R/R Replacements for under $30

Bad news first: I flipped my Ranger coming home from work Monday in a rainstorm onto its side. Nice dents and scratches, ripped off my drivers side mirror, and locked the motor from oil draining into the combustion chambr while on its side. I got her turning over today after taking out the plugs and turning her over until the battery died, but now I need a new battery before I can make any more progress..

Good newsL

After finding out that Honda wanted $180 for a new R/R for my vfr700 a few weeks back, I decided to do some research instead.

Turns out, in the past couple of years, bike manufacturers have been switching from SCR to MOSFET diode setups within the recitfiers.

MOSFET - metal- oxide semiconductor field effect transistor

SCR - The Silicon Controlled Rectifier (SCR) is simply a conventional rectifier controlled by a gate signal. The main circuit is a rectifier, however the application of a forward voltage is not enough for conduction. A gate signal controls the rectifier conduction. Alot more diodes to go bad...

Turns out the MOSFETs are a ton more reliable.

Okay, got that part down.

Now onto the best part, you can put most R/Rs on your bike.
As in, they are interchangable.

Most motorcycle R/Rs, with the exception of older charging systems that don't use 3-phase alternators, consist of 5 connection terminals.

3 in on one side for each phase in the AC power generated by your stator.
2 out going to the battery for charge, (One pos, one neg)

I bought one for $25 including shipping off of a late model ZX10, and installed it on my bike.

In order to install it, you will need to buy 10-gage spade style connectors to fit on your terminals ($6 at Radio Shack. Bring your R/R connectors to measure the gage of the wires to make sure they fit).
You will need to snip the wires going into your current R/R connectors and fix them onto your new spade connectors. (I didn't even solder them, just twisted them on and using electrical tape to make sure none of them could cross and clamp them onto your new R/R after sliding them on)
I would recommed soldering them once you install it on your bike and make sure everything works.

It's not the cleanest setup - I could only get one bolt hole to line up. But shes putting out 15.1 volts to the battery at idle and hasn't given me a problem in 2 weeks.

I will try to post pictures this weekend for you all..

Just thought I'd share some good news.

Take it easy dudes-

Mike

 

The bad news is with 15.1 volts you'll fry your battery by over charging it in time. Should be no more than 14.5. Better keep an eye on it.

 

How much voltage is it putting out at around 6000 rpm?

 

Has anyone else tried this? How did this work out Mike? I am showing low voltage when my 6th gen is running. I would like to upgrade to something more reliable than stock.


Will