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Regulator Rectifier Issues


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Running 4 halogen bulbs on the 6th gen had certainly upped the amps and exposed wiring vulnerability. I would expect the 8th gen LED headlamps lower amps will reduce wiring problems. Hopefully the lower power draw will mean a cooler longer lasting stator and less over stressed connectors.

Surely this only holds true if the owner rides around on high beam 24/7. Who would do that?

I think its the opposite, people that use less of the voltage supply can have more issue, Hid's and led replacements of incandesant bulbs, have to dissipate more of the excess supply.

I was thinking the same, at least for the RR. Less output from the stator being used up by the bike's lighting system = more surplus energy the RR need to transformation into heat that needs to be dissapated......

The 6th gen has to produce enough power to run all 4 headlights and fan at all times but rarely needs to so there is a lot of surplus power that is shunted to heating up the R/R. This also can heat up the stator. The lower draw of 8th gen headlights mean the system can be designed with less need for surplus power and excess heat.

The '02 VFR had a recall to up the output of the original design stator because too many people were running high beams during the day and battery could go dead if the fan came on for a long time as in stuck in traffic. Upping the output of the stator may have added to the over heating and reliability problems some are experiencing now. Upping the output on a balanced electrical system design is not likely good for the balance of the system.

Fry your electrics by habitually run round on high beams during the day or in traffic at night & you get what you deserve. Can't see Honda upping the stator output to facilitate such anti-social (and in most markets illegal) behaviour, but I can see them upping the output to facilitate those owners who found running additional electrical accessories like GPS, heated grips & electric vests marginal power wise. The VFR800 is after all a sport-touring mount but the Big H when designing the 6th Gen may well have misunderstood what electrical demands touring owners would place on their bikes.

For all this talk of the LED lights lowering power draw from the 6th gen remember the 8th gen now comes for the first time with standard heated grips so I think the wrong tree is being barked up here with total draw unlikely to be no lower than the 6th gen bikes. Does anybody actually have hard figures on the comparative outputs of the 6th & 8th gen stators? Even if the outputs are the same you can bet Honda looked at the cause of all warranty claims for the 6th gen and redesigned the loom to save wasting money on repairs.

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Hi All.

The Reg/Rect unit on the 2014 VFR800F is a very different beasty to what we have seen in the past. Although the Stator is the same as previous models, the new RR is completely different, hopefully this type of RR might save some of the Stator burn ups that have been so common - time will tell.

Cheers.

Grum.

post-30826-0-02430500-1411039161.jpg

VFR800F_2014_RR001.jpg

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Hi All.

The Reg/Rect unit on the 2014 VFR800F is a very different beasty to what we have seen in the past. Although the Stator is the same as previous models, the new RR is completely different, hopefully this type of RR might save some of the Stator burn ups that have been so common - time will tell.

Cheers.

Grum.

attachicon.gifVFR800F_2014_RR001.jpg

Looks like a future mod for the 6th gen to 8th gen R\R.

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It almost works like an automotive alternator. Almost.

It's gotta be better than full current at all times, and excess shunted to ground as long as the components are up to the job.

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It almost works like an automotive alternator. Almost.

Yeah, if it were exactly like an automotive unit there wouldn't be a warning in the owner's manual about running the grip heaters while idling for extended periods. ;-)

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Hi All.

The Reg/Rect unit on the 2014 VFR800F is a very different beasty to what we have seen in the past. Although the Stator is the same as previous models, the new RR is completely different, hopefully this type of RR might save some of the Stator burn ups that have been so common - time will tell.

Cheers.

Grum.

attachicon.gifVFR800F_2014_RR001.jpg

It seems that the image was taken by the Service Manual.

Do you have the Honda Part Number for this manual?

I have already taken the original Honda service manual for my 1200 and I would like to buy also the SM for the new 800.

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It seems that the image was taken by the Service Manual.

Do you have the Honda Part Number for this manual?

I have already taken the original Honda service manual for my 1200 and I would like to buy also the SM for the new 800.

Yeah, page 1-37 of the service manual.

Someone suggested I get one from here.

It is cheap, shipped immediately and got here VERY quickly via USPS Priority.

Yes, it's pirated, as if anyone has doubts. But the quality is fine and it's 1/3 the price otherwise.

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Part # for the service manual is 61MJM00. When searching for it, most of what comes up is links to the same supplier of pirated copies.

Popping that part # into web sites like Service Honda or Ron Ayers yields nothing and you can't find mention of the service manual in the online "fiche", gee thanks.

Nice to know about Helm, now. Oh well.

And yeah, I still don't see a PDF anywhere.

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The Helm reference is in the owners manual.

In my job, I have created quite a bit of i.p. which has been ripped off by third parties in places like China and Korea over the years. I therefore have developed an intense loathing for intellectual property thieves and pirates. I buy my books, music, and service manuals.

So you will perhaps understand, Switchblade, when I say, not a chance.

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Running 4 halogen bulbs on the 6th gen had certainly upped the amps and exposed wiring vulnerability. I would expect the 8th gen LED headlamps lower amps will reduce wiring problems. Hopefully the lower power draw will mean a cooler longer lasting stator and less over stressed connectors.

Surely this only holds true if the owner rides around on high beam 24/7. Who would do that?

I think its the opposite, people that use less of the voltage supply can have more issue, Hid's and led replacements of incandesant bulbs, have to dissipate more of the excess supply.

I was thinking the same, at least for the RR. Less output from the stator being used up by the bike's lighting system = more surplus energy the RR need to transformation into heat that needs to be dissapated......

The 6th gen has to produce enough power to run all 4 headlights and fan at all times but rarely needs to so there is a lot of surplus power that is shunted to heating up the R/R. This also can heat up the stator. The lower draw of 8th gen headlights mean the system can be designed with less need for surplus power and excess heat.

