green is the ground on 6 wire honda reg/rec and black is sense wire?

[Guest]

I got lucky yesterday at the junk yard and found an old honda frame and the very last part left on the whole frame itself was the large 6 wire reg/rec identical to what bikecliff's website shows that he uses. There was no vin sticker on the steering column to determine what kind of honda it was so I have no idea what model it is exactly the only sticker on the whole unit has completely faded and is no longer legible (texas sun does that). The thing looks to be in better shape than my original so I figured i'd pick it up since the guy said I could have it and even provided the ratchet and socket to remove it. Bikecliff says the green is ground and the black wire is the sense wire that goes to any switched power source. In my thinking the black would be ground so I thought I'd get a little clarification before hooking it up. I don't question Basscliff but sometimes people do make mistakes. Please let me know that this is correct thank you.

[Sandy]

Yes that's correct. The sense wire is generally the smaller gauge wire and sometimes it can be brown, at least it was on one I've had in the past.

[leftlostcommonsense]

ok appreciate it I was confused when I went to researching after getting the new reg/rec setup to install and see bikecliff says the ground is green...lol i've gotten so used to black as the universtal ground color I was stumped. Thanks. Any particular places I should avoid hooking up that sense wire? The way it is I could easily splice right into the coil wires but don't know if there's a reason not to

[Sandy]

You need the sense wire connected as close electrically to the battery pos. terminal as possible. Reason being if you have any voltage drop in your system the r/r will over charge at the battery to compensate for it and most GSs, even ones with a healthy system, will have some voltage drop. Some connect directly to positive battery terminal and as they really only draw a minute amount of power they say it's not a problem. My bike sits for extended periods of time so I installed a relay that goes directly to the battery pos. when the ignition is on. The orange coil wire will work however a favorite spot is the brown wire the goes to the tail light but then again any drop in the system will cause an over charge.

[leftlostcommonsense]

I was intending to connecting the sense wire directly to the battery, but with the possibility of the battery being drawn down from it would hooking it into the ignition or headlight circuit be acceptable? I'm running a dyna s that required me to run new wires and do away with the stock wires so there's plenty of places easily accessible i could splice into with minumal cutting and replicing. I intend to do the coil relay mod while I"m in there got any ideas how i could integrate the sense wire into that replay?

[posplayr]

I was intending to connecting the sense wire directly to the battery, but with the possibility of the battery being drawn down from it would hooking it into the ignition or headlight circuit be acceptable? I'm running a dyna s that required me to run new wires and do away with the stock wires so there's plenty of places easily accessible i could splice into with minumal cutting and replicing. I intend to do the coil relay mod while I"m in there got any ideas how i could integrate the sense wire into that replay?

The best place for a sense point is the output of the relay like Coil mode relay. The second best is a switched output like the ignition switch (assuming it is clean). If you ignition switch has a 1 volt drop then you should be using a relay anyway.

regardless of the sense point should be within 0.1V of the battery voltage during operation.

[Sandy]

I was intending to connecting the sense wire directly to the battery, but with the possibility of the battery being drawn down from it would hooking it into the ignition or headlight circuit be acceptable? I'm running a dyna s that required me to run new wires and do away with the stock wires so there's plenty of places easily accessible i could splice into with minumal cutting and replicing. I intend to do the coil relay mod while I"m in there got any ideas how i could integrate the sense wire into that replay?

Assuming you're running the switched contacts directly back to the battery just hook it up at the switch contact with whatever else you're running. Extra load from the r/r sense wire is almost nothing.

[leftlostcommonsense]

ok, pos, I'll hook the coil wire directly to the output of my relay from what I'm gathering will be pin 87, pin 85 goes to ground and 86 is connected down line from the killswitch and pin 30 is my continuous hot wire straight from battery? Will a 20amp rated relay be sufficient or should i get a higher rated one? Please excuse my ignorance worked all night and still haven't been to sleep lol...

[posplayr]

ok, pos, I'll hook the coil wire directly to the output of my relay from what I'm gathering will be pin 87, pin 85 goes to ground and 86 is connected down line from the killswitch and pin 30 is my continuous hot wire straight from battery? Will a 20amp rated relay be sufficient or should i get a higher rated one? Please excuse my ignorance worked all night and still haven't been to sleep lol...

Connect to the output of the relay (that what powers your load)
As Sandy said, the draw for the sense wire is small. I think something like 25mAmps so no you don't need to change to a larger relay. However, 0.025A will draw down your battery is 2-4 weeks.

