Voltage regulator/rectifier

[Gixxer 4 ever]

The Gixxer missed a few times on the weekend. It never ever does that. It was a Compleat power down cos it reset everything even my Radar detector that has its own clean line from the battery. It only shares the earth. So I took the seat off at a friends place and checked the battery terminals etc and they were fine. So I headed home and it ran OK.
But I wanted to look for the problem so took the plastics off and found the plug from the alternator to the loom melted and the plug from the loom to the voltage regulator/rectifier melted. No damage to the unit it's self. Ie no hot spots that I can see. Would I be right in guess this has shit it's self and drawn a heap of current? I will check the voltage over the battery at lunch but any comments?
Thanks

[Gixxer 4 ever]

Further to this. We have taken it to the Zuki shop and they recon the plugs have had water in them over the years and the damage could be confined to the plugs. So we are cutting them out and replacing them with connectors. Then we will see what the voltage over the battery is. I will keep posting here encase it helps others in the future. Hope thats all it is.

[jonbuoy]

If they were corroded you could get voltage drop which would pull more current and cause overheating. Its pretty common on VTR, though rectifiers are shite and crap out as well. good luck. if you need a new rectifier try electrex.co.uk.

[Warr]

Hope thats all it is

Yea mate I do too for your sake. Simillar problem in Honda looms. And the easiest is to remove the plugs and hard wire it.
If left seems it will destroy the rectifyer/regulator and stuff the battery which ends up being a costly repair.

[jonbuoy]

sorry should have been www.electrexworld.co.uk

[paturoa]

unlikely as this runs in parallel with the bat circuit (ie it "charges" the bat).

If everything went dead then the prob is likely to be somewhere else.

what happened at the time? were u riding at the time? did you wiggle the bars? etc

[Gixxer 4 ever]

Thank you people. Appreciate the link and the feed back. I know the old Zuki 750 ESD not only stuffed the voltage reg/rec but the battery and the alternator. Now that was expensive.

[Gixxer 4 ever]

unlikely as this runs in parallel with the bat circuit (ie it "charges" the bat).

If everything went dead then the prob is likely to be somewhere else.

what happened at the time? were u riding at the time? did you wiggle the bars? etc

It had been missing off and on that ride. I was travelling up the motorway and it missed and I noted the tack dropped back to 0 and then back up to 6K. When I got to the lights it just stopped and reset the detector and all. It started fine then and ran ok for a while. I assumed it was an earth cos the radar is hard wired to the batter. It does share the earth via the battery. Hence I looked at the battery at a mates place.
I think the massive power spike came when the wire in the plugs touched as the plugs melted. When I took the plastics off it may have moved them cos it ran fine on the way home. I wanted to find the problem and the only thing I have found to date is the melted plugs. I have had problems with the old Zuki ESD in the passed and when it stuffed the Reg/rect it melted a spot in the back. This one has no smell and no hot spots so we are hoping it is ok.
I have checked all the earths and all the other leads and no damage. I agree with what you say so it will be interesting as we sort it out.

[Gixxer 4 ever]

sorry should have been www.electrexworld.co.uk

That's the one. I see mine there for 65.00 pound. So I can price it here and make a decision. Mind you it might be ok yet. I will let you know.
I have just imported a solar battery charger, kitset, to go on my solar panel, from the USA for less than I can purchase the bits from DickSmith here
Thanks for the time and the link.

[Gixxer 4 ever]

Ok, to date. We have hard wired the melted plugs. We have a good test on the alternator and the Reg/rect. All looking good but we do have an occasional spike up to 15 volts over the battery. At this stage I am going to run the bike with this. From what I have heard it is normal for a lot of bikes to have this. Not so prominent at higher revs.
So clean your loom plugs to the unit and you could save yourself some time and grief. If this changes in the near future I will post an update.
I think I will go and give her some lovin....... ...........

[F5 Dave]

Yeah my RF runs at a constant 14.5 so 15 is not going to be a drama.

Must get around to cleaning the RF as it happens to them as well.

On the old Suzs like the ESD & well everything from the first GSs up until GSXRs which were different, they could kill all 3 components, but you missed out the fun part, with the reg blown it would spike much higher & kill bulbs & the Ignition, Oops.