VonYinzer said:
There are five wires exiting the generator. Green, black and three white.
Ok, that sounds like a 3-phase, although i'm not familiar with the wiring colors on that bike.
3 white wires indicate 3 phase (as with hondas its 3 yellows).
3 phase systems have a field coil. The field coil is the small coil inside the spinning rotor. When you turn the ignition on, the coil gets power from the battery and by that, it magnetizes the rotor. When you kick the bike the rotor will spin and being magnetized/'loaded' by the field coil, generate current to the outer coil, the one with the 3 white wires. This system works as long as you have battery. No battery means no spark. *bumpstart with help will generate some juice but in general, you're fuuucked then...
You need to determine the function of the 2 wires, black and green. Assuming black is earth (as per provided diagram on page 1) green is the power to the coil. Your typical combined 3 phase rectifier/regulator has the following wires:
3 whites/yellow (unregulated AC from coils) up to 60v AC
ground/earth. (some housings are grounded, some not)
a (99% red) wire to the battery
the wire feeding the field coil (note that field coil has earth as well!!) these are the two wires coming out of the engine next to the 3 whites/yellows
Now, when the bike is running, the following happens.
The regulator
gets or gives power from the battery (it basicly uses the red wire to measure the battery current and give or take current when needed) and
gets power from the 3 AC engine coil wires.
The regulator measures the amount of power that goes in and out. It compensates the difference by adding or removing current from the field coil. When current is added to the fieldcoil, the generator will provide more current and vice versa.
Because the amount can only be compensated roughly, the precise amount is leveled and any axcess is then transformed into heat. hence the cooling fans on the unit.
Thats 1 function of the combined unit. Its called the regulating part.
The other function is rectifing. Making AC into DC. The unit uses diodes for that process.
AC current changes polarity half of the time and a diode as designed only to let the current in to the front door, not the back. Half of the flow is stopped and also transformed into heat.
As only half the current goes thru, the voltage is divided by 2, making 30v DC from the 60 AC @max rpm. The ecxess is then further transformed to heat by the regulator part.
as you have 3 AC wires coming in (all doing the same, therefor all the same color) you have 3 diodes in a 3phase unit.
Now for your question; As you can see, lots-o-magic happens in the unit. Therefor, its important that you use the unit for the purpose it was designed for. Any unit might work, but then again, it might not. Even the wire colors and brand might be the same, its never guaranteed to work if you use a unit wich was not intentionally designed for that bike. I've tried many many units/times, but only a handfull worked. Some worked ok, some 50/50, some did not. Thats because the unit was designed for the coils and amount of resistance and current provided by them on the bike. If the amounts generated by the coils differ from the bike it was designed for, it gives the wrong amount to the field coil and it will never be able to level out. The unit dies, boils the battery/melt wires or is workless.
As the units go for around 100 bucks, i'd say, pick the right one
YOU CAN NOT SLAP ANY UNIT ON ANY BIKE.
