More woes with the FZR Voltage Regulator

I went to Al's Bikes and Bits, a bike wrecker up here who was recommended by
a couple of people. He insists that I need an FZR regulator, and that the
earlier suggestions about using different regulators won't work. So I got a
replacement FZR regulator, $88. It charged at 13.8 volts when I put it in,
perfect.

Two days later the bike dies. Completely dead battery. Try the voltmeter,
the regulator is now putting out **** all.

Take it back, Al gives me another one. Hook it up, charges at 13.8, no
problems. This time I check the voltage again after less than an hour ride
time. Nothing coming out of the regulator at all.

So for some reason these regulators keep blowing. I know they get hot, but
the crook regulator in the first place gets hot too, but it overcharges
instead of undercharging. I am thinking that Al has given me a different
sort of regulator, like an FZR250, that looks the same but has a different
capacity. Might not be his fault, I dunno, I just want to fix this problem.
I don't see what on the bike could be blowing them, its not like there's an
extra alternator down there providing more juice!

Any ideas?

 

Reckon I'd go back to Al's and ask for one that will last !!
Heat of course does bugger a lot of electronics.
Can you arrange a bit of cooling air somehow ??

 

you need to add a computer powersupply fan or something similar and then apply
the finger test , cant touch it ?. to hot , add a heat sink. if you have one of
those defrosting plates a bit of that is perfect .

 

dunno about fzr's...its years since i was a bike electrician
usually bike regs are pretty simple, they sink excess current to earth
through a transistor...this is why it gets hot...the less it charges, the
hotter it gets as more juice goes through the transistors
they derive a reference voltage from the ignition circuit mostly, so if it
has an ignition / voltage sense input make sure this works or it will boil
the battery or fail to operate entirely
earthing of case is sometimes important...check this anyway
check input from stator...3 white or yellow wires, should be 40 - 70 volts
<AC> between phases, excess voltage will fry the rectifier diodes although
they are usually pretty tolerant...stator resistance should be 1-5 ohms
between phases and no leaks to ground
its puzzling that they work ok, then stop...googling indicates that there is
a problem with them but no one says 'here use one of these and it fixes the
problem'
so check things above if you havent already, as atec says fan...or heat
sink...something to help the cooling
I wouldnt use a second hand reg/rec if I could help it...usually you can get
aftermarket ones that are the same or better than original
try Dave at Albion Motorcycles...he used to have some good gear...tell him
reuben sent you

 

Tee hee, sounds like and ad for....

Hammo

 

Isnt that all besides the point. As they are originally designed to stay
cool enough withou a fan. Id check the specs of the original to Al's
replacement. If something isn't wrong there, then perhaps there is some
arcing going on before or after the regulator?.

I used Al's Bikes and Bits alot... they arnt a bad mob...QMS just down the
road from em arnt too bad either.

Josh - ZX9R

Computer CPU fan is good for this. Get one of the little slimline jobbies.

 

It seems the concensus is the original design was flawed. They don't stay
cool enough as is, and I'm getting an aftermarket one that has cooling fins.

Not too sure about the computer fan idea. Its a pretty hostile environment
for them. I'll see how the cooling fins go.

 

On the VFR Owners web site, the complaints about Honda regulators are quite
frequent in the older models prior to the vtec current model. Someone tried
the fan idea, but the reg unit still failed again.The Honda has poor air
circulation around the reg, and on the vtec it is fitted in a reasonably
large silver aluminium heatsink. Does the Yamaha reg need thermal conductive
grease between the case and the frame, to better flow the heat, if so ,try a
Dick Smith store for some.

 

Yeah, I never really believed that'd work long-term either.
I'd be tempted to extend the cabling, heat-sink-goo it to a
decent aluminium heatsink, and mount all that somewhere
with a bit of airflow, eg: let the fins hang out in the air.

-----sharks