Charging System Question

I ran into a problem with my '77 KZ-1000A1 with the charging system.  I have been riding it on and off this summer and on my last ride I noticed the directional signals seemed to be operating slower than they used to.  Got home and put a volt meter on the battery and with the bike idling with HL off I was below 12 volts.  Decided to pull the battery and checked the water level and sure enough, it was low....very low.  Below the top of the plates low.  Filled the battery and then ran it through a couple of charging cycles, but it never came back over 12 volts.  This battery was at least 4 years old so I replaced it with a new one.  Installed the new battery and put my volt meter on the battery and noticed my charging voltage was way too high.  At 4000 rpm's it was over 17 volts.  While doing this test I noticed that the rectifier was hot to the touch.  I checked it with my infrared temp gauge and the diode plates were over 150 degrees F after about 5 min's of run time.  Is this normal for the rectifier to get this warm, or is it an indication of something else wrong?  Mikaw was gracious enough to send me a regulator he had and I installed it and the voltage to the battery is back within specs, but the rectifier still gets really warm.  Normal or no?  Thanks for any replies....
Rick H.

Boiled the battery. They are meant to dissipate heat. What's the charging voltage? Might consider a SH 775 R/R. Best move I ever made.Doesn't go over 14.5 even at redline. 
Steve

Thanks for the reply Southwest.  Right now with Mikaw's regulator on the bike the voltage to the battery is within specs from the FSM, but the really warm rectifier threw a wrench in the works.  It was hot with my old regulator and hot with Mikaw's.  I guess I never noticed how hot those rectifiers got before.  If this is the norm then at least I know I am not chasing down wrong way streets trying to figure this out.  When this originally happened I spoke with Nessism (shout out for Ed!) about the SH775 deal which I knew absolutely nothing about and he enlightened me along with the "don't buy a fake" warning.  I am not sure if Ed told me or where I read it, but a Triumph wire harness supposedly makes installation of the SH775 pretty simple.  Unfortunately, no one in my AO has a wire harness so I had to order it from Ma Triumph.  I have no idea how long that will take to arrive.  In the meantime I wanted to make sure the problem was the regulator and Mikaw came to my rescue once again.  I was confused over the surprisingly hot rectifier.  I had no idea they got that warm normally.  Learn something new  everyday I guess.  And you are correct about the battery, but I figured it was getting close to needing replacement anyway.

Rick H.

This is why the stock recifier comes with big cooling fins.The RC/RG SH775 combo unit is the next logic step to upgrade your (our) charging system.Nothing last for ever. The recifier current (Ampere) is the biggest heat stress member of the charging system.
The regulator ciruit parts will fail next after the RC and the high voltage will boil your battery acid cell level to low or dry out.
 

Hey Rick, I was out on my ‘78 B2 all day yesterday. I spot checked my Rectifyer a couple time. The hottest temps were on the steel plates holding the diodes. The highest temp I could get was 138deg. 

Mine got so hot it unsoldered one of the diodes. Happened to have a XS650 one that is larger an the diodes bigger. Worked great but the regulator would let the battery boil. Finally got a later model R/R from The Old Kaw Man and it worked a few years. Took Ed's advice and got SH775, using it to this day. The early regulators were prone to fail that's why they changed them. 
Steve

Okay guys, I bought a GENUINE SH775 in kit form for my KZ-1000A-1.  It came today and just looking at the size of it I think it will fit where the old OEM regulator was BUT in order for it to go in there I will have to cut off my hazard flasher bracket as it's in the way.  I really hate to cut anything off of this bike, so I am wondering if anyone is running an SH775 and mounted it in a unique location to avoid cutting anything off your bike.  One other thing, in order for the SH775 to "nest" into the old regulator location the wire looms will face upwards.  I would prefer they face down, but this is no big deal.  Thanks for any input.

Rick H.

I mounted it under the fender.   Got that idea from a Yamaha FZ-09 I owned briefly which had it in same spot, and of course, gets superb cooling.   I made all the wiring anew, but am confortable with the electrics by profession, including making my own 'factory grade' connectors.    

.....actually the old stock harness is still there, and could switch to original R/R in a matter of minutes.   

I had a voltmeter installed by me on bars.,  and can tell the difference.    Stock R/R was erratic, sometimes hitting 15VDC.   The SH775 keeps from 13.9 to 14.2 VDC.

P.D. Old harness had one of the generator phase wire tappedd for automatic Head Lamp on.  Still there but  installed a manual switch for it.   Don't encourage you to this approach, but am only showing an idea.

Just to close out my thread on the charging system question, the end result after testing was done and a borrowed regulator temporarily installed, was that I purchased a "real" SH775 from Roadster Cycle.  Jack at Roadster was very helpful and he explained ordering what I needed and gave me some install tips.  When I received the SH775 I noticed the bolt holes in it were exactly the same dimensions as the OEM regulator.  My first thought was to mount it where the OEM unit was, but I encountered a problem in that the hazard flasher bracket was in the way.  OK, plan "B" find another location where I wouldn't have to cut something off to make it fit.  I was not able to find another location that I felt was suitable for mounting the SH775.  I had thought about the top of the air cleaner box, but that didn't work well as I couldn't put the tool kit in the bike.  So, onto Plan "C".  The next idea I had was to mount it on the front of the frame under the fork stem, but that would require drilling two holes into the frame brace and I didn't think that was a good idea.  So back to Plan "A", mounting it where the old regulator sat.  I looked at the flasher bracket and decided to bend it out of the way and not cut it off.  I did this and VIOLA, it fit like a glove.  So once the SH775 was in I moved onto the wiring.  This was pretty straight forward as the SH775 has a positive and negative lead that attach to the battery.  There are three yellow wires from the unit that attach to the three wires from the stator.  In my case this was a pink, yellow and light blue wires.  The kit from Roadstercycles had everything in it I needed for this and best yet the wire connectors were all weather resistant with heat shrink ends.  Jack from Roadstercycles makes it very clear that you do not cross the positive and negative wires ever or you will damage the SH755.  Should you accidently do so, he will sell you another unit at his cost, but only once.

After getting everything hooked up and starting my bike I took a voltage check at the battery and it was perfect.  No higher than 14.8 to 15.0 volts at 3,500 RPM's.  After a short ride I came back home and elected to get rid of some things still attached to the bike and serving no useful purpose.  The regulator was already gone so the rectifier went next.  I removed the cut off wires from the terminal board and it looks a lot better now.  Initially I was one of those guys that didn't want to step out of the dark ages and install such niceties as point free ignition and an SH775 R/R unit.  Part of me wanted to stay true to the bike, but when you just can't find new OEM replacement parts (R/R) and/or get tired of messing with points this is THE way to go.  I am super pleased with the end result of these upgrades and thank you to everyone who offered help and advice.  You know who you are!!

Rick H.

Looks really nice. Good job. Thank you for posting your work, research, and results. To quote swest. “Now ride the piss out of it”…

wrote:

Rick H.

Good job!  You might want to check the gray connector, it doesn't look like it's seated all the way down.  

I've bought and resold, after testing, a bunch of SH775's and I've yet to find one that didn't work perfectly.  Some with broken connectors though.  Anyway, they are a great upgrade for not a lot of money.

 

Really clean install Rick H.  Well done!

Good Ridin'
slmjim & Z1BEBE