HOW TO>>> protect your R/R

grab another BIG cup of coffee!!
todays how to.. save your R/R hopefully from going bonkers on you. :computer-noworky:
this is my personal set up that i have done to many bikes with great results.
this his HOOPDC'S 95 vfr750. :fing02:

Regulator rectifiers absorb 3 strong alternating currents (AC)
from the stators yellow wires, and change them to a steady stream of direct current (DC) via the red wire. .
if the R/R gets to much juice it sends the overflow to the ground with the green wire..


however.. the green wire is kinda wimpy and runs to the main harness and meets a bunch of other wires with juice going through them..so the flow gets a bit hot...
and heat build up is what kills the R/R

ok.. take a sip of coffee...breath..
if your not deaf like me ..put on AC/DC's "long way to the top"

sooooo, what you need!
i am assuming you know who to solder and have an mini or electric soldering iron,..if not.. get one and practice a bit.

you need green wire,eyelets, a brown wire, connection ends, a computer fan, heat transfer compound, a wire brush and a pick. :comp13:
http://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u30/gll429/IMG00459.jpghttp://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u30/gll429/IMG00481.jpghttp://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u30/gll429/IMG00483.jpg

take r/r and stator wires ..disconnect them. take the pick and remove the tanks from the blocks and scrub them clean!

http://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u30/gll429/IMG00458.jpghttp://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u30/gll429/IMG00462.jpg
now.. take the eyelets and solder them to the green wires. if your wire is thin you can double up or triple if needed.
make 3 off them about 5 inches long.. you can cut them short if needed.
http://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u30/gll429/IMG00490.jpg

find your tail connection and splice in one of the eyelet extensions and bolt it to the frame .. taking a little paint of helps with the connection. do this with the green wire coming from the R/R and the bunch of green wires up at the front of the bike.
http://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u30/gll429/IMG00487.jpghttp://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u30/gll429/IMG00467.jpghttp://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u30/gll429/IMG00491.jpghttp://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u30/gll429/IMG00485.jpg

take your computer fan..(this one from a dumpster..RECYCLE!)
and fit it over your R/R.. you may need to make a mounts for it.. this one was perfect.. just needed a shave to open the spot for the plug.
http://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u30/gll429/IMG00482.jpg

drill the mounting holes.. then remove the R/R and put lots of heat transfer compound on it.. this is just a dab.. dont be shy with it. :biggrin:

http://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u30/gll429/IMG00484.jpg

mount your R/R and fan.. ground the fan neg wire and and the connection plug on the positive. splice in the brown wire to the power wire for your brake light. brown is power accessory on hondas. :fing02:
http://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u30/gll429/IMG00486.jpg

and your done! :bliss:
http://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u30/gll429/IMG00489.jpg

this may seem like overkill... but overkill in the garage is MUCH better that a dead bike on the road! :fing02:


now bug some mods about pinning this post! :biggrin:

Having had a r/r and stator failure this is good info.
I do wonder how useful that little fan is when there is air moving by at highway speeds. I can't imagine that tiny little fan is going to make much difference at all.
The grounding of all the electrical does seem to be the most important element in avoiding further issues.

Good post.

[image: View Post]superfunkomatic, on 18 September 2010 - 10:15 AM, said:

Having had a r/r and stator failure this is good info.
I do wonder how useful that little fan is when there is air moving by at highway speeds. I can't imagine that tiny little fan is going to make much difference at all.
The grounding of all the electrical does seem to be the most important element in avoiding further issues.

Good post.


There is probably enough air flowing past the R/R at highway speeds to keep it cool enough not to blow but what about when the highway ends and your sitting behind that SUV at a light or in grid lock traffic. Bring on the fan.

computer fans will drop the R/R temp about 50%!! That's about 100 degrees.. Not much air flow hits the R/R at all on the VFRs location..so it makes a HUGE difference.
I have it wired so the fan comes on as soon as the bike is switched ON. This has so little draw to run its the same as the running lights. :fing02:

[image: View Post]gll429, on 18 September 2010 - 03:25 PM, said:

computer fans will drop the R/R temp about 50%!! That's about 100 degrees.. Not much air flow hits the R/R at all on the VFRs location..so it makes a HUGE difference.
I have it wired so the fan comes on as soon as the bike is switched ON. This has so little draw to run its the same as the running lights. :fing02:

Why would you want to use heat-transfer compound on a reg/rec that appears to have been designed to be insulated from the frame?

