Hot R/R along with complete power loss (GS450E -82)

[ChickenStorm]

When the stator on my 82 450 went bad I'd been running a SH775 for well over a year at that point. The best choice would be to replace both the R/R and stator at the same time but by the same token why replace a part that isn't broken?

When the stator finally did go bad two of the three windings where shorted, I was only getting 1/3 of it's output into the charging system. After unplugging the headlight I had enough power to run the bike but not charge it, the starter wouldn't turn the bike over but I was able to push start it until the new stator arrived.

That gives me an idea, would there be a way of somehow disabling the third coil and only running on two phase? My current draw is so low that maybe it could work on only two phases? Is this a suitable sollution or am I just completely out of my mind? I have a two phase rectifier on hand so that would be pretty easy conversion.

[LAB3]

The question is will you be further ahead at the end? Get in touch with Nessism here on the board, he sells tested used SH775's at a very reasonable price.

I live full time with everything strapped to my bike and trailer, at one time it was on that 450. If you just want a bike to play on for awhile or a quick flip then the $30 Chinesium R/R will work, until it doesn't. On the other hand if you want a bulletproof bike that's not likely to let you down then the 775 is a worthy investment.

[salty_monk]

You could just not connect the third leg I would think but I don't think it will really help you... You'll just be either overloading those two legs only and/or have a wasted battery system at anything apart from freeway speeds.

This topic has been done to death several times over. Spend the money & fix it right. It's not even a large amount of $$.

[Grimly]

Spend the money & fix it right. It's not even a large amount of $$.

True dat.
I now have two spares, just in case. I will use one on the 79, and the third will likely never be used, as I've not heard of an SH775 failing in service.
I had a moment of doubt, when the voltmeter started wobbling at 4K, but it turned out to be dirty connections at the RR. Been rock solid since.

[ChickenStorm]

I'm having a really hard time finding these series type regulators that don't have at least half their price in shipping costs here in northern europe. Even without the price of shipping I can say they aren't cheap around here .

Looking for alternatives seems like a fools errand but I've been looking at installing a ballast resistor to remove a bit of heat from the charging system, this is a bit counterintuitive since my LED lights are so efficient but this clearly is overloading the R/R with the excess power. Another alternative I was looking at as stated above is converting the system into a single phase system, which I wrongfully called a two phase. I have the time to do this and the motivation since I'm very cheap and a student, and if ya'll know what my bike looks like you'd see that this is far from the most unique idea on this project .

I've understood that the problem here is that the third phase is completely unregulated, but does that mean that if we for the sake of argument don't consider the possibility of overloading the remaining utilized stator, it could solve the overheating issues? The load I measured is around 5A with the key in the running position and I've owned plenty of mopeds that have a bigger running load and only run off of a split phase system so a complete single phase system would be more than enough?

Let me know If I should post this in a separate thread at this point, and if there are any other threads discussing this!

[Nessism]

During the early GS days, when bikes had a headlamp switch, Suzuki would disconnect one leg of stator power when the headlamp was turned off. I can't think of any reason you cannot do that now by yourself. That will reduce charging power, but you don't need all that power anyway if using LED's. I'd give it a try. Just use a shunt type R/R. Honda R/R's from the GS era were bulletproof. SH-232 Shindengen or similar. Super common, and cheap.

[ChickenStorm]

During the early GS days, when bikes had a headlamp switch, Suzuki would disconnect one leg of stator power when the headlamp was turned off. I can't think of any reason you cannot do that now by yourself. That will reduce charging power, but you don't need all that power anyway if using LED's. I'd give it a try. Just use a shunt type R/R. Honda R/R's from the GS era were bulletproof. SH-232 Shindengen or similar. Super common, and cheap.

Awesome! My bike funnily enough has a light switch but there doesn't seem to be any charging cutoff situation with it as far as I can tell. I'll try just popping one of the three stator wires out of the connector and test it out. Are you sure there won't be any issues with leaving it disconnected? I'll make sure to insulate the wire end properly.

[ChickenStorm]

Oh wait I'll be damned there actually is a wire going from the stator to the headlight switch!

[ChickenStorm]

I might rewire that to make a sort of quickcharge switch or something with a hold down button if the battery seems empty, since the chinese gauge I'm using has a volt meter built in

[Rich82GS750TZ]

I wonder what your Chinese volt meter would do if it received the +60Vac that the stator puts out.

[ChickenStorm]

I wonder what your Chinese volt meter would do if it received the +60Vac that the stator puts out.

That's a good question , I was thinking of it more as a way to see if the battery needed some extra oomph

[Rich82GS750TZ]

Well if you run the wire from the stator to whatever, it's getting un-regulated, un-rectified AC Voltage. The R/R does the job of Rectifying the AC voltage to DC and regulating the output to no more than @ 14.5 or so volts that your bike's various circuits need to run and that your battery needs to charge.

In the original wiring, the one stator leg than runs through the headlight switch doesn't actually connect to anything there. If the light switch was off, that's where it stopped. If the light switch was On, those AC volts carried on the R/R to join the other 2.

[ChickenStorm]

My thought was to make a separate switch in place of the light switch for the same disconnecting function so that if my battery needs a little extra juice I could swich to three phase mode until it's topped up . The voltmeter in the gauge measures the potential from it's 12V supply so that the battery capacity can be monitored. Perhaps I'd use a button or switch that needs to be held down so it isn't forgotten and my stator cooks.

[salty_monk]

I don't see why that wouldn't help... It's better than nothing I guess. That was it's original purpose so that without the load of the headlight things didn't overheat.

[Grimly]

Why pyss around doing what the SH775 will do for you, automatically?
"Quick charge circuit", give me a break.