Topic: another regulator question....

[Andrew Foss]

ok everyone. i have done what needed to be done for a long time. i ripped the harness out of my bike and started from scratch. the setup is basically going ot be two harnesses with a toggle switch to turn them on and off.
 harness one is power to the coils and to the dyna s. harness one is finished and works fine.

harness two is for the lights and is not finished yet.

for now, no blinkers, horn or starter.


my question here is about where i should tie in the black wire off the regulator into the rest of the harness. i tried putting it to the switch that fires the coils and dyna, but it prevented this power from turning on when i flipped the switch, disconnect the black wire and the bike starts right up, connect it and it stalls.

my plan is to hook it up to the "on" side of the head/tail/brake light switch, but i do not want the same problem. does it seem like it should work ok this way or is there another way this should be hooked up. the diagram i am working off of has the v reg going straight to the pos. battery terminal, but for some reason i did not think this was a good idea since it was not how i understood the stock system to work. here is a link to the diagram i am working from, but there is no starter, the kill switch is hooked up, and as for now i have no "hi" "low" headlight switch (all city riding, always run low anyway)

http://www.mcworx.com/images/wiringdiagram3.jpg

thanks,
-andrew

[Andrew Foss]

not one response eh? well for an update:
the harnesses are done and the bike works great, except for this damn regulator. it worked fine all last night, but this mornning it acted like the batt was dead until i unhooked the regulator, then it ran fine. i'll have to get a meter on this thing and try to see what is going on.
-andrew

[burmashave]

I'm not clear about what you mean by splitting the wiring harness into two, or why you've put the toggles in.  On the other hand, the wiring diagram you're working with is more of a wiring idea than diagram.   I dunno know if this will help, but Old Man Honda has a collection of wiring diagrams:

Old Man Honda Diagrams

[Bodi]

The regulator power feed needs to be switched, it draws quite a bit of power (which goes to the alternator field coil) and should switch with the ignition - you will have no alternator power without the regulator on, so the bike would only go as far as your battery lasts.
Connecting the regulator shouldn't shut the engine down. It sounds like your battery is marginal and can't supply enough power for both the ignition and the alternator field.
The simplest wiring system would be much like the drawing you show but the regulator feed has to be after the ignition power switch.
That drawing uses an automotive type key switch, you want to use toggles instead.
Fine idea, just use a fuse feeding two switches from the battery "+" positive.
Honda manages everything on a 15A fuse, so that should be enough.
One switch then connects to the coils, Dyna system, regulator BAT terminal, and start switch if you want electric start.
The other switch goes to the lighting.
The regulator needs to be grounded and connected to the alternator field coil, the other field wire goes to ground.
The alternator stator coil (3 yellow wires) needs to connect to a 3-phase rectifier and to the battery.
The battery "-" negative connects directly to the frame.
This should all work. You should charge the battery before trying it out.
Be careful what wire you use. Any wires going to the headlight or bars flex around the steering stem all the time, and you need a special flexible type of wire if it's going to last long. Normal house or car wire is not flexible enough.

[Andrew Foss]

ok, looks like i will have to explain the harness system a little better. it does not follow that diagram exactly, i just used that as an example of a very simplified harness.

the way the harness is set up is through 2 toggle switches.

the first switch controls power to coils, the dyna s, the brake light, and the black wire from the regulator. these wires are on one side of the switch and the other side goes straight to the battery, this switch is located under the seat.

the other switch is just for the head and tail light, one side of the switch goes directly to the battery, and the other has one wire tot he headlight and one to the tail. this switch is in the headlight housing. fuses are on the battery side of these switches (15A) i ran without them at first but put them in now (the switches are only 25 amp anyway, so i figured they would blow before anything else).

there are no blinkers, no dummy lights and there is no starter on the bike, all of this stuff is eliminated, the brake light is only hooked up to the pedal (the front one never worked anyway)

the wiring from the stator to the regulator and rectifier is all stock, original plugs and everything. i did not take any of this stuff out. the only change is that the red wires that go from the plug to the starter solinoid are now hooked directly to the positive battery terminal.

here are my symptoms:
the bike starts and runs fine, then acts like it has a dead battery. at this point i unhook the black wire from the regulator and it works fine again for another 15-20 minutes. then it dies again no head or tail power, and barely enough to turn on the brakelight when the pedal is depressed. if i shut everything off and wait about half an hour to 45 minutes, i have full power again, lights are bright, fires right up. i am going to do a search on these symptoms and see what i come up with, but any ideas are helpful. thanks,
-andrew
PS-the battery is new and takes and holds a charge.

[burmashave]

<disclaimer>I am not an electrics expert.</disclaimer>

Andrew, could it be a charging problem?  If the system is charging the alternator coils, while not getting power from the alternator, might you see the symptoms you're getting?  The bike would run down the battery untill it got low.  When you unplug the black vreg wire, you reduce load on the battery, so you can go some more.  Voltage in batteries increases while they are idle, so maybe that's the last part of the puzzle.  I would guess that pulling the white vreg wire would have the same effect as pulling the black one.

If you haven't already, I'd do a quick check on the charging system.  You might be interested (if you haven't seen it) in the Charging System Inspection troubleshooting guide in the FAQ.