gt550 rectifier problem

[trouterspace]

Which Electro-Sport rectifier/regulator do you have? How did you wire it up?

http://www.electrosport.com/regulatorre ... 50750.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This one. It has the same plugs as the stock regulator and rectifier plus a ground. Basically just plugged it in.

[jabcb]

Went from not charging to overvoltage. Might take a bit of sleuthing to figure this one out.

How long was the bike running before the lights & fuse blew?

Wanted to make sure you had the correct rectifier/regulator & that its wired correctly. It should be fine.

Where did you connect the rectifier/regulator ground? You might have a bad ground connection that heated up this wire.

May have blown lights & blown the fuse for different reasons.
Lights blew because of overvoltage. You mentioned a hot fuse holder wire -- fuse may have blown due to this rather than too much current.

If your GT550 allows you to switch the lights off, then do so. No point in burning out more bulbs till you have this figured out.

As a starting point in the sleuthing:
Replace the fuse.
Check voltage at the battery.
Start the bike up.
Check battery voltage at idle, 2k rpm & 5k rpm.

Set the multimeter to DC for all voltage readings with one exception.
Set the multimeter to AC for voltage readings for the 3 yellow alternator stator wires.

[Alan H]

Many people have the misconception of what a rectifier does. ....

.... The rectifier's main purpose is to not allow the battery to dip down below acceptable output levels..... .

No.

The output for the from the Suzuki's generator is AC (Alternating Current), which is pulses of alternating positive and negative voltage. I would assume it looks like a dirty sine wave, from (depending on RPM) +/- 16 VAC

The rectifier converts this voltage to pulses of DC (Direct Current), which are pulses from 0 VDC to +16 VDC. The stock Suzuki rectifier is a full wave bridge rectifier, which the output inverts the negative voltage pulses to positive voltage.

The voltage regulator smooths out the DC voltage, and also shunts (bypasses to ground) any additional voltage over the regulator's set point (typically 13.6 VDC). On some old, smaller bikes, they do not use a voltage regulator, and instead use the battery to perform this function.

A voltage regulator can only output the voltage that is on its input. It can not make up power that isn't there. Typically the input voltage of a regulator needs to be 1.0 to 2.0 VDC greater than its output, due to voltage drops within the regulator itself.

Almost there, remember that the regulator on the 550 actually has a contact inside which puts power to an excitation coil in the alternator. When the coil is energised, this causes the current from the alternator to increase and charge the battery/run extra load. when the battery gets to optimum (usually about 13.6/7 volts, that the contact opens and the excitation coil is de-energised so the alternator has a smaller output. The regulator in fact, regulates current but uses voltage to do that.
If the load exceeds the maximum rating of the alternator, then the battery will discharge. Two different alternators were used - the Nippon Denso could output 28A and the Kokusan rated at 15.5 A. A voltage regulator which outputs extra power to earth would get very hot, very quickly. A zener diode was used on older bikes, which did send excess current to earth and got hot! It was usually fitted under the headlamp in the best place for airflow and the thinking was that the faster the bike went, the more charge went to earth but the better the cooling.
The battery actually smooths out the output from the rectifier, on power supplies used in industrial control, there would be capacitors for this function, but not needed on a bike or car. If the regulator is faulty and allows too much output to reach the battery, the battery will eventually 'boil dry' in lead acid types, or overheat and crack gel cell types.
Regarding blowing bulbs, that would usually be a bad/dirty earth connection from battery allowing the voltage to rise past the point where the bulb(s) cry 'pop'!