Regulator problem?

[b.walker5]

well the bike is painted like the b-29 that dropped the atomic bomb on Nagasaki it's called the b-29 bockscar if you google that you might get a better idea of why it looks the way it does

Good looking bike, but why would you paint a japanese bike as a tribute to an american aircraft that dropped a bomb killing eighty thousand japanese people?? most of whom were innocent. I dont get it.

[ebock112]

ok i just tested resistance between my black and my green wire for my pick up coil and i'm getting like 30 ohms of resistance so what does this mean?

[3Phase]

ok i just tested resistance between my black and my green wire for my pick up coil and i'm getting like 30 ohms of resistance so what does this mean?

I think you mean the Green wire to the voltage regulator from the field coil, not from the pickup coil. That's a different system.

Your regulator might be bad, it might be okay. If the battery is fully charged the regulator will try to limit the current through the field coil by raising the resistance to ground for the Green wire.

The resistance to ground you're measuring for the Green wire is how the voltage regulator regulates the voltage and it varies the ground for the field coil, which is where the Green wire comes from. The small Brown wire on the 3 pin connector is the hot wire that goes down to the field coil, the Green is the return ground wire to the voltage regulator from the field coil. The resistance changes according to the demand for electricity on the bike:

High resistance to ground = less current for the field coil = less output from the alternator

Low resistance to ground = more current for the field coil = more output from the alternator

The regulator case itself does not have to be grounded to work, that's what the Black wire is for on the 6 pin connector. The case is just a heavy aluminum heat sink. The regulator appears not to work when it's not mounted to the frame because that's also where several large Black wires from the wiring harness are connected.

The Black wires fasten to the frame at the regulator and they do have to be grounded because, well, they're the main system grounds and nothing will work unless they're grounded.


Regards,

Scott

[ebock112]

ok when i tested resistance it was through the black green wires coming from the alternator thats when it was like 30 ohms so i'm guessing that there is something wrong with the field coil when i checked the resistance between the white wires it was around .5 ohms of resistance

[3Phase]

ok when i tested resistance it was through the black green wires coming from the alternator thats when it was like 30 ohms so i'm guessing that there is something wrong with the field coil when i checked the resistance between the white wires it was around .5 ohms of resistance

The 0.5 ohms you read at the white wires to the stator should be correct for your bike. On an XS1100, with the regulator unplugged and testing the harness side of the connection not the regulator side, 30 ohms between the Green wire and the Black wire would mean that the field coil is shorted to ground but I just went back and read the beginning of the thread and realized I was talking out my backside.

You have an 1982 XJ1100. The charging system on an XJ1100 is different from an XS1100. Sorry, it was getting late but I should have checked to see what kind of bike you had before replying. I apologize for any misinformation.


Regards,

Scott

[motoman]

Sure glad to be able to learn from your electrical experience here Scott! Gets confusing for me more times than not.

b.Walker5, may be hard for you to understand, but in simpler terms lets just say you very well may have been speaking Japanese, German or both if it DIDN'T happen......enough said.

[b.walker5]

Oh, I understand completely. But it's not the same understanding you have, and given the level of arrogance usually associated with this type of discussion I'm not going any further than to say Bad Taste is Bad Taste no matter how you wrap it.

[motoman]

Understand totally Walker. Two different society expectations.......keep the common interest focused on the XS11 which is universally the same and way more fun anyways...

[b.walker5]

Agreed....

[ebock112]

today i pulled the stator field coil off and found that the one brush side that the green wire goes to was heavily rusted so with a spare laying around and replacing the brushes and checking resistance between the black and green wire i was reading around 4 ohm of resistance. i hooked it up and it was still reading around 12 volts for both the green and brown going into my regulator. so what do you guys think now is it a possible regulator problem?

[cywelchjr]

If the regulator is well grounded, you should have a voltage difference between the two as there should be a voltage drop across that coil setup. Another check is since the one side is supposed to be pulled towards ground to increase output, with the engine running you can ground it and if the voltage at the battery rises then the regulator is bad.