Voltage regulator

[Win_surfur]

Anyone know what the voltage output should be from the regulator?
Measured at the battery terminals, mine wing 14.2-3 at idle, and 14.8-9 when throttled up. this is with new battery. With old battery it was slightly higher.
Is my regulator bad or going bad?

1700 Voyager.

[Chuck A.]

I would think you are good to go. A good battery is 12.7 ish when fully charged. You are charging 2 volts above that. Too high can burn up a battery.

[tomm]

Seems just about right.

As long as it is higher than about 13.8, your battery will be charging. Depending on what accessories you have, it may drop a little below that at idle. That's OK as long as it jumps back up when you start moving. Should not go above 15.5 at any time.

A rectifier/regulator is either good or bad. They don't go bad slowly.

[plumber63]

With the old battery being weak the regulator was working harder to keep it charge and putting out more volts. The stronger and closer a battery is to full charge the regulator will put out less, so it doesn't over charge it.

[Win_surfur]

New regulator on the way. Updates to follow.

[gv550]

Originally Posted by Win_surfur

New regulator on the way. Updates to follow.

There are 2 voltage regulators, one for each alternator.
How did you determine one was defective?

[Win_surfur]

Originally Posted by gv550

There are 2 voltage regulators, one for each alternator.
How did you determine one was defective?

Bike WAS in shop to get new Audio system, guy there believes it's bad, based on the output voltage, Yet didn't know there were 2. He was wrong, as I even told him he was.

I picked up the bike today, incomplete, it's been there over 2 weeks. Brought it home and will take it to a high end car Audio shop on Monday.

Previous amp was the Alpine and worked fine. Input voltage rating of 14.4. New amp is JL Audio MX500/4 with the same input voltage rating and it goes into protect mode when throttled up. I believe it's his wiring job. We'll soon find out.

[Win_surfur]

Update - took the bike to the car Audio place this morning. Within an hour he calls to tell me the previous shop connected ground to a bolt in the frame that had a RUBBER GROMMET!!! Also said power wires were soldered (which is fine) then had crimp connectors which actually broke the solder joints, and was barely getting any power signal at all.
He just called & said it's ready, come pick it up.

[smokier]

Win_Surfer,

So, no new Voltage Regulator needed? Just a better wiring job was required? Is that the short version?

Just Curious...
Smokier

[Win_surfur]

Originally Posted by smokier

Win_Surfer,

So, no new Voltage Regulator needed? Just a better wiring job was required? Is that the short version?

Just Curious...
Smokier

Well, I wish. He corrected the wiring issues and called me to come & get it. I got 2-3 miles, got it up to 50 mph or so, and the amp shut down again. Took it back and he pulled both regs off and bench tested resistance? across 2 posts. Then he swapped the meter probes and said there was no dramatic difference (4 vs 25 should be closer to 100). We believe we've caught them as they are beginning to fail? they're putting out up to 15.2v when still in the bike and warm. Not as much when they're cold. He tested them cold, then heated them up with a heat gun, when bench testing for resistance. So I ordered 4 from Amazon. They're inexpensive, I'm hoping to get 2 good ones out of the 4. Tonight I found Partzilla is showing them for $142 each with shipping out within 1-2 days. It didn't say anything about being back-ordered. This has been an adventure for sure.

[tomm]

Sorry Win_Surfer, but this just doesn't make any sense. You need to take 12 measurements on each rectifier to check the 6 diodes in each one. And there is really no way to check the regulator circuit with resistor measurements.

Don't know what 4 vs 25 means. If the meter doesn't have a specific diode tester, then on the 10K scale, each diode will ohm out about mid-scale in one direction and infinite in the other. It the meter has a diode tester, then taking resistance measurements usually doesn't work as the meter won't forward bias a diode, so they read infinite in both directions.

It is possible for diodes to leak, but not common. They usually either work or they don't.

The regulator part of the rectifier / regulator keeps the voltage from getting too high so it doesn't fry the battery. The alternators are capable of putting out 60 - 70 volts AC peak-to-peak. That translates roughly to what would be 16 - 20 volts rectified DC at about 42 amps combined (6000 rpm if I remember correctly), more than enough to take out your electronics and your battery. It's the job of the rectifiers to convert the AC from the alternators to DC. If your seeing 15.2 DC, then your both your regulators and rectifiers are working fine. Above 15.5, you have a problem. Below 13.8, you have a problem. 14.8 to 15.2 is about as perfect as it gets.

Don't know what your problem is but if you really do have blown reg/rec's, you better find out what's causing them to blow because they don't just wear out. You've got another problem somewhere.

And they are not inexpensive. Have to think at least $100.

[Win_surfur]

This guy who is working in t is fairly sharp from what I can tell. I know very little about this but trying to learn along the way. I've heard so many different things about what voltages are correct. What we do know is the amp shuts down (protect mode) when voltage climbs up. This amp will handle up to 15v which I believe is a fairly standard input voltage rating.
My last post was me trying to interpret what he's telling me. I believe he's saying the reg was showing 4ohms one way, then 25 when he swapped probes. He said it should go much higher when swapped. May not be ohms, not really sure.
One other thing. Would an AGM battery be better than regular lead acid?

[smokier]

Greetings,

I prefer AGM over lead. However, do not believe that is going to have any impact on your regulator issues. I have been wrong before! :wink:

[Hillhouse]

as TOMM said there is/are 6 combinations that you need to take to verify the diodes are functioning, the service manual has the write-up on what the combinations/procedure is.
For Rectifier output voltages 14-15 VDC @ 5000 rpm
Alternator is 3 phase should have 76 + ACV on each phase at 4000 rpm, winding resistance is 0.25 Ohms, each winding.
Also it is a good idea to check for AC voltage on the regulator output, there should be none. There is a chance a spike is getting through and the radio senses it.

[plumber63]

Ever considered you got a bad amp? Ever thing was okay till you put this on wasn't it?