question on voltage...

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RussL

RussL

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I finally got everything back together with the new windscreen... Did some other maint items and just generally checking things over... When I started it up and ran it for a bit to warm up,,, I noticed the voltage on my dash meter was reading 14.3 volts at idle... Reving it up a bit showed 15.5 volts...
That seems a bit high... could the voltage regulator gone bad??? Ideas???
 
Possible regulator is going bad but more likely the battery is low and is getting full charge. Also possible meter might be of just a bit. I'd check the battery first.
 
I have checked the panel meter with my bench meter and they are the same... The battery is an AGM... battery is at full charge as I keep it on a tender... I am getting 13.8 volts on the battery with the bike off and unplugged... so it is at full charge... I guess it is the regulator... anyway to check them??
 
On my '81 regulator, I kept having over voltage issues and it turned out to be the connector at the RR. Pulled the connector, cleaned the terminals and back together and the voltage settled down.
 
Make sure the green wires at the regulator and the regulator housing itself has a good ground. Found the mounting bracket and housing on mine wasn't grounded so I ran a frame ground to it. Don't know if it helped but figured it wouldn't hurt.
 
[url=https://www.classicgoldwings.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=185147#p185147:2ae1cuf1 said:
dan filipi » Thu Dec 22, 2016 5:30 am[/url]":2ae1cuf1]
Make sure the green wires at the regulator and the regulator housing itself has a good ground. Found the mounting bracket and housing on mine wasn't grounded so I ran a frame ground to it. Don't know if it helped but figured it wouldn't hurt.
Click to expand...
:good:
 
Arrow, or Arrowhead, :headscratch: from the local dealer were very reasonable, compared to stock the ones. :yes: And work well at keeping the voltage down under 15 volts, unlike all my stockers. :good:
 
I have had three bikes which would charge high and were "cured" by adding a relay to the black sense wire so the regulator read actual battery voltage. Without this, the regulator normally reads voltage from an ignition wire that runs through the switches. Since you were last working in that area, I would suggest checking connections there, or install the relay. Any corrosion or faulty connections in the black wire's path could cause a lower voltage reading. I make no apologies for my poor understanding of lectric stuff and submit this as such.
 
OK... off comes the seat,,, that is a task in its self... Good plan to check the connectors,,, clean then and put some di-electric grease on them,,, check grounds and then re-test... Thanks...
 
Check the voltage again before you reinstall the seat. If still high try to put the black sense wire direct to the battery. If it goes down to where it should put a relay in the line so it's disconnected when not running.
 
Slab -- I have the seat off and started pulling connectors off,,, squirting some carb cleaner on and then put di-electric grease on connectors... What black wire are you talking about??? There is also a box forward of the VR and it has vacuum lines running to it and the turn signal relay plugs into this... ???
 
hmmm it should be the wire that comes from the key switch ...the black wire is the switched hot wire when the key is turned on ..key off and its not hot....i guess he wanting you to check voltage there after power goes through switch ..or this is the wire to trigger a relay for the sense wire ....
 
The black wire off ignition switch feeds power to the fuse panel among other things usually, would have to verify this on his year 1200 though. We don't have the 84 1200I wiring diagram.
The black "sense" wire comes off the regulator at it's plug. Not sure how you'd test a direct connection of this black wire to the battery without cutting it. Maybe if you could remove the wire from the regulator plug?
 
I've found by intercepting that black feed wire coming from the ignition switch (which feeds a lot of things) and putting a relay in fed directly from the battery main fuse solves a lot of issues on the bike wiring. Brighter lights and battery voltage the same or damn near pretty much on every wire on the bike. A single small feed wire and contact off the ignition switch is a Honda flaw imo.
 
Black wire I was referring to is the sense wire for the reg/rec. Power on when ignition is on. Regulator bases output on this input voltage.
 
84 standard wiring diagram https://www.ngwclub.com/gallery3/var/alb ... ematic.JPG

Looks like a black wire comes out of ignition switch and goes through a couple connectors back to the regulator. As for adding dielectric grease, I did this on my 77 three-yellow-wires from the stator, because the connections looked great still. I put the grease inside and outside and within a few months it had almost melted through. In reading since, I learned grease is just to go on the back side of the connectors to keep water out and on the mating parts of the plastic.

I'm with the others above. Even if you used a jumper wire and connect the from the battery straight to where the black wire goes into the regulator connector, you could see if it fixes the over charge issue and have your answer as to whether a relay would work or not.

Others have had luck with adding an external ground wire to the regulator case.
 

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