Bad rectifier? why

[fjrboomer]

I cannot offer any help in this matter because I am very mechanically challenged. That is why I do not even attempt such tasks on any vehicle I own. I do know enough not to start on something if I do not know how it works or how to hook it up. JMO.

 

[RadioHowie]

damn you guys are right, after reading my post I would give shit to. Sorry. I have talked to numerous people and many of them say I smoked the rectifier because I did't have the battery hooked up or in the bike. The battery acts as a filter to knock the spiked a/c waves down before they go into the rectifier. Without the battery it was just raw waves. Thus overheating the frier and poof.

Glad to get back to square one.

Trying to get a picture of what you did.

You said

I hooked up a powersource to the two leads of the fjr

do you mean you hooked the battery charger up to the FJR's battery cables?

Later, you said

I smoked the rectifier because I did't have the battery hooked up or in the bike

Which to me means you hooked the battery charger to the battery cables which were unattached to the battery?

And you said

The battery acts as a filter to knock the spiked a/c waves down before they go into the rectifier

Which isn't really true if I understand correctly what you did, because the battery charger would NOT be supplying AC voltage to your disconnected battery cables. It would be supplying DC voltage.

However, if you were using a car charger, rather than a motorcycle charger, while the voltage would have remained 12vdc, the available amperage from a car charger would have been WAY too much for your charging system to handle, and especially if you had inadvertently reversed the +/- when you hooked up to the "unbuffered" battery cables, the you could indeed have damage your R/R.

And finally, you said

Then poof smoke and the smell of expensive components burning(rectifier).

Did you SEE where the smoke came from? And what makes you think it was the rectifier?

Forgetting the cruise control for the moment, have you re-attached your battery cables and attempted to start or run the bike?

I think the prudent thing to do at this point is ignore the CC, hook up the battery, make sure it's charged (NOT with a car charger) run the bike and do a voltage test to see if your alternator is supplying correct voltage to your battery.

Once you have things wired and running the way they should be in stock condition, THEN re-visit the CC wiring.

 

[fjrlover]

I cannot offer any help in this matter because I am very mechanically challenged. That is why I do not even attempt such tasks on any vehicle I own. I do know enough not to start on something if I do not know how it works or how to hook it up. JMO.

Live and learn right. Gotta start somewhere. I know it was the rectifier because the silicone base on the back now has a hole in it. :glare: Yes, it was a car charger and there was no battery in it. The polarity was correct though. Yes I reconnected the battery and The bike runs fine. I'll get back to you on the charging issue.

 

[radman]

Live and learn right. Gotta start somewhere. I know it was the rectifier because the silicone base on the back now has a hole in it. :glare: Yes, it was a car charger and there was no battery in it. The polarity was correct though. Yes I reconnected the battery and The bike runs fine. I'll get back to you on the charging issue.

My advanced training tells me it probably overheated a bit, perhaps even catastrophically. It may need to be replaced. But don't feel bad-I just pulled a boner I may tell all about some day. But not now.

 

[RadioHowie]

Live and learn right. Gotta start somewhere. I know it was the rectifier because the silicone base on the back now has a hole in it. :glare: Yes, it was a car charger and there was no battery in it. The polarity was correct though. Yes I reconnected the battery and The bike runs fine. I'll get back to you on the charging issue.

My advanced training tells me it probably overheated a bit, perhaps even catastrophically. It may need to be replaced. But don't feel bad-I just pulled a boner I may tell all about some day. But not now.

What a coincidence....I pulled a boner last night watching a Jenna Haze video!

 

[fjrlover]

Live and learn right. Gotta start somewhere. I know it was the rectifier because the silicone base on the back now has a hole in it. :glare: Yes, it was a car charger and there was no battery in it. The polarity was correct though. Yes I reconnected the battery and The bike runs fine. I'll get back to you on the charging issue.

My advanced training tells me it probably overheated a bit, perhaps even catastrophically. It may need to be replaced. But don't feel bad-I just pulled a boner I may tell all about some day. But not now.

I lucked out, the previous owner hooked up with the yes extended warranty and the local dealership is hooking me up with another one. I think this is possible only by the graces of god.

 

[PA1195]

Live and learn right. Gotta start somewhere. I know it was the rectifier because the silicone base on the back now has a hole in it. :glare: Yes, it was a car charger and there was no battery in it. The polarity was correct though. Yes I reconnected the battery and The bike runs fine. I'll get back to you on the charging issue.

