That's a great idea but the volatge for the normal charging is set wrong. If I had that device I wouldn't have seen that the charging voltage is low.

I bought this. It only reads .1 volt lower than my multimeter and it's compact and waterproof.

Waterproof Monitor 12 Volt Battery Meter 2 7 30V DC Auto Gauge Digital Voltmeter | eBay

 

Sorry to be a bit late to this party...

Bluezr7, when you say you used "The wire I used has a 2.9mm cross sectional area" is that the diameter of the conductor or the outer jacket?
Simpler, what gauge wire did you use? 12g?

Thanks!
TC

 

I forgot about this thread, but wanted to drop by and say thanks to Bluezr7. I was getting voltage values very similar to what he had reported. I added new ground and positive wires from the regulator to the battery and improved the charging voltage significantly. I don't recall numbers exactly, but went from 13.5-13.6V to 14.3-14.4V. My battery will be much happier to be getting a full charge from now on.

I don't recall what gauge I used, probably 12 or 14. But I'm not sure something that heavy is even necessary, as it's supplementing the existing harness, and our stators have a pretty modest output anyway.

 

This is a common mod for many bikes that burn out regulator rectifiers. I've done this to several bikes with consistent good results. The voltages rises and the numbers are more stable.

I am not sure why they make the RR push through the harness to the battery and ground, it sure doesn't need to.

 

Nice thread. I got tired of my clock resetting itself and the bike almost not starting. Meter reads 12.4V key off and only 13.09 running at 3000rpm. Voltage was a bit higher at idle. For a brief moment when cranking I saw less than 10V. Battery came with the bike when I bought it 2 years ago. Guess I will try the wire mod and see if my 3krpm voltage come up to 14 or so. If not I may have fun. Maybe I should get a battery and see as mine is over 2 years old, maybe several more years.

 

what size fuse?

 

I also added the ground wire and installed an LED bulb. Nice warm grips now.

 

I too am having an almost identical situation. Output voltage is somewhere around 13.5 volts. Revving motor drops voltage down slightly to about 13.2.

Willing to try the direct wiring, which will at least by pass the alternator plug connection located just forward of the battery.

Wondering, though, where exactly do you connect the new wires on the rectifier end? Do you simply solder one into the existing power (white) wire and another to the ground (black and yellow) wire? Your're still relying on the knife connectors that connect to the rectifier. Do you, or can you, change out those knife connectors?

One other potential complication I have is that my battery is one of those new fangled lithium jobbies. Its voltage is somewhat higher at 13.2 volts, than the wet or gel cell lead-acid which is usually about 12.4 volts. If my charging system is only putting out 13.5 volts, it seems like my battery could run down or be very slow to charge, but so far it hasn't.

 

I've been running a mosfet r/r for a few hundred miles and charging is still at 14.27VDC at 2000rpm where it had been at 13.0- 13.5 before the new r/r.I just checked my voltage moments ago because the bike was idling erratically and stalling so I thought the charging could be the issue as that was the last thing I worked on. It turned out that my rerouted fuel tank vent hose(s) were holding my choke **** out killing the bike. An interesting "coincidence" is that the annoying misfire that came and went at highway speed is gone entirely. Anybody getting a random misfire might look into their charging system. Perhaps the brain/ignition module has troubles at less than design voltage.

 

Let me try this again.

Can someone tell me where or how they are connecting the ground and power cables "directly" to the rectifier? Surely they're not soldering directly to the rectifier.