7 or 8 wire Regulator/Rectifier

[slowbird]

Long story short my battery went flat on my 2000 VFR800. Wasn't holding a charge. Got a fresh one and doing the different tests or "The Drill" showed the battery wasn't charging.

 

So I swapped the "new" Ricks R/R that the previous owner had on it with the old one he was kind enough to supply with the bike and the bike is charging fine now.

However I noticed the "Ricks" R/R has 1 less wire and connector than the working R/R and the VFRness that it plugs into.

 

Can anyone shed any light on this? Why there is a 7 and an 8 wire R/R?

Did the previous owner slap on the wrong R/R?

 

 

Here is the supposed "Ricks" reg which I removed and noticed the 1 missing connection:

 
 

 

This is the old one I put back on and is working fine now. It has 5 wires in the connector where the other R/R only has 4:

 

[slowbird]

I'm doing some more research and I think maybe the 7 wire regulator (3 yellow stator wires and 4 others) are for the 1998-1999 VFR800, and the 8 wire regulator (3 yellow stator wires and 5 others) are for the 2000-2001 VFR800?

[VFROZ]

10 hours ago, slowbird said:

I'm doing some more research and I think maybe the 7 wire regulator (3 yellow stator wires and 4 others) are for the 1998-1999 VFR800, and the 8 wire regulator (3 yellow stator wires and 5 others) are for the 2000-2001 VFR800?

 

That's correct, the 5th wire is a sensor wire, but not sure how it makes anything better.

It doesn't make it any more reliable.

There is actually not much wrong with the equipment as such, it is the wiring that causes all the problems.

[GleninAus]

The extra black wire was Honda's attempt at sensing over volt and tell the rectifier to actively shunt the alternator output to what ends up in the heatsink.

 

I would expect that the new Rick's rectifier uses Mosfet internals that can look after those conditions.  Just google that word for a full description but in my layman's description, the difference between standard transistors and mosfet is that the AC rectified voltage  can be anywhere from 0- to any volt but lets  say 30volts,  moving from 0V to 30V * engine rpm, As it enters the regulator, standard transistors act like flood gates and allows volt ranges in approx 12-15 volts to pass and enter the output but under and over those volts get dumped into the heat sink. The act of pushing through that flood gate and then shutting also uses a fair bit of energy that ends up as heat.  The difference with Mosfet is that it detects the impending changes and just opens the door at a much faster rate and consequently runs cooler. Mosfet tech also can detect over volt and basically just shutdown ( no black wire required). Another nice feature is that you can run single phase on a 3 phase regulator. So if the Honda stator is near death running on a single phase when you install the Mosfet regulator you'll think its ok until you check the current charge rate.

 

Blah, really tried to keep that simple...... can of worms.......

 

cheers

[slowbird]

Sooooo would running the bike with the 7 wire R/R when the harness has the input of the 8 wire R/R cause any issues?

Cause the bike charges better with the "old" R/R with the extra black wire than the "new" Ricks R/R without the black wire.

I emailed Josh at wiremybike these questions but I haven't heard back yet.

[GleninAus]

6 hours ago, slowbird said:

Sooooo would running the bike with the 7 wire R/R when the harness has the input of the 8 wire R/R cause any issues?

Ok go back to the early Honda rectifier that was 3 + 4 Wire. What can happen is that the internal transistors could possibly freeze in constant volt pass-through with a result of cooked battery and blown bulbs being a few symptoms or not work at all.   If the Rick's rectifier was Mosfet 3+4 wire then NO for reasons I've already described.

 

The improved Honda 3+5 wire can detect a bad voltage condition but as they still sometimes fail at a rate  ( don't have exact stats) of about 15% compared to 80% of 98-99 models its nowhere as effective as Mosfet then even with tolerating the Honda grounding wire fail disease, tends to shut down, and would appear by your example eventually give up the ghost also.

 

Whatever you choose I suggest that the 3 yellow wires from stator to regulator be soldered together. The plug always is a major fail. All earths on the bike be cleaned with electrical lube and always clean the negative terminal on the battery. Also, I suggest not using a used rectifier as over time the internal components normally wear out and as efficiency drops they get hot and fail. Honda VFR's electrical design just isn't that good either so compromise is a toss of a coin and for me I'd rather get home over saving a few $$$$.

 

VFR = Very Fried Roadbike

Been there and it sucked and Volt Meters now rule.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[slowbird]

Um....ok so the lack of the missing 1 wire has no effect.

 

Well the Rick R/R is a little over a year old and if the lack of the 1 wire isn't the problem then it's the R/R itself.

 

No need for me to Solder the wires together as I mentioned in my first post I have the VFRness on the bike which has served me well in my other VFR's.