My advanced training tells me it probably overheated a bit, perhaps even catastrophically. It may need to be replaced. But don't feel bad-I just pulled a boner I may tell all about some day. But not now.

I lucked out, the previous owner hooked up with the yes extended warranty and the local dealership is hooking me up with another one. I think this is possible only by the graces of god.

Sorry to read of your troubles. Just for the heck of it, someday check the open circuit voltage available at the end of your battery charger clips. That is often unregulated in a cheap regular battery charger that employs a transformer and zener diode, or similar rectifier, to convert 120 VAC to 13-15 VDC. They can often exceed 16 VDC in open circuit unless connected to a load, like the battery, especially when a higher amperage output is selected. They also often emit a wild-ass square wave DC pulse, unlike nice smooth DC from a regulated and filtered power supply used in Amateur radio as a power supply and other electronic applications. That rough pulse can do bad to sensitive electronics that are used to smooth DC power.

Your rectifier and regulator assembly maybe saw rough high voltage and tried to regulate it - and maybe that's why it smoked out of frustration and overload. But, it could be that you unknowingly reversed the polarity in the system as well. The battery acts as a capacitor smoothing the rough output from any charger, and usually prevents a high system voltage from the charger ever developing by gassing and heating up.

It's best to charge the battery directly with the NEG battery cable disconnected, so the bike's electronics are never exposed to the charger's unregulated or unfiltered output. Removing the battery from the frame for charging is better yet.

But that's spilt milk and after the fact, and now it's time to replace the smoking hole or whatever blew up. There's also some diodes here and there in the bike's wiring (see the diagram), but maybe they survived if the correct polarity was observed.

Hope it works ok.

Gary in Fairbanks

 

[fjrlover]

Live and learn right. Gotta start somewhere. I know it was the rectifier because the silicone base on the back now has a hole in it. :glare: Yes, it was a car charger and there was no battery in it. The polarity was correct though. Yes I reconnected the battery and The bike runs fine. I'll get back to you on the charging issue.

My advanced training tells me it probably overheated a bit, perhaps even catastrophically. It may need to be replaced. But don't feel bad-I just pulled a boner I may tell all about some day. But not now.

I lucked out, the previous owner hooked up with the yes extended warranty and the local dealership is hooking me up with another one. I think this is possible only by the graces of god.

Sorry to read of your troubles. Just for the heck of it, someday check the open circuit voltage available at the end of your battery charger clips. That is often unregulated in a cheap regular battery charger that employs a transformer and zener diode, or similar rectifier, to convert 120 VAC to 13-15 VDC. They can often exceed 16 VDC in open circuit unless connected to a load, like the battery, especially when a higher amperage output is selected. They also often emit a wild-ass square wave DC pulse, unlike nice smooth DC from a regulated and filtered power supply used in Amateur radio as a power supply and other electronic applications. That rough pulse can do bad to sensitive electronics that are used to smooth DC power.

Your rectifier and regulator assembly maybe saw rough high voltage and tried to regulate it - and maybe that's why it smoked out of frustration and overload. But, it could be that you unknowingly reversed the polarity in the system as well. The battery acts as a capacitor smoothing the rough output from any charger, and usually prevents a high system voltage from the charger ever developing by gassing and heating up.

It's best to charge the battery directly with the NEG battery cable disconnected, so the bike's electronics are never exposed to the charger's unregulated or unfiltered output. Removing the battery from the frame for charging is better yet.

But that's spilt milk and after the fact, and now it's time to replace the smoking hole or whatever blew up. There's also some diodes here and there in the bike's wiring (see the diagram), but maybe they survived if the correct polarity was observed.

Hope it works ok.

Gary in Fairbanks

hey guys, checked everything back out before I put the new rectifier on and everything checked out fine. Fired her up and she purred like a kitten. Cruise control worked just fine also. All in all thanks for the help, hopefully I won't need it for something like this ever again. Thanks again everybody.

 

[madmike2]

We've all Most of us have learned something while reading this post, but our lessons were easier and cheaper than yours. That's just the way of the collective.

Aaannnndddd.....Radman makes mistakes!?!?!?!?

Who'd of thunk? :blink: