Honda CL350 Stator and REG/REC

jjackson337

jjackson337

New Member
I have followed a few threads on ugrading the rec/reg for Honda twins. I went ahead and bought the $20 Onan rec.reg that is meant for john deer mowers. Half the time when I ride it seems to work great. The other half of the time the battery will die at stop lights, especially with the highbeam on. I am using a Ballistic Evo2 4 cell battery and stock stator. Could this be because the reg/rec I have installed is not grounded properly, or could my stator be bad? I wanted to save myself from having to spend the $220 for the Rick's charging system upgrade, and I was under the impression that the reg/rec I bought was basically the same as the Rick's Hot shot upgrade, just $80 cheaper. I am thinking about doing the re-wire so that the battery gets full charge even with the headlight on low beam. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Side note, I have tried uploading an avatar and signature but it doesn't seem to take when I click change profile. Any help is greatly appreciated.
 

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Let the bike idle and warm up. Measure voltages across the battery terminal while it is idling. You should see around 12.5V.
Now rev it up to 6000 RPM or so and check voltages again. Hopefully this doesn't go higher than 14.1V.

Please report your findings and we'll take it from there.
 
Thanks for the reply, I'll do this as soon as I get home. I have had a multimeter for some time now but have never learned how to use it properly. Maybe today is the day.
 
Sonreir said:
Let the bike idle and warm up. Measure voltages across the battery terminal while it is idling. You should see around 12.5V.
Now rev it up to 6000 RPM or so and check voltages again. Hopefully this doesn't go higher than 14.1V.

Please report your findings and we'll take it from there.
Click to expand...

OK, so the voltage across the battery terminal while idling was 12.64V. The voltage at 6k rpm was at 13.1V. What is the deal with the charging system output when the headlight is off? Like 2/3 output when off and full output when on highbeam?
 
there is a time factor involved. If I electric start my bike, and run at 5k, the voltage looks low, 12.9.. As time goes by, the voltage slowly increases as the battery, as it gets recharges, stops loading the system as much. The voltage check should not just be a quick blip to 5K, but a steady hold, watch the voltage until it stops climbing.
 
Yeah... full charging with the high beam on.

A common mod is to splice the white and yellow wires together as they leave the stator. Then you get full charging all the time.
 
1976 U.S. spec Honda bikes required headlights on all the time. The yellow and white were connected in the harness. They can be recognized because they did away with the headlight on off switch on the right control pod.


Sent from planet Earth using mysterious electronic devices and Tapatalk
 
Also, did you make sure that you grounded the green wire (I'm assuming you cut the harness off the old rectifier to connect to your new R/R) to the case of the R/R ?

On mine, I put a ring terminal on the end of the green wire and used the mounting bolt to ground it to the case of the R/R and to the bike, but I'm also going to add another wire from that bolt directly to the battery ground.

86xcVzH.jpg
 
The extra wire is really needed. the Tool Box is not so great a ground, as the mounts are often painted.

A nice 12 gauge wire is best, but not less then 14 for that.
 
Yep,
What Mydlife said, I always ground the rectifier/regulator directly to the frame and or battery. Pretty simple to either drill a hole in the frame or run a wire to the battery.
 
In my application, I can "cheat" and run a short ground wire from the R/R to the main negative battery cable, which connects to the motor about six inches to the front of the bike. Since that cable runs directly to the battery, it's a good ground :)

Just another idea that might be of use to you...
 
Worst cb650 ever said:
Also, did you make sure that you grounded the green wire (I'm assuming you cut the harness off the old rectifier to connect to your new R/R) to the case of the R/R ?

On mine, I put a ring terminal on the end of the green wire and used the mounting bolt to ground it to the case of the R/R and to the bike, but I'm also going to add another wire from that bolt directly to the battery ground.

86xcVzH.jpg
Click to expand...

This could possibly be where all of my woes are coming from. I did NOT run a ground. UUUGGGHHH. I feel really stupid...at least I didn't buy the Rick's upgrade impulsively yet. I'll ground the wire and what happens.

Also, does anyone have a picture of how/where they spliced the white wire into the yellow one? I'm assuming the easiest way is inside the headlight bucket. It sounds easy enough but if I had a picture it would make it a whole lot simpler. Thanks guys.
 
Ground wire is only necessary if you mounted the R/R to something that isn't grounded. Doesn't hurt to have the extra, though.