The '02 VFR had a recall to up the output of the original design stator because too many people were running high beams during the day and battery could go dead if the fan came on for a long time as in stuck in traffic. Upping the output of the stator may have added to the over heating and reliability problems some are experiencing now. Upping the output on a balanced electrical system design is not likely good for the balance of the system.

Even if the outputs are the same you can bet Honda looked at the cause of all warranty claims for the 6th gen and redesigned the loom to save wasting money on repairs.

I doubt or haven't seen any oem stators not make it through the standard warranty period. My second oem stator is passed the 50,000 mile mark. Ive noted the last month Ive lost .3 volt charge average, so Its time I have a new one on hand. I was seeing as low as 14 volt today which is very abnormal under speed, reprepping my wiring regained me a back to 14.4- 14.6, but that's still lowere than typical. Im still charging okay but Id say Im only a few thousand miles or less till failure.

This is my heads up, cause the last time I ignored voltages around 14 or 14.2v, two weeks later the stator just stopped, this time I intend to be ahead of the game and save that Tow bill.

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The Helm reference is in the owners manual.

In my job, I have created quite a bit of i.p. which has been ripped off by third parties in places like China and Korea over the years. I therefore have developed an intense loathing for intellectual property thieves and pirates. I buy my books, music, and service manuals.

So you will perhaps understand, Switchblade, when I say, not a chance.

10-4 ..

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The Helm reference is in the owners manual.

In my job, I have created quite a bit of i.p. which has been ripped off by third parties in places like China and Korea over the years. I therefore have developed an intense loathing for intellectual property thieves and pirates. I buy my books, music, and service manuals.

So you will perhaps understand, Switchblade, when I say, not a chance.

Don't know how I missed the reference in the owner's manual. I understand totally, as my wife is an I.P. attorney. And I used to write software.

On the other hand as a software writer I was salaried so piracy had little meaning to me, and I think these bikes should come with those manuals (at least in digital form) so my inner anarchist still shows through on occasion. Not arguing; just being frank.

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Fry your electrics by habitually run round on high beams during the day or in traffic at night & you get what you deserve. Can't see Honda upping the stator output to facilitate such anti-social (and in most markets illegal) behaviour, but I can see them upping the output to facilitate those owners who found running additional electrical accessories like GPS, heated grips & electric vests marginal power wise. The VFR800 is after all a sport-touring mount but the Big H when designing the 6th Gen may well have misunderstood what electrical demands touring owners would place on their bikes.

The 6th gen has to produce enough power to run all 4 headlights and fan at all times but rarely needs to so there is a lot of surplus power that is shunted to heating up the R/R. This also can heat up the stator. The lower draw of 8th gen headlights mean the system can be designed with less need for surplus power and excess heat.

The '02 VFR had a recall to up the output of the original design stator because too many people were running high beams during the day and battery could go dead if the fan came on for a long time as in stuck in traffic. Upping the output of the stator may have added to the over heating and reliability problems some are experiencing now. Upping the output on a balanced electrical system design is not likely good for the balance of the system.

For all this talk of the LED lights lowering power draw from the 6th gen remember the 8th gen now comes for the first time with standard heated grips so I think the wrong tree is being barked up here with total draw unlikely to be no lower than the 6th gen bikes. Does anybody actually have hard figures on the comparative outputs of the 6th & 8th gen stators? Even if the outputs are the same you can bet Honda looked at the cause of all warranty claims for the 6th gen and redesigned the loom to save wasting money on repairs.

I'm just poking back through the thread a little bit...

About anti-social, there was a day here in the 'States when motorcycle headlights were only used at night. Then the bureaucrats decided we should run headlights full-time to give us a safety advantage and headlight switches soon disappeared. A little over a decade afterward, car manufacturers started thinking DRLs were a lovely idea. Good-bye safety advantage. The amusing part is that headlight glare has been a subject of much disagreement in DOT and NHTSA with regards to DRLs but they never gave a crap about any of that when they decided motorcycles needed to run headlamps full-time.

And frankly you don't have to head "I never saw you" too many times to decide that anti-social beats injured, crippled or dead, hands-down. Think of the high-beams as the quiet answer to the "loud pipes save lives crowd". Which do you think is less anti-social? ;-)

Somewhere I read that the 6th gen has a 480 Watt stator. If that's true, the 8th gen is 60 Watts less according to what is published in its service manual. But the LED lights should be saving more than that.

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I think I'd rather have a loud exhaust over bright headlights that can distract and dazzle oncoming traffic into not seeing the idiot pedestrian walking out from behind a van whilst checking their Facebook profile. I'm sure I don't need to point out that DTRLs don't have any focus to them but headlights do. Hence why nothing bad was said about having headlights on dip during the day for bikes, not sure if modern tech allows for the use of DTRLs when it gets dark, after markets are obviously different, I think DTRLs need to be focusable though. There was nothing wrong with running side lights anyway. No bad experiences with load pipes but plenty with poorly adjusted headlights and miss-use of fog lights also, parking on the wrong side of the road with your headlights on (an offence in Australia I believe). On a side note, does anyone know what the actual wattage and make of the led headlight is? I assume it's a cree of some sort.

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Each of the 4 lights (2 low/2 high) is 1 little square LED (pointing down at the reflector), so it has to be at least a 10W, and Cree seems to be the main provider of high watt LED's. Not sure what the current upper limit is for wattage. The highest I've ever heard of is 10, but I'm sure there must be some that are higher.

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Cree is indeed the maker of the highest output led units available right now. I have several weapon lights that throw 1000 lumens from a single bulb. That's a three inch flashlight making people identifiable at 130 yards.

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