Rick's R/R for my baby

As preventative maintenance I went ahead and installed a Rick's regulator rectifier.

With OEM R/R there was no charging below 3.000 rpm, which was concerning.

The Rick's R/R is running 14.6v at 3K and 13.8 at idle, I feel better now.

 

I'm about to do the same thing. Did you install his harness to? (Is that even necessary?)

 

In my case; the OEM wiring had no signs of overheat damage, so I just put dielectric grease on everything and plugged it in.

 

Ahh, good to hear. Thanks!

 

Having an upgraded R/R is always a good idea, but just keep this in mind: its all about heat. I'm not saying Ricks is a bad product - I had one in my bike - but by plugging the connections back into the existing spade connectors, you might only be prolonging the inevitable. The first place the heat will build up is at those plug ins, which will eventually lead to cooking the connections, which in turn will lead to the R/R trying to compensate for the bad connection... You get the idea.

Take a look at this thread below. Its filled with tons of info and options, as well as real world experiences. And post #9 is what is officially "The Drill" for the hundreds and hundreds of riders that have asked about R/R failures.

http://vfrworld.com/forums/showthread.php/39277-How-to-fix-common-regulator-Stator-failures

 

Di-electric grease won't improve the plug connection. Only prevent further corrosion. Ox-gard with fill the voids between the pins, decreasing resistance and inhibiting corrosion as well. Or just remove the plug connection completely.

 

Until people fry the connector they somehow believe they are one of the lucky ones who Honda fitted some special connector on their particular machine. Law of averages proves they are crap and it is a bit late when it melts and shorts out and cooks everything. If you don't know how to solder and heatshrink wires, now is the best time to learn

 

solder the connections. see my post from earlier. mine shit the kitty at 3 months (rick's stator, R/R and VFRNess)

 

Tat, sorry to hear that, puts such a bad taste in your mouth, takes the glow off owning a VFR

 

Nothing that a liter of Bundaberg OP and a 12pk of Victoria Bitter can't cure. Let me know if you need my mailing address to help ease the sting.

Cheers!

 

Tat Most people have given VB the flick, too many chemicals in it that give you a stinking headache even after only having a couple of them. I think they went back to the earlier recipies but many people are not prepared to give it a try anymore, some smartie thought they could speed up production with the chemicals and it backfired big time

 

I had not heard that. I haven't been since 2000. Planning on going back July 2016. My mum was born in Aus, as were her parents. Lineage is from Donegal and Cork. Family rumor is we once owned Donegal Castle. My wife and mother took a trip there in 2004. We were told that the Gallagher's (family name) were mostly mercenaries and had no claims on the castle. Still a good story.

Two of my cousins came over from Melbourne 2yrs ago and brought the Bundy. I ran out last year and am always looking for a refill

 

+ 1 for most of the above.
Forget the dialectic grease, and the vfrness, only postponing the inevitable.
Solder the joints, no need for either. Dialectic grease is only good if you can place it around a well connected joint of good quality.
Greasing it before you put it together is worse than not using any.
Nearly all R&R and stator problems could be postponed for thousands of kilometres if the connectors were eliminated from day one.
The best preventative maintenance to all bikes on the electrical side, is soldering the stator to R&R.
By the way, most Hondas, Triumphs, some KWasKis and many others suffer from the same thing.
Reading this forum will make you believe only VFRs suffer from this malady of crap design of motorcycle charging systems.