voltage regulator

[ogri211]

I am in the middle of doing the wiring on my bike, I have had the engine running which appears to be OK but my question is about the voltage regulator when I took the bike apart only 1 wire was connected to the regulator and the other 2 were bridged, I have since reconnected the 3 wires correctly to the regulator, does anyone know why these would have been bridged out, and does anyone have experience of replacing the old regulator with a more modern version.

[Bryanj]

The mechanical ones work fine and the solid state seem to give lots of problems so why change it, the mechanical one switches between no charge, half charge and full charge so perhaps it was bridged to give full charge all the time and boil the battery

[ogri211]

Im offshore just now but when I get home to complete the wiring I will check the operation of the regulator and if it is in spec I will leave it alone.

[Bryanj]

Somewhere on the site, or maybe the uS one, is an explanation of the 3 phase charging circuit with diagrams from the Honda Tech book i have

[Bryanj]

Just found the explanation on the US site, if I have done it right link should take you there

http://manuals.sohc4.net/general/motorcycle_electrics/HondaMES3.pdf

[ogri211]

That explains it good it works with an exciter which is an electro-magnet on the alternator, when the battery is low it lets the full voltage through and the electro-magnet gives maximum current, when it reaches a higher voltage the battery voltage goes through a resister in the voltage regulator reducing the voltage at the magnet and hence the current output, and when the voltage is excessive it goes to ground giving no voltage at the magnet and hence no output from the alternator, someone on mine obviously connected the 12v in and the exciter wire to give maximum current all the time which would have eventually cooked the battery.