RRR R/Rs

[posplayr]

I'm fairly certain that the "new" R/Rs were connected directly to the battery, but I could be mistaken about that.

Of course, a bad ground connection between the battery and engine could do much the same thing. Just throwin' that out there.

I'm not sure that a direct connection to the battery is the best thing on the positive side although it could be sufficent . The source of the current to the GS system (coils, lights etc) alternates rapidly at 1/10 of the RPM (18 pole stator) between the R/R and the battery. So the battery (+) and R/R(+) need to come together into a T which feeds the GS electrical. The OE schematic shows this clearly.

I always run the R/R(+) output to this same place in the harness and make sure that all the drops from there to the battery are low resistance by measuring voltage drop at 5k RPM which is about maximum charging current load.

If you have low impedance conenctions between teh R/R and the battery such that you pass the stator pages 0.2V drops at 5k RPM I don't think it is probable to have too much resistance say in the ignition switch and cause charging problems. If there was 0.1 ohms in the ignition switch it would drop the voltage to the coils by about 1.4 V but the current would almost be uneffected and so the R/R would hardly notice any drop in the load. Bottom like the SHUNT R/R is much more susceptable to the battery connections but others after the T will have some effect.

[TheCafeKid]

I've always run my new RRs direct to the battery with an inline fuse. Has worked well so far, and bypasses all that BS crimped and long strands of wire running all over the bike to cause exactly such a problem. Worked well so far, though I did lose an FET RR this weekend, but I'm suspecting both a beat up when I got it unit, plus the ground connector I installed coming apart at the RR to be the culprit there. It's a bitch to squeeze one of those into the footprint of the old one.

[rustybronco]

On the positive side of the equation, the wiring diagram shows the R/R (+) going through a single butt connector and onto the fuse panel's main 15 amp fuse. from the fuse panel it goes directly to the battery positive terminal. the fuse holder(s) and where the wires connect to them can be a source of excessive resistance along with the butt connector. on my '80 I soldered the wires to the fuse terminals, then tightened and brightened the fuse holder contacts.

[TheCafeKid]

On the positive side of the equation, the wiring diagram shows the R/R (+) going through a single butt connector and onto the fuse panel's main 15 amp fuse. from the fuse panel it goes directly to the battery positive terminal. the fuse holder(s) and where the wires connect to them can be a source of excessive resistance along with the butt connector. on my '80 I soldered the wires to the fuse terminals, then tightened and brightened the fuse holder contacts.

Dunno if it was the same on all the GSs but the diagram doesn't show the crimped connection for that red wire that splits three ways. This could also be a source of corrosion and obviously resistance which is why I chose to bypass the harness entirely with the RR

[Dogma]

Quite the educational discussion folks. Thanks. I have several things to look into now, even before I read the thread on ground loops and checking them. I still haven't finished reading about foldback, and some of the discussion via PM, on account of I'm supposed to be working today.

Keep it coming please. I'd like all the wisdom and knowledge possible going into this. Being stranded or an inconvenience to others sucks.

[twr1776]

Today 02:01 PM bwringer Of course, a bad ground connection between the battery and engine could do much the same thing. Just throwin' that out there.

Today 02:21 PM mriddle That is what I was sayin' too.

+3, I always clean & grease the main ground wire to motor connection every chance I get. As I recall when I reached under the airbox to find your bolt the top of it has some crappola on it. (Technical Term)

[rustybronco]

Keep it coming please. I'd like all the wisdom and knowledge possible going into this.

All that you need can be found here >>> http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum...46&postcount=2

[Dogma]

I finally had a minute to pause in the garage long enough to do a little poking. The most favorable measurement I could get between the positive battery connector and the R/R + output connector was 0.4 Ohm. That was with scratching the connectors with the multimeter leads. I tried about a dozen different ways and usually read about 1 Ohm. This is less than a foot of wire, total. I think I found the immediate problem.