[leftlostcommonsense]

I've got the reg/rec hooked up I'm trying to do a coil relay mod now...I'm sorry for the confusion concerning my present task. When doing the coil relay mod, pin 30 goes to battery, 85 goes to ground 86 to kill switch and 87 to coils am I right? From what I'm gathering the sense wire on reg/rec should go to pin 30 also? I'm far from being an electrical guy, I've read the guides lol I'm just lost so please excuse my experience.

[posplayr]

I've got the reg/rec hooked up I'm trying to do a coil relay mod now...I'm sorry for the confusion concerning my present task. When doing the coil relay mod, pin 30 goes to battery, 85 goes to ground 86 to kill switch and 87 to coils am I right? From what I'm gathering the sense wire on reg/rec should go to pin 30 also? I'm far from being an electrical guy, I've read the guides lol I'm just lost so please excuse my experience.

3/4 of your problem is trying to do this in your head. I don't even have all those pins memorized.

This shows a typical configuration
30- is the power source ( e.g. battery)
87- Your load Normally Open (NC) load (the one you want normally off) Load = coils

Hook sense wire to 87.

85 and 86 are interchangeable, but how you described will work.

[leftlostcommonsense]

Finally got it figured out. I even got the relay installed. I don't think I did half bad for a free reg/rec and a relay pulled from an old car. I didn't realize how much the electrics had to do with running but it does. Didn't know what I was missing lol according to my readings and pep it outperforms many of the 850s i see posts about here with complete stock. I'll definitely be a huge advocate for ignition problems being the cause for bikes to run crappy. I went from having 11.4 at coils 12.5 at battery on idle to having 13 at battery and 12.5 at coils on idle...

For those of you reading this, delete headlight stator loop, get away from stock reg/rec, do coil relay mod and you'll be thanking me later.

[bwringer]

I've installed several of these Honda R/Rs. And it is common for people installing their first one to mistake the black wire for ground.

Sometimes it helps to switch your thinking around a bit -- green is the standard color for grounds in house or appliance wiring. And as noted above, the black sense wire is a lot smaller since it carries very little current, so that's another way of staying organized.

[850 Combat]

You need the sense wire connected as close electrically to the battery pos. terminal as possible. Reason being if you have any voltage drop in your system the r/r will over charge at the battery to compensate for it and most GSs, even ones with a healthy system, will have some voltage drop. Some connect directly to positive battery terminal and as they really only draw a minute amount of power they say it's not a problem. My bike sits for extended periods of time so I installed a relay that goes directly to the battery pos. when the ignition is on. The orange coil wire will work however a favorite spot is the brown wire the goes to the tail light but then again any drop in the system will cause an over charge.

The GS1100G I gave to my brother for our last big tour fried a battery on the second day due to overcharging. I had hooked the sense wire to the brake light switch power which is switched of the ignition and goes through the fuse panel. The voltage drop to that location sensed that a fully charged battery was not fully charged. This was 2011. Since then I have run them all directly to the battery with no problems. The battery drain is in theory. The overcharged battery was very real, and that is personal experience with currently 5 GS in my possession, plus the 1100 I gave to my brother.

While you are in there, I suggest that you also bake up a little ground harness with ring terminals to the solenoid bolt which is the main ground on the bike. connect that harness to the battery and also to the frame. Run the ground from the R/R to that bolt, which it should be stock. The stock grounding from the battery box to the frame isn't very sound.

I would also take a close look at the three connectors from the Stator to the main harness. I usually find signs of overheating there. I use solder and heat shrink there to eliminate the resistance that causes the overheating.

Running the sense wire directly to the positive connection on the battery has not caused any battery drain problems for me.

[posplayr]

The GS1100G I gave to my brother for our last big tour fried a battery on the second day due to overcharging. I had hooked the sense wire to the brake light switch power which is switched of the ignition and goes through the fuse panel. The voltage drop to that location sensed that a fully charged battery was not fully charged. This was 2011. Since then I have run them all directly to the battery with no problems. The battery drain is in theory. The overcharged battery was very real, and that is personal experience with currently 5 GS in my possession, plus the 1100 I gave to my brother.

While you are in there, I suggest that you also bake up a little ground harness with ring terminals to the solenoid bolt which is the main ground on the bike. connect that harness to the battery and also to the frame. Run the ground from the R/R to that bolt, which it should be stock. The stock grounding from the battery box to the frame isn't very sound.

I would also take a close look at the three connectors from the Stator to the main harness. I usually find signs of overheating there. I use solder and heat shrink there to eliminate the resistance that causes the overheating.

Running the sense wire directly to the positive connection on the battery has not caused any battery drain problems for me.

It is not theory, you can directly measure the current with a series amp meter.