Rectifier caught on fire

Virii wrote:

Qdude wrote:

The story of the person who makes them in Oregon, who has made so many of them just recently, has helped me convince my wife that this is a common problem and therefore I really DONT need to get rid of the bike.

Get rid of it??? That's awfully extreme and entirely unreasonable! Does she jump the gun like that often? This is an outrage!

I totally agree, Qdude how do you let this woman in your house?..... Get rid of your bike?... For only a little electrical problem? I know several good divorce lawyers that could make a good case for you with a comment like that. Sad to say but a 77 650 Kaw will last longer than the average marriage. And I say this being a recently married man that also owns a 77 650.:whistle:

I think my 77 650 is part of the reason I didn't get married to the girlfriend I lived with at the time. Obviously everything worked out for the better haha,
well, I did sell the bike, but I got another really quick. As for another girlfriend, well, I'm not in such a hurry on that one

Good luck with the fixing of the crispy critters in your electrical system Qdude

Post edited by: 77Davo650, at: 2007/07/09 17:10

All right all, I know about that life is in the journey, not the destination. But F that ! I want back out on the road ! We have got some record temperatures up here in Seattle.

I found the site with the schematic for the rectifier. It gave no list of specific parts, other than to call for 25 Amp 50 Volt capabilities.

I have read that these parts are readily available at Radio Shack. But my local Jack black ala 'High Fidelity' Radio Shack clerk has rather indignantly informed me that I shall find no such valves at any Radio Shack, and that the guys at the downtown store are idiots and apparently I don't know what I am 'getting myself into'. Oh, and would I like to buy a 16 pack of batteries.

The diodes that I did find at R.S. were rated three different ways;
Io, 3 Amps
Ipm(rep) 25 Amps and
Ipm(surge) 300 Amps.

All of these numbers seemed to apply to the diode in that particular package.

Are these the diodes that I should use? Or are there some bigger badder babies that I should track down elsewhere?

The link to the man in Oregon is working fine. He got back to me to let me know that he is behind in production of my particular model of rectifier (there has been a recent run on them lately, hmmm) and that he might be done with a few next week. P.S. he got back to me very expediently, kudos to his business.

I am going to send out some P.M.s to the Kz members mentioned as sources in this thread for some input and or advice. Bar that, any one have any other suggestions?

Right above the "20 amp / 50 volt" on the page diagram it lists the radio shack part number #276-1185. You should be able to find them in the electrical parts drawers at radio shack, and yes, usually the clerks there are no help...Get three of those, some wire and female connectors (or just solder the wires to the male connectors on the rectifiers)and whatever aluminum plate they have or what you can find to mount the three rectifiers to. Should not cost more than $15.

Post edited by: 77Davo650, at: 2007/07/10 15:44

Ha ha ha ha,

I thought that was a phone number. I guess that I do have no idea what I am doing!!!

Thank you very much!

The schematic seems to show 12 diodes, (6 pairs run parallel) am I misunderstanding the symbols?

Q

The part you are buying is what's called a bridge rectifier. It already comes with four diodes inside of it. So three of them would give you the 12 diodes I am showing in the schematic.

I chose that device since it is very convenient to work with and is very durable. (There are occasionally defective ones, unfortunately, but if they are good, they should last a long time.) The 1/4" tabs allow for spade connection or solder, and the mount is easily attachable to a heat sink. (It's a pain to heat-sink individual diodes.)

I over-designed it. It should theoretically handle 75 amps when fully assembled and heatsinked (with a fan or moving air). The main fuse is only rated at 20 amps so the rectifier should handle 4 times more than the bike will ever see.

Back in the 1970's and 1980's Radio shack used to hire total nerds and geeks. Some of them really knew their stuff, but now it's just any other retail store. I hate it when they insist on "helping" me, nowadays. It's funny when I tell them I'm looking for some obscure semiconductor. Before they can finish telling me they don't have anything that wierd, I usually find it and show it to them. :woohoo:

pay very close attention to the drawing in order to know which pin is which. Notice one corner is cut off. That is not always the case, but also notice one of the pins is oriented differently than the other three. That oddball one is the positive output. The one opposite is the negative (or ground). The remaining two are AC and interchangeable.

Post edited by: loudhvx, at: 2007/07/10 20:46

Giant sincere heartfelt thanx to you all !!

I built the rectifier in an evening and can now explain the mechanics of the curcuit. I didn't even need to test the thing. I just hooked it up and started the bike right off. Again, thank you for all of the swift assistance with all of my ignorant questions.

I thought that I might burn through this new rectifier, so instead of measuring, marking and finishing the aluminum, I rough cut all pieces by hand. The final product looks,.... functional. I am thinking of making another one just for asthetics sake.


I cut card sized pieces of aluminum and, with a vise, bent them into u shaped trough shaped flanges as heat sinks on both top and bottom separating all three bridge capacitors. I used plenty of silicon heat transfer caulking at all joints.


I also temporarily wired in a volt meter to monitor the regulator. Boy that reg. is possessed. Sometimes functions, other times has epileptic fits. Perhaps I should build one of those as well.

Q

P.S. My Wife was legitimately impressed, and supportive even. Damn go figure....

Post edited by: Qdude, at: 2007/07/12 16:33

Now if I neede I can do that on my 78 KZ1000 A2 right?:huh:

rick's motorsport electrics.com

they have new reg/rct for a lot of bikes

stators too

if you want a warranty and a part that can stand vibration,heat,and 130 A.C volt spikes under high rev situations.

just another solution thx.

Qdude wrote:

...I also temporarily wired in a volt meter to monitor the regulator. Boy that reg. is possessed. Sometimes functions, other times has epileptic fits. Perhaps I should build one of those as well. ...

Yeah, your bike uses the old mechanical type, just like a KZ400. It can get pretty erratic with vibration etc. That's why I just finished building a regulator for a KZ400. Unfortunately it uses parts from an old mainframe computer so the main transistor would be hard to come by.



Here it is assembled into the original box.




Here's a similar one I designed about 10 years ago for a Yamaha. I'm not sure you can even get those parts from Radio Shack anymore. I put a diagram at the bottom of that page to alter the circuit to work on the KZ.
www.geocities.com/loudgpz/GPZvRegExciteField.html
However, I will probably update that design in order to eliminate the 50W R2. In the meantime, I know the oregonmotorcycleparts regulator works and is good, cheap alternative to the stock mechanical contraption..

Post edited by: loudhvx, at: 2007/07/13 08:10

Please don't delete this post.

Post edited by: loudhvx, at: 2007/07/13 08:04

I'm confused the diagram says this is a mod for the three wire stator. well I believe that the 77 has a three wire with a green seperate wire to energize the feild. The diagram says this is not a mod for the separate wire to energize the feild.