Replacement reg/rect - any will do?

[Hamish Carlson]

Mine is usually under the side panel, but I only have that on if I'm out to impress (not often), I have plans to weld a mount for it on the frame, just under the headlight, but thats a bit off, probably when I take the engine out for a rebuild.

[vifferman]

Mine is usually under the side panel, but I only have that on if I'm out to impress (not often), I have plans to weld a mount for it on the frame, just under the headlight, but thats a bit off, probably when I take the engine out for a rebuild.

You may not need to do any welding. On my VFR750, I got some 4mm aluminium plate(for free! From some merchant!), bolted it on the horn mount, and stuck the R/R on there. The horns were relocated - they're small, so easy to find homes for them. The only tricky part was I had to bend the aluminium plate a couple of times to allow enough clearance with the front mudguard at full compression of the front suspension.
Rewiring is a good idea, and easy to do. On the VFR, I pulled out all the wiring from the stator to the R/R and battery, and put new (more fatterer) wiring in. The path from the stator to the R/R was much shorter, although that from the R/R to the battery was longer. I also doubled up the earths: one to the battery, the other to that for the electrical harness, which on the VFR was on a radiator pipe on the engine. I changed things so the wires didn't go through the starter relay either. Got rid of ALL plugs: everything was spliced and soldered, then covered in two layers of heatshink, and stuck inside that split tubing designed for this purpose.
From memory, all this gained me half a volt!
See the pix here.

Sadly, I foolishly thought I'd never have to repeat this work, but a few months after I bought the VTR1000, the R/R died. Being in denial, I was sure it was everything else: not enough long trips, a bad battery (replaced it for nothing). It wasn't until I fitted a voltmeter to the dash, and monitored it, that the truth became apparent. This time, I just fitted an aftermarket R/R, eliminated the plugs nearest that (as it was those that failed first, killing the R/R), and mounted the R/R in a position in the air. Some fins had to be ground off to fit it, but it was more betterer than the tiny wimpy old one.

[CookMySock]

If you keep frying reg/rect's then check that your stator does not have a fault to ground. With the engine stopped, unplug the stator from the reg/rect and check ohms from each yellow stator wire to the battery NEGative terminal - should be open-circuit, infinity, or "O/L" on digital meters.

If the stator has a fault to ground it will have to be repaired or replaced.

Steve