Is my Rick's Regulator/Rectifier bad?

zwade

Active Member
Hey all,

So I finally am at the point of finishing touches on my 75 CB550F. Went to ride it the other day and it died on me. Did some tests and figured out the battery was not charging. Looked into it a little bit more and went through some tests I found on this site to test things.

Anyways I went to test the regulator/rectifier and I wasn't getting anything from the white wire. Started the bike up, hooked up the multimeter and ran a wire directly from my battery to the white wire coming from the stator (bypassing the regulator/rectifier) and wouldn't you know it, after revving the bike up the voltage on the battery started to climb.

This leads me to believe that the Rick's Regulator/Rectifier is not functioning as it should. I'm in a bit of denial at the moment because the damn thing is brand new. So I guess what I'm looking for is for someone to tell me why it's bad or that I did something wrong lol ;D. I mean, it's brand new, how can it be bad? What could have caused it to go bad?
 
WELP, just tested it using Ricks youtube video and I got nothing. So stuffs broke I guess. Warranty on this stuff?
 
zwade said:
WELP, just tested it using Ricks youtube video and I got nothing. So stuffs broke I guess. Warranty on this stuff?

So here's the scoop on those...

They're all bad.

I used to import these things from China (there is pretty much only one factory in the world that makes them, no joke) and all was good.

Then, about a year ago, someone at the factory fucked up and started putting the DOHC regulators into the SOHC line. The units had all the right wires for the SOHC units, but the behavior was like the units designed for the DOHC models. At this point, I stopped selling them to the general public because they're no longer plug and play. I would have figured that other distributors would have found this point by now, but when you buy from China there are no returns and it can sometimes suck to have to eat a few grand in product costs.

They can still be made to work with a little bit of wiring, however.

First up, you're going to need to bypass the subharness on your bike. The new R/R will need to be plugged directly into the alternator plug and not go through the main harness or the subharness.

From the unit to the alternator:
White to green
Yellow to yellow

From the unit to the battery:
Red to battery positive
Green to battery negative (you can also use the green wire leftover after disconnecting the old regulator)

This leaves just the black wire on the R/R. This will needs to connect to two different places, so it will need to be spliced. First, it should connect to the white wire in the alternator plug, but it will also need to connect to a black wire in the harness (the leftover black wire that connected to the old regulator is a good spot).

Make sense?
 
Sonreir said:
Then, about a year ago, someone at the factory fucked up and started putting the DOHC regulators into the SOHC line. The units had all the right wires for the SOHC units, but the behavior was like the units designed for the DOHC models. At this point, I stopped selling them to the general public because they're no longer plug and play. I would have figured that other distributors would have found this point by now, but when you buy from China there are no returns and it can sometimes suck to have to eat a few grand in product costs.

They can still be made to work with a little bit of wiring, however.

First up, you're going to need to bypass the subharness on your bike. The new R/R will need to be plugged directly into the alternator plug and not go through the main harness or the subharness.

From the unit to the alternator:
White to green
Yellow to yellow

From the unit to the battery:
Red to battery positive
Green to battery negative (you can also use the green wire leftover after disconnecting the old regulator)

This leaves just the black wire on the R/R. This will needs to connect to two different places, so it will need to be spliced. First, it should connect to the white wire in the alternator plug, but it will also need to connect to a black wire in the harness (the leftover black wire that connected to the old regulator is a good spot).

Make sense?

I ordered mine 2 years ago, and it has just sat new in the box since until a week ago. Would it still be part of the bad batch you think?

This seems to make sense, so instead of white to white from the r/r it needs to be

White to green from r/r.

Leave the 3 yellows the same.

Leave red the same.

Leave green the same.

Splice the black from the r/r and connect one to white on the alternator and one to power where it is now
 
About a year ago is when I noticed the problem. It could have been going on longer than that.

And yeah, your description looks good to me.
 
also, i ran this test and it failed so will what you said still work? https://youtu.be/kDx3zgOLShY?t=1m51s
 
That's a permanent magnet regulator/rectifier. They work a bit differently. Not all of the tests will be the same between the two.

I can run you through the tests for you unit, but it's fairly involved if you don't have an adjustable power supply.

It would take less time to hook things up and test it on the bike.
 
Sonreir said:
That's a permanent magnet regulator/rectifier. They work a bit differently. Not all of the tests will be the same between the two.

I can run you through the tests for you unit, but it's fairly involved if you don't have an adjustable power supply.

It would take less time to hook things up and test it on the bike.


Okay I gotchya, I will try to wire it up like you said and see if that works out. Thanks for the help man!
 
I got it wired up like you said, walla! The bike runs and the battery is charging. Question though, is the power still being regulated with this method?
 
Yes, but you should double check this.

It can be done using a multimeter across the battery terminals. You should be getting around 13V at idle with things capping out around 14.5V as revs increase. If voltage tops 15V, shut things down and we can try something else.
 
I was just bashing my head on a wall with this same issue today. Same issue with a Rick's unit. Battery died and left me stranded for a bit till a lucky kick got her going and had to rev her all the way home. It's a newer rick's unit. Have an older one on a different bike. Wired them the same. Was unaware of a change in the product. Will try wiring it your way tomorrow. I'm curious Sonreir, what do you recommend as a charging unit? These mosfet units from your site?


Sent from my iPhone using DO THE TON
 
work9to5 said:
I was just bashing my head on a wall with this same issue today. Same issue with a Rick's unit. Battery died and left me stranded for a bit till a lucky kick got her going and had to rev her all the way home. It's a newer rick's unit. Have an older one on a different bike. Wired them the same. Was unaware of a change in the product. Will try wiring it your way tomorrow. I'm curious Sonreir, what do you recommend as a charging unit? These mosfet units from your site?

Depends on the bike. For the Honda SOHC four, I recommend using a later unit designed for the DOHC fours. Diagram attached.
 

Attachments

  • dohc_for_sohc.jpg
    dohc_for_sohc.jpg
    22.6 KB · Views: 3,423
Any way for one to figure out if their Ricks Reg Rec is considered faulty (as previously described) with simply diagnosis with a DMM? I would hate to rewire everything as above and damage it by mis-wiring.

Thanks in advance.
 
I'll try to remember to post a pick of it tomorrow morning. But there seems to be a difference it the backing plate of the unit. The old one had a flat back, the new one I have has a rectangular impression in the back. I noticed it right away when I got it and thought it was weird.


Sent from my iPhone using DO THE TON
 
So I talked to a tech at Rick's through email this week. He denied any switching of systems and basically said I must of hooked it up wrong or that my battery was at fault. I tried it three times with their configuration. And the result was dead battery, dead battery, dead battery. I also have switched out/in a different battery to be sure.

I just wired it up your way Sonier and have one green wire from the r/r left over. Just ground it?

It's the thicker one that per ricks' direction should be wired to alternator green.


Sent from my iPhone using DO THE TON
 
Turns out the r/r was bad. Did this test I found on YouTube

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kDx3zgOLShY

and the neg diode board is fried.


Sent from my iPhone using DO THE TON
 
Hey Guys,

I have a 1978 Honda CB550K with the EXACT same issues. I have a rewound stator and field coil (by Ricks), new R/R (Ricks), new battery, new fuses and I'm not getting past 12.6 volts at 4000 RPM.

My question would be can I still continue with with the wiring you suggested (previous page) Sonreir if my current new R/R fails a diode test? it shouldn't in theory.

I'm very curious to try this out tomorrow, please let me know your thoughts!
 
Back
Top Bottom