Brand new Regulator fried?!?!

imseamless

imseamless

Been Around the Block
I bought a voltage regulator from Oregon Motorcycle Parts, installed it, rode 30 miles and parked. Went out to my bike in the morning, made it about 7 blocks and my battery was dead. Jump started it off a car, rode about 10 minutes to charge up the battery and it died.


I verified my bike was charging after the install with a volt meter across the battery terminals. Has anyone cooked one of these before?! Literally put 30-35 miles on it. I did have it under my seat and it was 80ish out.


Please note: Not bad mouthing the guys at OMP. I've ordered from them in the past and their service and parts are great. Just curious if these things are that sensitive to heat.
 
And what about the grounds from the battery and regulator? Bad grounds will fry one pretty quick as well.
 
Battery is roughly 4 months old, 7 amp/hr. The bike sat all last week and had a full charge when I started it on Saturday.

Battery ground is direct to the frame. Regulator ground is a soldered connection to the wiring harness. I'll go point to point on the regulator ground to verify though.

Can anyone recommend how to test this regulator? Is it like a diode to where I can use my multimeter and check that voltage is only passing one way? Maybe resistance?
 
Best way to test regulator is to fire the bike up and check battery voltage as you rev the bike up. At idel say 12-13v. As revs rise, voltage should peak at 13.5 -14v. If voltage keeps rising, that's a problem.

Q. Did you get the right type of regulator from Oregon? If your bike has a permanent magnet, the regulator basically shunts off excess volts and sheds them as heat. With many older bikes the rotor on the crank is an electro-magnet and the regulator adjusts the power to the rotor. To do that it has a feed from the battery to "tell it" what the battery voltage is at. Sometimes that feed comes from deep inside the loom and suffers voltage losses, so the regulator thinks the battery is flat, so it keeps pumping electrons in until something melts.
 
If it's your bike in avatar, it looks like CB550.
You need an EMS reg/rect
It won't charge if you got PMS one (or if grounds are bad)
Doesn't the OMP one ground through body?
 
teazer said:
Best way to test regulator is to fire the bike up and check battery voltage as you rev the bike up. At idel say 12-13v. As revs rise, voltage should peak at 13.5 -14v. If voltage keeps rising, that's a problem.

Q. Did you get the right type of regulator from Oregon? If your bike has a permanent magnet, the regulator basically shunts off excess volts and sheds them as heat. With many older bikes the rotor on the crank is an electro-magnet and the regulator adjusts the power to the rotor. To do that it has a feed from the battery to "tell it" what the battery voltage is at. Sometimes that feed comes from deep inside the loom and suffers voltage losses, so the regulator thinks the battery is flat, so it keeps pumping electrons in until something melts.
Click to expand...

I measured across the terminals after installing it and had 12-13 at idle and upwards of 13V around 5k, never broke 14V. The regulator I purchased with spec'd to work with my bike, and it did, atleast for a short while. I have my old rectifier/regulator combo, so I'll plug up the regulator portion and see if my charging is restored.

I had the regulator under my seat in my little electrics box which does not permit much airflow. On my 30 minute freeway ride, I did notice my seat being a little warm but I figured this is normal when riding a CB350 at 70mph (7k). I wonder if that was the regulator cooking?
 
crazypj said:
If it's your bike in avatar, it looks like CB550.
You need an EMS reg/rect
It won't charge if you got PMS one (or if grounds are bad)
Doesn't the OMP one ground through body?
Click to expand...
It is the bike in the Avatar, but it is a CB350F
 
350 reg/rect is 'same' as 400/500/550/750 probably right about the mounting position.
Did you mount it in an alloy or plastic box?.
I think I read somewhere you need 1/8" plate at least 6"x4" to act as heatsink
 
You have the case against the alloy?
Probably be a good idea to get some 'speed holes' in it
 
It's not screwed down, its just sitting there.


I just grabbed the multimeter and was getting between 12-14V at the terminals! Do you think it could be an intermittent thing? Is there anything else that could cause the battery to not charge? I'm at a bit of a loss now.


So here's what I'm working with:
-New rectifier, verified connections
-New regulator, verified connections
-New battery this season, held a charge all last week without being ran
 
Bolt it in somehow so it makes a good contact with case, that will allow heat transfer.
If you have original wiring, it's highly likely there could be a loose or broken connection.
Intermittent electrical faults are really going to test your patience ;)
Check all the connectors for corrosion and tightness, take the tank off and tweak the harness, check the ignition switch, they do go faulty (soldered joints fall apart but the clips 'mostly' hold things together)
 
I'll bolt it down to the case. I ditched the original bullet connectors for the regulator and soldered the connections. Rectifier is using a cliping plug. I inspected the back of my ignition and all 4 solder points look good, although the inner casing that has the keyhole does spin inside the outter casing, I'll see if my local bike shop has a replacement.

I appreciate the help
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

DTT Light or Dark

  • DTT Light
    • www.jadusmotorcycleparts.com
    www.lostapostle.ca/
    www.sparckmoto.com

    Spread the Love

    Back
    Top Bottom