FZRSupport: the FZROnline Archive

Starting a new thread here, as I have a large update from the earlier thread, and it seems pointless to continue that one (which can be found here if anyone wants the backstory: viewtopic.php?f=8&t=12735).

My new voltage regulator finally arrived, and I got to work after dinner last night installing it. The plug on the original install was a burnt melted mess. I cut all of that back, and got to clean, fresh wires which I extended and terminated with spade female terminals.

The new VR didn't work. At all. Bike starts, and the voltage slowly drops as it runs - until the bike stalls out. I used a YZF 5 pin VR, wired up like the one on the wiki (http://fzronline.com/wiki/lib/exe/detai ... ersion.jpg). Take it out, and put the old one back in (the old one charged inadequately, but it did charge... with the motor @3000rpm I would be getting .2-.5VDC higher than the battery reading, but not enough to overcome the demands being placed on the battery). The actual VR that I ordered is this one:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B011U1 ... UC27WX97EL


Crap. Is my stator fried? Pull the plug on the side of the motor and test AC output of stator at ~3,000 rpm... getting 48-53VAC from all three wires. Yay! The stator is working.

Try to reinstall new VR and try again. Still seeing the voltage drop and eventual stall. As I learned the hard way, this happens much more quickly when the bike is being ridden as opposed to idiling in the garage... I got about 2 blocks from home and had to push the bike back with a near-flat battery.

So is there more than one way to wire those YZF VRs? Did I just get a defective one? I'm running out of ideas here guys, and I'm hoping someone spots something I've missed. Before anyone says it, yes, the battery is tired, but it will start the bike, and in theory, once it's started, the charging system should be providing enough juice that I really don't need the battery at all, right?


Edit: Is it possible to test an unconnected VR? If so, can someone walk me through the process?

There are 2 different posibilities to have it wired, one case you might have taken the wrong way:
Some Aftermarket regulators have 2 Groundconnections, one via the Housing and one via wire, and some Aftermarket have one grounding via the Housing and a second Plus-Wire called Battery-Sense (the regulators from Barth have this Battery-Sense-Line for example) which would have to be installed to Battrey-Plus also...maybe you should check that you didn't get the second Version with 2 Plus Lines where you then might have connected the Sense-Line directly to ground,puling down the Voltage from the regulator. Just pull out the second "Groundwire" and do a Measurment against Ground and against the Plus Wire while being not connected to anything else and start the Motor while measuring and you will see which Version of regulator you definitely bought.

First, thanks for the speedy response!

> Just pull out the second "Groundwire" and do a Measurment against Ground and against the Plus Wire while being not connected to anything else and start the Motor while measuring and you will see which Version of regulator you definitely bought.

If I'm understanding you correctly you're saying to pull the ground wire from the VR, start the bike, and measure voltage from + terminal on the VR and a random spot on the frame, correct? I'll have to figure out how to do that without cutting back the insulation on the wires.

Take the Groundwire you connected behind the Regulator (the red/black if you connected all wires like in the photo from the wiki of this site) to the screw off from that screw, then measure Voltage between this wire's end and the Frame and then this wire's end Voltage against plus of the battery in order to be sure that its really a Groundwire and not a Batterysensewire. No need to cut any isolation because its connected against a screw and you just can unscrew it there

Edit:Otherwise, post a Photo to see how you connected the Pins and Wires and we'll see it exactly where you could measure for best...

Sorry for the delay... I was travelling this weekend.

I did as you suggested. The reading with the bike off is a steady .78vdc. With the bike on, it's 2.10vdc +/-.05.

I tested the diode boards per this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDx3zgOLShY and they passed... but I still have nothing.

At a loss. I'm ready to send the part back to the vendor for another one.

drsfmd wrote:Sorry for the delay... I was travelling this weekend.

I did as you suggested. The reading with the bike off is a steady .78vdc. With the bike on, it's 2.10vdc +/-.05.

No problem with the Delay
Did you measure against the Frame or against the Battery Pluspole? Measured against the Pluspole there should be a more significant Voltage if its really a Groundwire and if its a Battery Sensewire it should be a more siginificant Voltage against the Frame, both when running the Motor. So i guess returning the regulator and getting another one would solve the Problem as it seems to be defective if the Value is the same in both measurment-combinations with running Motor.......sometimes it even happens that defective produced regulators find their way to the endclient at all and then a return to the vendor is the best solution.

I measured from the disconnected frame wire (through the VR) to the + terminal on the battery.

Measure again and now between the disconnected framewire and the frame..if its 0 or nearby 0 then the regulator is defective as the wire would probably be a battery-sense wire, if its between 10-14 Volt it was only a missconnected sense wire...the difference between the battery and the sensewire is usually around the difference between 13,6 V (the usual Voltage of a fully loaded battery) and the voltage the stator gives after converting from ac to dc according to the revs and it should cut down the voltage of the "normal" plus wire to the battery to a level the battery can use to charge without overcharging.
The difference between a ground wire and plus is should be selfexplaining the voltagelevel of the battery's chargingvoltage