Ciao,

Thanks, I got a dead computer laying around, I'll take a look. My R/R on my 5th gen is the OEM upgrade and the fins are taller in the middle so its not flat. I'll have to figure something. Your temp of the thing - mbe 150 F is dead on.

- Dunno why I havent noticed before, but the whole area under the seat is a good 140 F, a least thats my check from immediately after a ride. (The seat kinda cooks my rear.) I also checking wires in front of the battery box and they are warm too. All this heat cant be good for the whole electric system. I guess that the hazard of a V motor with 2 cylinders and headers sticking back.

-

[image: View Post]JZH, on 19 September 2010 - 12:59 AM, said:

[image: View Post]gll429, on 18 September 2010 - 03:25 PM, said:

computer fans will drop the R/R temp about 50%!! That's about 100 degrees.. Not much air flow hits the R/R at all on the VFRs location..so it makes a HUGE difference.
I have it wired so the fan comes on as soon as the bike is switched ON. This has so little draw to run its the same as the running lights. :fing02:

Why would you want to use heat-transfer compound on a reg/rec that appears to have been designed to be insulated from the frame?

Ciao,


every r/r makes heat and needs to get rid of it asap.. THIS one has an aluminum plate sandwiched between the frame and the r/r to absorb the heat better.. BOTH get get compound. :fing02:

See how simple this was to do !!!! Easy. By the way, this is my bike and when I started to read Greg's post, I thought that
RR stood for railroad.

Dennis

[image: View Post]gll429, on 18 September 2010 - 02:25 AM, said:

grab another BIG cup of coffee!!
todays how to.. save your R/R hopefully from going bonkers on you. :computer-noworky:
this is my personal set up that i have done to many bikes with great results.
this his HOOPDC'S 95 vfr750. :fing02:

Regulator rectifiers absorb 3 strong alternating currents (AC)
from the stators yellow wires, and change them to a steady stream of direct current (DC) via the red wire. .
if the R/R gets to much juice it sends the overflow to the ground with the green wire..


however.. the green wire is kinda wimpy and runs to the main harness and meets a bunch of other wires with juice going through them..so the flow gets a bit hot...
and heat build up is what kills the R/R

ok.. take a sip of coffee...breath..
if your not deaf like me ..put on AC/DC's "long way to the top"

sooooo, what you need!
i am assuming you know who to solder and have an mini or electric soldering iron,..if not.. get one and practice a bit.

you need green wire,eyelets, a brown wire, connection ends, a computer fan, heat transfer compound, a wire brush and a pick. :comp13:
http://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u30/gll429/IMG00459.jpghttp://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u30/gll429/IMG00481.jpghttp://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u30/gll429/IMG00483.jpg

take r/r and stator wires ..disconnect them. take the pick and remove the tanks from the blocks and scrub them clean!

http://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u30/gll429/IMG00458.jpghttp://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u30/gll429/IMG00462.jpg
now.. take the eyelets and solder them to the green wires. if your wire is thin you can double up or triple if needed.
make 3 off them about 5 inches long.. you can cut them short if needed.
http://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u30/gll429/IMG00490.jpg

find your tail connection and splice in one of the eyelet extensions and bolt it to the frame .. taking a little paint of helps with the connection. do this with the green wire coming from the R/R and the bunch of green wires up at the front of the bike.
http://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u30/gll429/IMG00487.jpghttp://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u30/gll429/IMG00467.jpghttp://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u30/gll429/IMG00491.jpghttp://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u30/gll429/IMG00485.jpg