Clearly there's more to be done in the way of preventive maintenance. I'm off to get some chemicals and easy-wrap.

[posplayr]

I finally had a minute to pause in the garage long enough to do a little poking. The most favorable measurement I could get between the positive battery connector and the R/R + output connector was 0.4 Ohm. That was with scratching the connectors with the multimeter leads. I tried about a dozen different ways and usually read about 1 Ohm. This is less than a foot of wire, total. I think I found the immediate problem.

Clearly there's more to be done in the way of preventive maintenance. I'm off to get some chemicals and easy-wrap.

I never recommend using an ohm meter to make those measurements. You are looking for somewhat less than 0.1 ohms and most meters dont even have that kind of resolution. This is also the resistance with milli amps of current which is not reliable when actually charging (10+ amps are flowing at 14.5V).

In a gross situation in can provide a measurement indicative of issues but not effective in insuring good connections.

[duaneage]

I finally had a minute to pause in the garage long enough to do a little poking. The most favorable measurement I could get between the positive battery connector and the R/R + output connector was 0.4 Ohm. That was with scratching the connectors with the multimeter leads. I tried about a dozen different ways and usually read about 1 Ohm. This is less than a foot of wire, total. I think I found the immediate problem.

Clearly there's more to be done in the way of preventive maintenance. I'm off to get some chemicals and easy-wrap.

Did you zero the meter by touching the leads together and noting what the starting value is? My meter (a Fluke 8060a) allows the display to be set to zero when the leads are connected, allowing more precise measurements.

[Dogma]

Well, Pos, that's all I can do for now. Even if I had another regulator free to install, I'm not doing that until I do some wiring overhaul. Once things are close enough to nominal to not eat components, I'll check for voltage drop under a real load. Well, I guess I could set up some power resistors with a battery to get some current going, but I figure the measured values are enough to warrant a cleaning. Not that you hadn't guessed the need already.

Duanage, my meter isn't fancy enough for such a function, as far as I know. I did happen to touch them together just to see what would happen. I was curious what it would read since I rarely use that setting on the meter, but it made no indication of the contact.

Considering what this thing is doing to R/Rs, the charging system wiring is getting an overhaul anyway. The measurements were sorta superfluous. Time to go read more about ground loops.

[Steve]

Time to go read more about ground loops.

Here ya go, Ground Loops.

.

[Dogma]

Yep. That's what happened.

[Billy Ricks]

I have an R/R from a CBR1000RR, non fet, on my bike. It's wired the way Suzuki did, two legs split off the red R/R wire. One going straight to the battery and the other to the ignition switch then back to the main fuse. It runs through the ignition switch unfused then back to the fuseblock. So far so good.

[Dogma]

John,

It's the positive battery wire that had the odd connector. It's also black. This is the one I measured a high resistance on, but I don't remember that we tried to measure it at the rally.

The fuses didn't show any corrosion the last time I had the side cover off. The rally is the first time it had been rained on that hard/that much humidity. I don't know if that's a relevant factor. I should have looked at them more closely. When I replaced them with Rob's fuses, I noticed they were 20A fuses.

There was no separate frame ground for the R/R. It was simply joined up with everything else at the negative battery post. I hadn't seen any discussion of doing otherwise until I started studying my current issues. After I finish digesting the ground loops thread, I'll figure out what needs to be done about that.

By the time your heard the bike crank, the battery was already pretty tired. GSs spin over very easily though, long after the spark is too weak to start.

The coil relay mod has not been done because I had measured sufficient voltage at the coils when I worked on the wiring under the tank.

I'm thinking pretty seriously about replacing the fuse block. We'll see if I can't get it cleaned up and behaving again.

What's striking to me is how quickly everything can turn to poo when it was working reasonably well 6 weeks before. I never saw a need to go past the first test of the stator papers, because it simply passed the test. It's seems I need to be more diligent about protecting connections (and switches) after cleaning them. Which means that all the work I did before needs doing again.