Topic: Cb 550 direct splice new regulator rectifier help me plzzz

[Jaroldoe10]

Hello y'all. I just want to take this moment to thank each and every one of you for your time and patience to answer these questions for those of us who are new to the game... Well now that we got that out of the way. What we got here is an aftermarket regulator rectifier that I am trying to wire direct without  the original harness. Coming out of the alternator/ stator is the three yellows, A green wire and a whit wire. Out of the new combo re rec is the three yellows a re and a green wire. Then there are the black whit and green that was originally for the regulator coming out of the combo unit. My question is. Besides the three yellows.... What goes to what??? I assume on the rectifier side going to the alternator that the two greens go together and the red goes to whit? Then the original regulator I believe black switched power green is ground and white is to the battery? I'll leave some pics to show and thanks for the response!

[Jaroldoe10]

Here are some pics so you can see what I am dealing with

[TwoTired]

Since I don’t know who made your combo unit, I can only guess what they designated their wire colors.  The maker should have told you what wire does what.  What I can say, is that the yellows should go to the rectifier portion of the combo. And that internal rectifier converts the ac power to dc power, likely the red to battery POS terminal.  The stock Honda convention is green going to battery NEG terminal. The Honda alternator has a field coil to energize an electromagnet.  These wires are white and green and are driven by regulator to control the output strength of the alternator.  Honda supplies the stock regulator with switched key switch power on a black wire.  This both powers the regulator and provides the sense info so the regulator knows what the battery voltage is, and if it should charge or float the battery to keep it charged. The regulator maker should tell you what wire performs what function.  If they didn’t, you made a questionable purchase choice, IMO. 

Cheers,

[Jaroldoe10]

Two tired- thanks for your reply. The company sent this reg/rec combo with the idea that it was connecting strait to the original harness. I have built a chopper (I'll leave pictures) with a brand new Ultima wiring harness that works awesome. But now that the wiring is changed from the original harness, I need to put the wires together manually. The rec/reg came with a connector that put the original yellows, green and red wire with a white strip together with the rec/regs yellows, green and solid red wire. I will try to take pictures so it is clear. I know where the wires are suppose to go on the original harness, I just don't know where the original wires on the harness go. Let me try to take pictures to clear this up and hopefully you can help me out, which I greatly appreciate btw. This is literally the last step before it is ready to roll. Thanks

[Don R]

http://oldmanhonda.com/MC/WiringDiagrams/CB550.jpg

[Jaroldoe10]

Here is the new harness from the reg rec that I cut but kept so i knew where each wire plugged into the harness, not i just need to know where each wire from the old harness went

[Jaroldoe10]

Don R- thanks for the schematics here. I think this will help. It looks like I need to take that red wire straigt to the battery and the black to switched power and the white and green will hook up to the alternator while the other green on the original rectifier side should be grounded... I think.... hmm. I am going to look at it deeper to see if I can map these out right. any insights are appreciated and wish me luck!

[Kenzo1979]

I see a good shot of the Rectifier connector, but I don’t see the regulator connections, on an original harness, they are black, white, green female spade connectors.   Twotired already spelled it out, you just have to supply the connections.   On the rectifier side you need:  ALL 3 yellows from the stator coil connected to all three yellows going to the new rectifier unit. Doesn’t matter which yellow goes to which yellow, all the same. You also need your battery positive running to the red of your new rectifier unit, and you need Green of the new rectifier unit going to ground. Now for the regulator side: you need white coming out of the stator coil going to white on the new regulator unit, black ignition power going to black on the regulator unit and again the green wire from the regulator unit going to ground somewhere.




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[Jaroldoe10]

In the first picture, that black, white, and green wire bypasses the original regultor and plugs directly into the harness. I assume that the wires coming out of the alternator (the white and green specifically) are the wires that lead to the voltage regulator in the original wire diagram. So I should take the white and green coming from the alternator and wire them directly to the white and green for the regulator wiring on the rec reg combo. I am just putting my thoughts out here to see if this makes sense to yall. as far as I can see,

1. three yellows (from alternator) to yellow ( reg/ rec combo)
2. white (From alternator) to white (regulator side of reg/rec combo)
3. green( from alternator) to green ( regulator side of reg/rec combo)
4. black (coming out of regulator side of reg rec combo) going to sense (or switched power)
5. red (coming from reg rec combo) goes to power side of battery
6. green (from reg rec combo) goes to ground.

This seems in order, I am going to review the diagram from Don. Before I explode, or accidently created a flux capacitor, any insight is appreciated and I will check back and keep you guys updated on how it is going. preciate it

[Jaroldoe10]

Kenzo1979- thank you yeah thats what i ended up just posting. I am a little confused as you wrote that you did not see the regulator connection but you labled the connections in the picture. Which you did a good job of explaining with that. I think I understand. again I will reference Don R- with the schematics he sent. I appreciate yalls input here.