take your computer fan..(this one from a dumpster..RECYCLE!)
and fit it over your R/R.. you may need to make a mounts for it.. this one was perfect.. just needed a shave to open the spot for the plug.
http://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u30/gll429/IMG00482.jpg

drill the mounting holes.. then remove the R/R and put lots of heat transfer compound on it.. this is just a dab.. dont be shy with it. :biggrin:

http://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u30/gll429/IMG00484.jpg

mount your R/R and fan.. ground the fan neg wire and and the connection plug on the positive. splice in the brown wire to the power wire for your brake light. brown is power accessory on hondas. :fing02:
http://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u30/gll429/IMG00486.jpg

and your done! :bliss:
http://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u30/gll429/IMG00489.jpg

this may seem like overkill... but overkill in the garage is MUCH better that a dead bike on the road! :fing02:


now bug some mods about pinning this post! :biggrin:

I agree with Greg. :biggrin: :biggrin: :biggrin:


I agree with greg.

[image: View Post]gll429, on 18 September 2010 - 03:25 PM, said:

computer fans will drop the R/R temp about 50%!! That's about 100 degrees.. Not much air flow hits the R/R at all on the VFRs location..so it makes a HUGE difference.
I have it wired so the fan comes on as soon as the bike is switched ON. This has so little draw to run its the same as the running lights. :fing02:

[image: View Post]gll429, on 18 September 2010 - 02:25 AM, said:

then remove the R/R and put lots of heat transfer compound on it.. this is just a dab.. dont be shy with it. :biggrin:


You should use as little as is necessary. The heat transfer compound is to fill the small acvities in the metal surfaces as the compound transfers heat better than air that otherwise gets trapped in those cavities. If you use to much compound the metal surfaces will not mate directly and heat transfer will be very poor. If you want to get the best heat transfer between the RR & frame you should lfatten and polish both mating surfaces, that also means removing the paint from the subframe, most paints have very poor heat transfer rates.

[image: View Post]gll429, on 19 September 2010 - 02:36 AM, said:

every r/r makes heat and needs to get rid of it asap.. THIS one has an aluminum plate sandwiched between the frame and the r/r to absorb the heat better.. BOTH get get compound. :fing02:

It will absorb heat very well when it is cold, but what after it has heated up? If it was designed to transfer more heat from the RR to the frame you should not put heat transfer compound between the plate and the RR (maybe some between the plate and the frame as the frame mounting surface is not always perfectly flat) as the soft aluminum plate does the same job as heat transfer compound, only better. Also you should always minimise the number of layers of heat transfer material as it only decreases heat transfer rates.

One thing I noted was, at least on my 4th gen, hot air from the engine sneaks past the extraction vents below the seat and most likely adds heat to the air around the RR. I placed some foam beween the battery box area and the extraction vent to seal the gaps and it seems to cool down things a little bit back there (at least that what the temp probe I placed near the RR had been telling me since I put the foam in). The temp probe had consistently shown me a drop of around 10 to 15 degrees since I put the foam in. Not much, but I figure anything would help. I also clean up my grounds and connectors every spring and that usually gives me at least .an additional 0.2 volts from voltage readings before I do so.
I might do some experimenting this winter with a heat pipe CPU cooler system I found on a SF sidewalk recently on my way home. Sitll has all it's parts and still works and the CPU mounting plate still gets very cool when I put 12V into it to run the "radiator fan". Just wondering if it's up to the task of cooling a VFR RR. Do you guys think it's worth the effort installing it?

Beck
95 VFR

I put a 2009 Yamaha R1 rectifier on a few weeks ago. It is a MOSFET-type rectifier. It has a metal back. On the Yamaha, it is mounted to a piece of PLASTIC. If it were to get excessively hot by itself, would plastic be the best thing to mount it to?

Now, the headers from the rear cylinder head are VERY close to the sub-frame on my 3rd-gen. So close that Honda made more than one heat shield in that area. The sub frame gets hot from the header tubes and the rear cylinder head. Transferring heat FROM the sub-frame TO the rectifier is backwards thinking, IMHO.