For the white/yellow merger, the easiest place is right after the white and yellow leave the stator. Tie them together and go straight to the R/R. Then you can lose the wires running all the way to the right hand control assembly.
 
ok so this is where I have the reg/reg mounted. It's mounted at the front of a custom battery box closest to the gas tank. It's possible the battery box isn't a good ground. I have no ground wire running to it and the old green wire that was used as ground for the stock 2-part reg/rec system is not being used. Should I just connect that green wire to the new reg/rec, run a different ground from reg/rec to frame, or just leave reg/rec as is?
 
I prefer to ground directly to metal whenever possible. I'd make sure you have a good ground between the battery box and the frame, using another wire if necessary.
 
jjackson337 said:
ok so this is where I have the reg/reg mounted. It's mounted at the front of a custom battery box closest to the gas tank. It's possible the battery box isn't a good ground. I have no ground wire running to it and the old green wire that was used as ground for the stock 2-part reg/rec system is not being used. Should I just connect that green wire to the new reg/rec, run a different ground from reg/rec to frame, or just leave reg/rec as is?
Click to expand...

Ok, the metal body of the R/R needs to be electrically connected to the green wire, that's a very important connection in this setup. You need to electrically connect that green wire to the metal body of the R/R for it to work properly. I used a ring terminal that I "squished" between the R/R metal body and a nut. Try getting that green wire hooked up to the body of the R/R first and I bet things will start working. Making sure the green wire / body of the R/R is also well grounded to the battery helps a lot, but without the green wire connected well to the R/R, you're relying on the chassis to ground out the R/R when you have a good green wire ground right in front of you!

Make sense?
 
That green wire is the ground for the harness. I suggest adding another wire from that mounting bolt to either the frame ground or battery - terminal. That will give the best results. the tool box does not always ground well, as the mounts are painted.
 
I know I'm years too late to help but others might read this thread.

they have no idea how to make the onan regulator work on a honda twin on the honda twins website. I've read this thread at honda twins. they are clueless plus the thread is dated. radio shack is no longer with us.

the onan unit is 2 phase, honda twins are 3 phase.

you do not need to be an engineer to understand this. all people need is a good explanation.

lets say you have a honda twin with a good rectifier. that means you have 3 stator wires running into the good rectifier. that means you have 2 wires coming out. plus and minus. minus goes to battery minus, positive goes to battery positive.

so we can run the onan regulator without its internal 2 phase rectifier. the plus terminal goes to battery plus and the onan gets bolted to the frame. (negative).
done. you now have rectified and regulated 3 phase.

so how do you run the onan that only has a 2 phase rectifier on a 3 phase bike. easy, 2 stator wires go to the onan. you need to rectify the 3rd wire coming out of the stator. any 20 amp bridge rectifier will do. they cost less than 2 bucks. anyway the 3rd wire goes to the external rectifer ac terminal. the plus terminal goes to the battery plus the negative terminal goes to battery minus. the onan now will regulate all the phases because the regulator is connected to the battery
 
bracketmaker said:
I know I'm years too late to help but others might read this thread.

they have no idea how to make the onan regulator work on a honda twin on the honda twins website. I've read this thread at honda twins. they are clueless plus the thread is dated. radio shack is no longer with us.

the onan unit is 2 phase, honda twins are 3 phase.

you do not need to be an engineer to understand this. all people need is a good explanation.

lets say you have a honda twin with a good rectifier. that means you have 3 stator wires running into the good rectifier. that means you have 2 wires coming out. plus and minus. minus goes to battery minus, positive goes to battery positive.

so we can run the onan regulator without its internal 2 phase rectifier. the plus terminal goes to battery plus and the onan gets bolted to the frame. (negative).
done. you now have rectified and regulated 3 phase.

so how do you run the onan that only has a 2 phase rectifier on a 3 phase bike. easy, 2 stator wires go to the onan. you need to rectify the 3rd wire coming out of the stator. any 20 amp bridge rectifier will do. they cost less than 2 bucks. anyway the 3rd wire goes to the external rectifer ac terminal. the plus terminal goes to the battery plus the negative terminal goes to battery minus. the onan now will regulate all the phases because the regulator is connected to the battery
Click to expand...
Honda Twins are single phase. Inline 4's are 3 phase. There's no such thing as a 2 phase Honda motorcycle.
 
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