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HEREWhen I first got my bike the rotor was shorted and the regulator was shot. I replaced my rotor a while back, but have been driving without a functioning regulator. Just the other day I boiled my battery and fried my rectifier
and rotor. Me being the tightwad that I am, I thought there must be an alternative to the $100 aftermarket R/R or the
extremely expensive RR from the dealer. I was right. I went to Advance Auto Parts and got a regulator for a mid-70s Ford pickup for $13. Mine came from a '76 F150.
It has 5 wire connections:
A+ -- Battery +
F -- Field 1
S -- Not Used
I -- Ignition
Case - GroundLet's re-examine the connections on the various regulators. Forget the letters.
One forum member's regulator is labeled "I A S F"
My regulator is labeled "A F S I"
The letters are meaningless if this is truly how they are labeled.
Just go from left to right; they are made to plug into the original Ford wiring harness which won't change even though the letters apparently do.
From left to right with the terminals facing you:
1 - Battery (+)
2 - Field
3 - N/A
4 - Ignition
Case - Ground / Battery (-)
It's really easy to wire up. The F terminal goes to one of the two field wires (brush wires to the rotor). The other field wire goes to ground. "I" goes to your switched power and A goes straight to battery voltage. You want to ground the case somehow.
There is one problem with using this regulator, however. It has no rectifier built in. I built my own rectifier using two of these:
http://guerte.en.alibaba.com/product/50065741/50345579/6A_75A_Square_Bridge_Rectifiers/Square_Bridge_Rectifier.html
Alternately, you could simply use one of these:
http://guerte.en.alibaba.com/product/50065741/50297999/6A_75A_Square_Bridge_Rectifiers/Three_Phase_Bridge_Rectifier.html
Wiring the rectifier is a lot simpler than it looks. The three wires that come out of the alternator are three-phase AC power. The rectifier will convert this power to DC.
Just to make it simple, I'll use the three-phase rectifier from above as an example. Three of the lugs will be labeled with a "~" which denotes AC power. The output of your alternator goes directly to these three lugs. The "-" lug goes to the "-" terminal of your battery and the "+" goes to the positive terminal. Since the regulator varies the output directly from the alternator, this is all you need to do with the rectifier.
I've installed this system in my '79 CB650 and it works great. The charge voltage is right at 13.3v, and it'll charge from 1500rpm and up. You'll never have to worry about burning your headlight bulbs or overcharging your battery because the electronic regulator keeps the voltage perfectly
constant. Also, since it charges at 13.3v instead of 14.4v, you don't have to worry about boiling your battery in the summer time. Plus, the two rectifiers that I used are $0.44 apiece and the regulator was only $13. That puts my R/R budget to $13.88. Much better than the $100 I would've spent on the 'net or the $250 from Honda!!
When I hooked it up on the bench according to the OP's method (after first testing it with the method I have suggested) I saw wisps of smoke within seconds from the surface-mount resistors in series with the "I" terminal. When the reg detects a non-charging condition, it applies ground to this terminal in order to light the indicator. The resistance of the lamp limits the current to as safe level. No lamp=smoke.
You MUST ground the reg case (this should be the first connection made), and you have to add a wire from the A term straight to Batt+ (this wire actually carries the current to the field, not the reference as I stated before. The reference is applied to the S term via the ignition switch.
Go by the labels on the reg, not the order, as Ford used 2 different plugs.
