find out if we can test the regulator (not the rectifier diodes) without an alternator by hand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer Havagan Posted December 21, 2013 Member Contributer Share Posted December 21, 2013 When mine started smoking I figured it was bad... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arri Posted December 21, 2013 Author Share Posted December 21, 2013 When mine started smoking I figured it was bad... Correct. I love the smell of R / R scorched 100 miles from home ;) But in this case the isue is to know if an r/r, that was saved for years, is ok before mounting in the bike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auspanglish Posted December 23, 2013 Share Posted December 23, 2013 Hey Arri. If you want my 2 cents' worth, I would just install it and see how it behaves at the battery terminals. Remember 15.5 V is the upper limit WITH HI BEAMS ON!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
motorman Posted December 24, 2013 Share Posted December 24, 2013 My 03 stator just failed at 52K and didn't seem to damage the r/r. Replaced the stator and idle volts went back to 15.1-15.2. After the monitor wire fix the idle volts went down to what I consider a more healthy 14.7. That seemed to give me some piece of mind so I went ahead and did the blue connector fix, 30 amp fuse fix and of course the stator wire fix with the new stator. Added the heads up voltage monitor and she's good to go. It's amazing how pro active you can be when it starts costing money to keep the fun going. This bike has never made me walk! Yet! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer mello dude Posted December 24, 2013 Member Contributer Share Posted December 24, 2013 Arri - Is that an old 4th gen part? It doesnt look like a current OEM model. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arri Posted December 24, 2013 Author Share Posted December 24, 2013 H Arri - Is that an old 4th gen part? It doesnt look like a current OEM model. I do not know if it is oem for 4th gen but fix in its the connector. The reference is sh638-12Hey Arri.If you want my 2 cents' worth, I would just install it and see how it behaves at the battery terminals.Remember 15.5 V is the upper limit WITH HI BEAMS ON!!You're right, this test of r / r does not eliminate in the motorcycle test. The idea is to establish a method that allows us to establish the state of the r / r. Is more Theoretecal than practical isue. Just to Understand how r/r works. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auspanglish Posted December 25, 2013 Share Posted December 25, 2013 Arri - Is that an old 4th gen part? It doesnt look like a current OEM model. It's off a 3rd gen. Not sure if OEM but it is definitely off a 3rd gen as I personally know the bike/owner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arri Posted December 25, 2013 Author Share Posted December 25, 2013 Arri - Is that an old 4th gen part? It doesnt look like a current OEM model. It's off a 3rd gen. Not sure if OEM but it is definitely off a 3rd gen as I personally know the bike/owner. Thanks Auspi for the correction. It is RC36-1. I need more practice with generation list. Sorry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arri Posted January 2, 2014 Author Share Posted January 2, 2014 A video to expalin.... http://youtu.be/5jzyFazRnCE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer mk2davis Posted January 2, 2014 Member Contributer Share Posted January 2, 2014 I can't want the video at work, but you the repair manual (available in the download section) explains how to test the RR. That being the case, I have yet to do so successfully. Hopefully you will have better luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer airwalk Posted January 3, 2014 Member Contributer Share Posted January 3, 2014 I've never seen a method described that would account for actual operating temperatures, therefore you could have a rr pass cold & fail partly or completely when hot. stators are the same story. visual sort of indicates replacement is due, stators will show badly darkened coils & rr will sometimes appear to have melted their potting material(especially the older types) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beck Posted January 3, 2014 Share Posted January 3, 2014 That's the old, finless RR that was well known to burn out prematurely on many 3rd and 4th Gen VFRs. But there had been some exceptions of this version of the RR surviving many years on VFRs without any problems (IIRC, Dutchy's still running the original RR on his 4th Gen to this day..... he must have made a deal with Lucas, Prince of Darkness....;^))... The one on mine died at around 15K miles after it started to deliver less that 11 volts per my on-board voltmeter..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auspanglish Posted January 3, 2014 Share Posted January 3, 2014 R/Rs are like Russian Roulette. Arri, fix your video!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arri Posted January 3, 2014 Author Share Posted January 3, 2014 R/Rs are like Russian Roulette. Arri, fix your video!! Thanks for the info!! Now, for me is working. In the video, the lamp on the right represents the battery and its voltage is measured by the yellow tester. The lamp on the left is in series with the voltage source. When the battery voltage exceeds 15.2 V (approx), thyristors are closed, the entrance to the r / r is short-circuited, the left lamp turns on and the right one turns off (the battery dont gets power form the alternator). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tightwad Posted January 7, 2014 Share Posted January 7, 2014 Those little R/Rs just love to melt down. Sometimes so badly that the potting compound melts. Usually it happens to the yellow wires. I have sold a ton of VFRness's for that Gen because of that R/R. My preference is to swap it out for a 98-99 model that uses MOSFETs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 That's the old, finless RR that was well known to burn out prematurely on many 3rd and 4th Gen VFRs. But there had been some exceptions of this version of the RR surviving many years on VFRs without any problems (IIRC, Dutchy's still running the original RR on his 4th Gen to this day..... he must have made a deal with Lucas, Prince of Darkness....;^))... The one on mine died at around 15K miles after it started to deliver less that 11 volts per my on-board voltmeter..... This original RC36I regulator, shown by Arri, had worked 12 years and over 60000kms smoothly and as you can see, in perfect condition. Now I take it as a backup in my RC36I 90. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tightwad Posted January 14, 2014 Share Posted January 14, 2014 I spoke with Rick from Ricks Motorsport Electrics about testing R/R's. They have a test rig setup they use for testing but he told me the only way to diagnose really is by process of elimination....often the parts inside partially fail and thus pass some of the tests, or pass them under some conditions. Naturally if it melts down that is easier to diagnose... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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