[Kenzo1979]

Kenzo1979- thank you yeah thats what i ended up just posting. I am a little confused as you wrote that you did not see the regulator connection but you labled the connections in the picture.

I was talking about the harness connectors, I believe I labeled the reg/rect connectors


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[dave500]

hopefully its the correct type and not intended for a permanent magnet type alternator,it wont work other wise.

[Jaroldoe10]

Dave500- I can appreciate the concern but I bought the unit saying it works for cb550 specifically. I suppose that it is possible that it is not advertised correctly, but the reviews seemed to be good... If it does not work then I will simply trash it, leave a review, warn you all, and wave goodbye to an 18 dollar chunk of metal I bought almost two years ago. I'll check it out and let you know. If it turns out as a dud, I will be coming to ask you all where to go. Preciate it!

[dave500]

cool.

[Jaroldoe10]

Hey y'all, I just wanted to update you, I have the reg rec all hooked up. No idea whatsoever if it's working. BUT I didn't blow up... Or tear a whole in the time-space continum. So If you will bear with me as I appreciate all the help you guys have given.
1. Does the bike charge decently while idling? I have heard that unless the bikes moving it won't really do much.
2. How might I check the voltage to make sure it is working properly and charging correctly? Many thanks

[Kenzo1979]

Quick search on this topic will give you much more detailed information. But basically with the bike off, you should have about 12.5 V on a fully charged battery. Put your voltmeter on DC volts and put the leads between the negative and positive terminal of the battery. Start your bike up and rev the engine. Your alternator with your rectifier should be charging your battery somewhere between 13.5 and 14.5 VDC With the regulator keeping that constant in that area.  If it’s going to 15V or over, It’s overcharging and is more than likely going to blow your fuse or burn something out. If it’s not charging you are going to be losing voltage on the battery over time. So if it started at 12.5 it’s going to slowly decrease from there.


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[TwoTired]

Lead acid batteries change voltage slowly.  That's why they are there.  It's a beneficial property of the device.  A depleted battery will rise in voltage while charging slowly.  That's why you investigate charging systems with a known good, fully charged battery.  Cause only then will you find out if the charging system can overcharge the battery...which is bad.

Any voltage at the battery over 12.8 v is charging the battery.  Voltages above that and the battery is full.  It can take a bit of overcharge routinely without hurting anything.  But, at voltages above 14.7 V, electrolysis becomes a factor.  This action separates the electrolyte and looks like boiling.  But it is Hydrogen and oxygen (the components of water) being liberated.  Electrolyte is H2SO4.  Take out the H and O and the electrolyte doesn't work as it should.  Do this enough and the battery plates become exposed, leading to battery damage.

Anyway, watch for trends in voltage at the battery, if the battery voltage is rising, it's being charged, if it is falling, even slowly, it is being discharged.

For the SOHC4, it is normal to have the voltage falling some at idle.  But, whenever the engine is revved, it should charge the battery and make the voltage rise.

Cheers,

[Jaroldoe10]

Kenzo- thanks for the info, I will check that out asap and I appreciate you

Two tired- I also appreciated the info... And the science behind it. I'll take this all into account as I move forward. Fingers crossed the next time I post here it will just be appreciation for all you help and not more questions.

[RAFster122s]

You can temporarily strap a voltmeter/multimeter to your triple trees and use alligator clips that are insulated to clip onto the terminals you want to monitor. You can use a SAE cable that most chargers utilize if they have disconnect cables to the battery and clip into that,insulating the probes with some electrical tape so nothing can short out. No welding with the battery or fireworks allowed...
This way you can monitor the voltage while riding. If you are going to have the bike stationary for much time you need to put a good box fan blowing over the exhaust and cylinders so it doesn't overheat the motor. Running a few minutes is fine,just if you are going to be idling and revving the motor for much longer than 5 min you would want to consider a fan...
Battery Tender makes a small voltmeter that plugs into the SAE charge cable. They also make a USB power port that plugs into it as well if you want an easy way to say charge or power an old phone or gps on the bike.
Two options for the voltage monitoring...
The one that plugs in and you press a button to check ot after it has been plugged in a while...
https://www.batterytender.com/Battery-Tender-LCD-Voltage-Indicator_2

The other thing they have a Wifi enabled dongle that plugs in  and you can access it through the app they have.

https://www.batterytender.com/battery-tender-wireless-battery-monitor_2

While the second one sounds like a cool solution, it really is not imho because it has to be connected to a home wifi or other wifi to work if you set it up to do push notifications.
So, it is only useful when the bike or battery being monitored is in range of that wifi signal.
They should have just made it a Bluetooth and wifi capable system... Would be much more useful.

Lots of cheap small voltmeters available from ebay sellers, drawback is unless they are domestic sellers the postage wait can be a long time these days.
Remember, red letters can be hard to read in bright sunlight. The cheap ones typical are not waterproof, so keep this in mind. Easy enough to put it inside a plastic baggie...
Odds are it is going to be a temporary thing, so it need not be fancy.