THE BIG QUESTION
What on earth was it with the awful Honda regulator/ rectifiers in the 1990s that led us to have to change the ruddy things?
Scott asks about Honda reg/ rectifiers
If you’ve ever owned a 1990s Honda CBR, VFR, CB or VTR, you may well have experienced an electrical meltdown; a well-known weak spot on these otherwise solid machines. We put this issue out to our 100,000-strong Facebook page audience and asked if you (dear reader) could offer any pearls of wisdom on the subject. Like previous times that we’ve asked the big question, you didn’t disappoint us with your interaction. Is prevention better than cure? There was no shortage of people that responded with their own tales of pain. Many of you have been bitten several times by this same flaw in the Honda design. Your top tips covered all of the bases. From simple techniques like David Powell, who suggested running with your lights on all of the time to avoid overheating the regulator, to more involved preventative methods like the one put forward by Wade Matthews that involves hard-wiring all connectors. The connection blocks came in for lots of finger wagging, be it the original Honda fittings or cruder Scotch block connectors. Ashley Payne is a fan of crimping wires and soldering them in place. He also suggested that splicing another earth wire from the main earth and running it back to the battery would help to prevent you feeling flat. Replacing the Honda regulator, but what with? There was no shortage of input regarding what reg/rec unit makes for a good replacement. Charles Mclean rewired an R1 item to his bike. Making the job
easier was his choice to use a ‘Copycat Plug’ that he purchased from that well-known auction site. Several people slated cheap Chinese pattern items, but not Darren Gassin, who coughed up a measly £7.99 (plus £1.75 postage from Hong Kong) for a new pattern reg/rec for his Honda CB500. Five years later when he sold the bike, it was still going strong. There was plenty of love for the MOSFET replacement items. Chris Lawrence said it was well worth the extra money. John Hepburn also applauded the MOSFET reg/rec that he fitted to his Honda VTR1000. He also pointed out that corroded connectors can play their part in the downfall of the rectifier, which was a point made by several other contributors to the lengthy post. There were other brands in the mix. Tyler Tanner couldn’t praise Roadstercycle.com highly enough. His praise was echoed by Jo Nathan and Ade Reynolds, who had fitted their upgraded item to his CBR1100XX. There are other contributing factors to the death of a reg/rec. Poor battery condition is one way to send your reg/rec for an early bath. To avoid a duff battery creating electrical carnage, John Hulme puts his faith in a voltmeter he fitted. It allows him to keep an eye on the condition of the battery. If it registers anything over 13-14.5 volts, he knows that there’s trouble at mill. Some people prefer not to think too hard about ifs, buts and maybes, but Simon
Payne simply carries a spare regulator under the seat of his 1995 CBR600 Steelie! Meanwhile, Lewis Gill suggests you’d do well to hardwire the entire wiring loom! We are guessing he’s had a few rectifiers pop their clogs. Jeff Arksey reckons that the issue isn’t the rectifier itself, but more a case of mounting it correctly. He uses heat sink paste to sandwich the rectifier to the frame, as this helps to deal with the heat created when in use. Going one step further, he’s also fitted a tiny computer fan to add extra cooling. It’s wired into his ignition switch. Plenty of folk suggested that moving the regulator out from under the plastic bodywork is all it takes to avoid misery. Cee Jay Shaw moved his in front of his air-box. As to other top tips, Grant Fuller reminded us all not to rely on a bike’s charging system to breathe life into a tired battery. Always use a charger to inject life into a lazy battery. Bill Breuklen isn’t a fan of Xenon bulbs, and advises to return them back to the original ones. They all do that sir, don’t they? There were a few voices sticking up for the regulators, and some owners have never had any issues. This is exactly the case for Bill Breuken, who’s owned eight Honda offerings including a RC30, two VF1000RS and three VF500FS, and never had any charging issues. The same goes for La Zarathustra, whose 2002 VFR800F hasn’t chewed any reg/recs up, although it did eat not one, but two stators.