Can I ride bike with regulator unplugged?

[last426]

I am in the middle of changing the sockets on my voltage regulator, need more parts, and it is unplugged. I need to go about 3 miles on the bike, the battery is charged, I unplugged the headlight, but wonder if it will damage anything riding with the regulator unplugged. Thanks.

[sr71cbx]

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[EMS]

Here we are again. At electricity Guess we have to wait for Jim-Jim to provide some words of wisdom. Don't know about the X alternator, but some designs out there do not take it lightly, if you disconnect the battery and they don't know where to put the charge they are producing. Some bikes don't even run, if you unplug the regulator. Have you tried it?

[Jim-Jim]

OK, here's a short course in electricity (as pertains to the CBX charging system). I, normally, try to avoid burdening people with this stuff but all of the posts that revolve around this topic are, mostly, because most don't really understand about electricity. So, if you're not interested - leave now! First off, how the gen/alternator works: If you take a plain ole magnet and swing it past a coil of wire (with a voltmeter attached to the ends of the coil wire), you will see a small burst of voltage each time the magnet PASSES the coil. This is easier to see with an analog (needle) meter). If you study it a little closer, you will notice that the faster you swing the magnet, the higher the voltage you will generate. You will also notice that if you stop the magnet by the coil, you will see NO voltage; the magnet must be moving. You might also notice that the closer you can get to the coil (without touching it), the higher the voltage swing. If you can find a stronger magnet, you will notice that the stronger magnetic field will produce a higher voltage swing. So, if we can put a rotating magnet inside of a coil of wire, we can obtain voltage/current from the coil. In CBX terms, the stator is the coil. So, if we put a rotating magnet inside the stator, we will have output voltage/current from the stator!.

Next step, if you have a plain piece of soft iron (soft doesn't mean physically soft), it will not hold magnetism; that is, you can't permanently magnetize soft iron. If you hold a magnet to a piece of soft iron, the soft iron will act like a magnet but if you remove the magnet, the soft iron will loose it's magnetism. Soft iron is a 'temporary' magnet. If we wind some wire (coil) around a piece of soft iron and pass electicity through it, the soft iron will become a 'temporary' magnet; stop the electricity, the iron stops 'magnetizing'. If we apply a LOT of voltage and pass a LOT of current through the coil, we increase the strength of the 'magnetic field' of the soft iron. In CBX terms, the rotor is this soft iron core with a coil wound around it. The rotor 'rotates' by the driven shaft and the brushes are the connection to the outside world to receive voltage/current.

So, to regroup, we have a rotating coil/magnet (rotor) within a fixed coil of wire (stator). By varying the voltage applied to the rotor, we control the output voltage from the stator.

The regulator's job is to monitor the system voltage (mostly across the battery); if the voltage falls too low (large drain on the battery), the regulator puts more voltage to the rotor, thereby raising the voltage from the stator to bring the system voltage back up. When the voltage hits a pre-determined level (usually about 14.4 Volts) the regulator cuts off the voltage to the rotor, and the stator voltage falls off. This monitoring process continues back and forth as long as the bike is running.

So, to answer the opening question to this topic, is SHOULDN'T matter if you unplug the regulator (both ends) to disconnect the entire alternator. You would just run off the battery for as long as it lasts.

By the way, this is also why you can't run the CBX without a battery; you need a small starting voltage across the rotor to get anything out of the stator to get system voltage (sort of a catch-22).

There, aren't you really glad you asked???

[last426]

I am glad that I asked and thanks for the complete explanation. My issue now is that the alternator (as controlled by the regulator) is only putting out 12v tops. I know that on the 4 plug (3 wire) there is a green (ground), black (trigger) and another one (I am guessing that this is the output?). But I don't know where the wiring goes from there. By the way, this all started with the 6 plug (5 wire) getting way hot. I wired around that and now they are substantially cooler though still a bit warm. The stator and slip ring resistance are all within limits and the diodes check out on the regulator. So, the way I figure is that the trigger is not triggering a high enough output, the output is somehow limited, or the regulator is bad. Can it be anything else? Thanks.

[sr71cbx]

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[last426]

The cure is to tie the red/white and red wires together(the red one is the 12V source for the ignition switch)and solder this connection,then eliminate the hopelessly inadequate stock fuseholder with an automotive HD fuseholder with 12 or 10 gauge wire and 30 amp blade-type fuse.Run the 10 gauge wire from the fuseholder to the battery connection on the solenoid and this should effectively eliminate any charging issues from resistance.If your rate of charge does not pick up,I'd suspect the reg/rectifier assuming that the brushes are good and the alternator clutch plates are not worn excessively.

I installed new brushes, hooked up the wires individually, unhooked the headlight, and it started charging a bit. But when I hooked the headlight back up, wham, back to where I started. Just where do you tie the red/white and red wire together? Thanks for all the help. I ordered some Hitachi sockets that I am going to use and I plan on getting it all done neatly when it begins working. Kim