Symptoms of a blown regulator rectifier?

[badchild]

Just wondering because my bike has just eaten two batterys and someone told me the specific model (Honda rvf400) is prone to blowing reg/rec and thats what they would do? Any help would bve appreciated as I dont want to buy another battery and the same thing happen, thanks

Ryan

[Savvi]

Reg rec cuts the feed off to a set voltage, as the alternator will just keep going higher voltage with higher revs..

 

If you put a volt meter across the battery the most it should go to would be 14.30 ishh whatever the revs on the bike, if it goes above that the battery will boil which distorts the lead plates together hence the battery being u/s.

 

Minimum would be 11.75 ish at a push ............ under charging will result in battery going flat.

[emu]

The rectifier converts the AC voltage that the alternator produces into DC that the battery can store. If the diodes pack up then you can get AC going to the battery, which will do a good job of knackering it.

 

If the charge check that Savvi described seems ok, then might be worth getting a ripple test done

[stevepeanut]

I had a VT 250 honda, the integra, a rare jap 250cc V twin, the reg/rec failed on that. It was putting way too high volts to the battery, and ended up boiling it dry.

[badchild]

Cheers people Yeah I think shes fooked, the headlights come on with the ignition so found it especially hard to get charge in the battery (usually short runs) so i used a booster pack on it every time i started it, I expect that has something to do with it, let that be a warning lol dont fry your batterys with boosters! Cheers

[stevepeanut]

Ryan, you got a pic of the bike so we can see it. Still messing around on an old katana right now. But I used to have 2 cbr 400s. A nc23 tri-arm, then part ex'd that for a nc29 gull-arm. I really love the 400 hondas, they are seiously trick bikes.

[badchild]

Yeah sure steve, here she is in all her glory lol

 

my pride and joy!