SuzukiSavage.com - Rectifier - Bad Rectifier

Oldfeller--FSO

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Rectifier - Bad Rectifier - Battery Won't Charge
09/10/08 at 14:54:58

This thread assumes you have checked your battery and have put a volt-meter to the battery while hooked up with engine running and discovered that you have no measurable output from your rectifier/regulator box. You should resistance check the stator as per your Hayes or Clymer manual, but stators very rarely ever go bad. Can't say that about rectifers -- they are a different story.

Them rectifier/regulators do indeed go bad occasionally. Considering that they work by taking the maximum output current from your stator and literally "frittering away" all the excess current & voltage beyond what your battery needs at the moment by turning it all into heat, the fact they get tired and die isn't really surprising.

New rectifiers from stealerships are quite costly. Used Savage rectifiers aren't always available, as ours are considered drop in replacements for every 5 wire rectifier bike out there in bikeland. Lots of folks will pick up on a Savage 5 wire rectifier -- you are bidding sometimes against the whole world when one shows up. And these are older style rectifiers (and sometimes actually old time-wise as well).

A more modern solution exists. There are many much newer GSXR 1000, 750 and 600 cc bikes being parted out all the time on Ebay and there are dozens of rectifiers from these bikes on Ebay as we speak.

These rectifiers range from $19.99 to $125 for the same class of late year model GSXR rectifier. The most modern ones are all the seven wire type, so let's just talk about those. (you can figure out the 5 wire examples without any help, right?)

Step one is to LOOK AT THE ENLARGED PICTURE OF WHAT IS FOR SALE. You can sometimes spot a drop in replacement as the connectors for the 5 wire versions can be identical to ours.

Note: even if you have to buy a 7 wire rectifier you may be able to use the 3 wire connector (black leads coming from the stator) part of the rectifier "as is" since it is a standard Suzuki connector.

Next, you have 2 red striped (positive) wires that are same-same and can be soldered together to your cut-off existing connector's red lead. Ditto for the 2 white striped (negative) wires going to the black lead. So you do a little soldering and heat shrink tubing trick to put the old connector on to the new R/R box.

http://forum.svrider.com/showthread.php?t=66513&highlight=gsxr

Now you have a state of the art modern rectifier regulator assembly that will handle your piddly stator output without being stressed at all, ever. Although the new box is bigger, the bolt pattern will fit your fender (it is a Suzuki standard bolt pattern).

http://forum.svrider.com/showthread.php?t=82244&highlight=GSXR+Rectifier

Credit for this idea belongs to the squid boys, so here is a source link to tell you how to do this trick in some detail. Be sure to follow the various links mentioned in the flow of the thread, they lead to pictures you may want to look at.

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Kudos to them squid boys !! Good trick -- save you some big bucks and get you a modern bullet-proof regulator/rectifier.

Oldfeller

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Jack_650

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Re: Rectifier - Bad Rectifier - Battery Won't Ch
Reply #1 - 09/10/08 at 21:05:57

Now this is the kinda stuff I want to read about. I passed on the chance to pick up my neighbor's extra Wing for $3k 'cause I want to stick with a bike that's easy to work on and that I can pick up and ride away on when/after it goes down. But with the a$$-whole Suzuki dealership we have here in town I want to have as many ways to not buy new parts as I can come up with. I would love to be able to walk into an auto parts, bike parts or hardware store anywhere in the country and be able to get what's needed for most repairs.

For instance, I'm riding around with half of the ridge on my oil fill screw plug broken off due to an overly tight screw-in that didn't respond well to the leverage from a crescent wrench this last oil change. I would love to replace it, not with a stock original, but rather a bolt bolt that you can use a wrench or socket on. Finding the right thread on a bolt turns out to be harder than I thought. Seems they're a metric "pipe thread" (I was told) rather than a regular metric bolt thread. Any thoughts on this?

Jack

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verslagen1 YaBB Moderator ModSquad Offline Where there's a will, I want to be in it. Posts: 28780 L.A. California Gender:	Re: Rectifier - Bad Rectifier - Battery Won't Ch Reply #2 - 09/10/08 at 22:13:09 I would take the rest of the ridge off, tap it for the biggest bolt that will go in there and bond it in there.
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justin_o_guy2

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Re: Rectifier - Bad Rectifier - Battery Won't Ch
Reply #3 - 09/11/08 at 11:37:34

Jack_650 wrote on 09/10/08 at 21:05:57:

Now this is the kinda stuff I want to read about. I passed on the chance to pick up my neighbor's extra Wing for $3k 'cause I want to stick with a bike that's easy to work on and that I can pick up and ride away on when/after it goes down. But with the a$$-whole Suzuki dealership we have here in town I want to have as many ways to not buy new parts as I can come up with. I would love to be able to walk into an auto parts, bike parts or hardware store anywhere in the country and be able to get what's needed for most repairs.

For instance, I'm riding around with half of the ridge on my oil fill screw plug broken off due to an overly tight screw-in that didn't respond well to the leverage from a crescent wrench this last oil change. I would love to replace it, not with a stock original, but rather a bolt bolt that you can use a wrench or socket on. Finding the right thread on a bolt turns out to be harder than I thought. Seems they're a metric "pipe thread" (I was told) rather than a regular metric bolt thread. Any thoughts on this?

Jack

Would finding a nut you like the size of & notching it to accept some of the "Tab" left on the stock filler cap, clean the cap up good, leave it textured up to hold epoxy & stick a nut on it work for you? I can see it as a mod that would hang in there. If the cap has enough Meat in the top, a couple of small diameter holes, not thru & thru, with holes in the nut to match, would protect the epoxy from the torque. Once the holes are in the nut, a piece of wire( the same wire that will be epoxied in) shapened to a fine point, then set on the cap & given a quick slap, will transfer the placem,ent for the hole, so drilling the holes to line up is possible. Just a couple is all you should need. J/B weld should handle the temp & vibes. I would think a 9/16ths nut would handle it. If you have a way to run a notch that will fit over the tab( I dont know what's left, maybe you wouldnt even need any wire pins) & can set it up to use the tab/nut contact point to protect the glue from the torque of removal, then this would go quickly.Just hold the filler cap & twist the nut as if you were removing the cap & then let it cure. This kinda job is used by men the world over to justify buying tools. The little high speed, hand held tools with cut-off blades, grinding stones of different shapes, hard, high speed tools for cutting soft metals, plastic & wood used to be very pricey, but now, there are several makers & the prices are down pretty good. $40.00 will get a guy pretty good assortment of attachments & a tool that spins fast & is variable speed.

*NOTE: That the tab would need to be cut down to 1/8th inch or so is considered so obvious, I didnt point that out, but thought better of it later, since I cant know who else might read this.

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