On my last 4k trip with this rectifier, it would be hot along with the frame, sub-frame and all of that area. BUT, when I shut it down, 5-10 minutes later the rectifier was cold to the touch, but the sub-frame and frame were still hot. My rectifier does NOT touch the sub-frame except with the two bolts and the body of the rectifier does not touch the sub-frame.

That little rectifier is not the only culprit of underseat heat on this bike. And if it was, then wouldn't the REAL problem be the stator producing too much excessive voltage that the rectifier has to deal with?


Anyhow, I personally think heat SHIELDING of the rectifier from the sub-frame is the more appropriate thing to do instead of trying to get the supposed heat from the rectifier to transfer to the sub-frame as that heatd transfer goop will do...especially when the sub-frame has gotten hot from the header and rear head.

[image: View Post]btl68, on 20 September 2010 - 02:07 PM, said:

I put a 2009 Yamaha R1 rectifier on a few weeks ago. It is a MOSFET-type rectifier. It has a metal back. On the Yamaha, it is mounted to a piece of PLASTIC. If it were to get excessively hot by itself, would plastic be the best thing to mount it to?

Now, the headers from the rear cylinder head are VERY close to the sub-frame on my 3rd-gen. So close that Honda made more than one heat shield in that area. The sub frame gets hot from the header tubes and the rear cylinder head. Transferring heat FROM the sub-frame TO the rectifier is backwards thinking, IMHO.

On my last 4k trip with this rectifier, it would be hot along with the frame, sub-frame and all of that area. BUT, when I shut it down, 5-10 minutes later the rectifier was cold to the touch, but the sub-frame and frame were still hot. My rectifier does NOT touch the sub-frame except with the two bolts and the body of the rectifier does not touch the sub-frame.

That little rectifier is not the only culprit of underseat heat on this bike. And if it was, then wouldn't the REAL problem be the stator producing too much excessive voltage that the rectifier has to deal with?


Anyhow, I personally think heat SHIELDING of the rectifier from the sub-frame is the more appropriate thing to do instead of trying to get the supposed heat from the rectifier to transfer to the sub-frame as that heatd transfer goop will do...especially when the sub-frame has gotten hot from the header and rear head.


thats different type of r.r your mixxing apples and oranges.
but i am glad its working for start a thread and post some pix. :fing02:

[image: View Post]gll429, on 21 September 2010 - 10:30 AM, said:

[image: View Post]btl68, on 20 September 2010 - 02:07 PM, said:

I put a 2009 Yamaha R1 rectifier on a few weeks ago. It is a MOSFET-type rectifier. It has a metal back. On the Yamaha, it is mounted to a piece of PLASTIC. If it were to get excessively hot by itself, would plastic be the best thing to mount it to?

Now, the headers from the rear cylinder head are VERY close to the sub-frame on my 3rd-gen. So close that Honda made more than one heat shield in that area. The sub frame gets hot from the header tubes and the rear cylinder head. Transferring heat FROM the sub-frame TO the rectifier is backwards thinking, IMHO.

On my last 4k trip with this rectifier, it would be hot along with the frame, sub-frame and all of that area. BUT, when I shut it down, 5-10 minutes later the rectifier was cold to the touch, but the sub-frame and frame were still hot. My rectifier does NOT touch the sub-frame except with the two bolts and the body of the rectifier does not touch the sub-frame.

That little rectifier is not the only culprit of underseat heat on this bike. And if it was, then wouldn't the REAL problem be the stator producing too much excessive voltage that the rectifier has to deal with?


Anyhow, I personally think heat SHIELDING of the rectifier from the sub-frame is the more appropriate thing to do instead of trying to get the supposed heat from the rectifier to transfer to the sub-frame as that heatd transfer goop will do...especially when the sub-frame has gotten hot from the header and rear head.


thats different type of r.r your mixxing apples and oranges.
but i am glad its working for start a thread and post some pix. :fing02:

The best thing to do is post the link to the website that I used to set the whole thing up...very informative and a life saver.

http://www.triumphra...or-upgrade.html

Everything there can be applied to the VFR.