I installed a regulator/rectifier on my 98 hawk off of a zx6r kaw and now doing the measurement test i test 18.1V at 2500 rpm i know this is higher than it should be (14.5 i believe) now i also know i need to add a resistor into the circuit for that voltage to be correct.

question is....what Ω?

 

Adding a resistor won't help... It'll last 5 minutes before overheating and blowing...

Instead figure out why or possibly replace the R/R with another...

 

The symbol you mention is omega which is representative of ohms, the units of resistance.

Have you checked all of your grounds? I've found that this is the usually the cause of voltage issues. In fact, I've often wondered if the ground circuit is the cause of what people blame on the R/R.

 

my entire circuit is flawless, i have everything grounded perfectly and soldered all the connections. there were a total of 7 wires coming off the zx6r R/R (see attached picture). I labeled where on the schematic each of the wires go except for the left 3 which come from the magneto.

currently, i use the BK/BL for the (+) wire and the BK/W for the Ground (-) wire and the two others (BK/R and BK) are not used at all. i'm sensing this is where my problem is, i think the voltage is too high because the R/R thinks the high beam is on etc?

 

Ok... First of... Not to bust your bubble or anything... But when you think a circuit is flawless, that's when the **** hits the fan... Just my experience working with electronics...

Could be that you are on to something with those wires... I'd start by checking what they put out... + or -?

If they put out +... wire them into the + lead... if - wire them in there and then check the voltage levels...

 

ok i'll try that. those wires must, seeming that they go to the headlight, have some effect on the voltage. but my circuit is flawless

 

Well... My guess is that they tell the R/R weather the headlight is on or not as that is the single largest load on the system and affects output from the R/R a lot...

 

yea i studied the circuit for a good 5 minutes and came to that conclusion. it all ties into the headlight relay and hi/lo but i dunno how to wire that into my hawk

 

I'm guessing the one to the fuse is + and the one you marked headlight relay is -?

That would be logical as how you usualy place a fuse... Then it has nothing to do with hi/lo as the relay is drawn as soon as the headlight is on... it should work to just connect them up with the +/- and it should tell the R/R that the headlight is on...

 

i will try that (hoping nothing blows!) but from what i've found on the net is that there needs to be a circuit that will short out excess power going to the battery off those 2 wires keeping it at about 14.3V. pretty much tis is like there is no voltage regulator on the bike, just a rectifier

 

Umm the R/R for our bikes is known to be a less than perfect part, and it can fail in both directions.. Mine failed like yours, with too high a voltage and it cooked my battery. (luckily nothing else died) Replace your R/R and be happy. (either upgrade to a GSXR or R1/R6 part, or get a newer finned one, as they are fairly robust, while not as good as the other brand ones)

 

haha you didn't read! i already swapped out my R/R for one off of a zx6r kaw (nice beefy finned one)

 

I thought Kawasaki made the zx6r?

 

sorry, i dunno why i keep saying yamaha. but yes, you are correct zx6r = kaw

 

Ah, my bad . Well the GSXR and R1/R6 are preferred since they tend to be 5 wire R/R's and it's easy to wire them up.

 

i got this one for free so i'm determined to make it work...


bump any other ideas?

 

ok so here's my progress.... i figured out that the BK/R wire just taps off of a switched 12V wire. so i got that out of the way.

now, i need to figure out that BK wire that goes from the R/R to the headlight relay through a diode shown here in RED. where should this wire go on the hawk?

 

Why bother with where???

Figure out what instead... it's left floating right now right?

That means that another signal (most likely 12V) will make it change state...

But since you are giving only parts of the info here I cant be sure... get me an unmolested schematic and I'll tell you for sure...

 

yes, it's left floating right now, just cut and taped. and i mean where on the bike should this wire go as in to what component, if any. like for example i found out the BR wire should tap into to ignition swithced 12.

here is a link to the zx6r schematic. it's 2 pics (the first two links on this page, sheet #2 is the focus)

http://www.zx-6r.com/downloads/wiring_diagrams.shtml

thanks for all your help man, on this schematic the wire in question is the right-most BK coming right off the R/R that turns into a Y

 

BK is the wire that sends voltage to the Headlamp relay located in the fuse box. This relay keeps the headlights off until the bike is running and the R/R is charging the system. BR is strictly power for the lighting circuit except for the turn signals.

Both BR and BK should be positive voltage where BR powers the lights and BK is a trigger for the relay. Kawasaki has been using this circuit in the fuse box for quite a long time. BR might be part of a sensing circuit in the R/R, but don't quote me on this.

 

bump for extra ideas on this. i'll try what is here so far and report my results

 

My thinking is along those lines... It's not really a "sensing" circuit, but more likely part of the diode bridges in the R/R that's setup so when drawing power on all lines it balances the R/R's output... wiring it in with the other output should draw enough through that diode to make it behave in a linear way like an ordinary "dumb" R/R...

But as you say... I haven't dissected one so it's part guesswork and part experience with similar items I'm going on here...

 

what do you mean here? which wire are we talking about here as the other output?

BK has power, but probably not as much as BR since BR is normally used to power all the lights directly off the RR where as BK only needs to power the relay. what do you think will work?

 

From what I can figure out, both BR and BK are 12V outputs just like BK/BL...

Internally they are connected by a bunch of diodes (don't ask how... It'll only give you a headache....)

On an OEM VTR R/R there are only one output... And it gives the right voltage as long as there is some load on it...

On this one there are more than one output... Usually the reason is to keep the headlight of during the startup (more juice to the starter that way...)

The thing is that with these extra outputs, if there is no load on any of them, the internal components become "unbalanced"... and you get these crazy voltages...

If you instead take the BK and BR and hook them up to the output BK/BL they are used as outputs and there is a load on them... that should make the R/R behave like normal...

If not it becomes a whole new level of complicated and at that point it's probably easier to build a R/R from scratch from diodes (I did that on an older bike) than making this one work... Obviously an OEM R/R or a Yamaha R/R from several models are verified to work...

 

alright well i will try that when i get home from work. it makes sense what you say about using them 3 as 1 single output. we'll see what happens! thanks for your help

 

ok bump for who ever can still help me out

i tested all 3 wires not touching anything.

1 (BL/BK) had about 12.1 at idle would go down to 10 on really low idle, and 17.5 @2500rpm.

2 (BR) was .14V
3 (BK) was .02V.

now i hooked them up to the hawk system i put the .14V and 18V together and it blew the main fuse, no biggie.
i put the 18V and the .02V together and the battery would charge at ~.75V which is weird.
all 3 at the same time give me .35V
i put the 2 lower V ones (.02 and .14) together they gave me .3V and the BK/BL gives me it's same 17V+ when those others are hooked together


any thoughts?

 

i just caved and bought an R6 one wired it in works fine thanks guys.

FS: (1) zx6r R/R
joking.....