Universal voltage regulator/rectifier - Any advice?

[eBoyDog]

I have been looking for a regulator for my Yamaha YTM200, I bought 2 other Yamaha trikes for parts only to find that the regulators on them are also bad which leads me to question the idea of buying used ones off eBay.

In searching eBay, I have found universal regulators/rectifiers, has anyone had any experience using these and if so, can you offer your advice on these? Granted the used ones are coming off 35+ year old machines yet I question why the regulators go bad and having extensive electronic knowledge I also question why something so simple should cost so much!

I'm considering something as cheap as this (new, less than $10):
http://www.ebay.com/itm/321277789620...84.m1438.l2649

Or this which is $39:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/171187558023...84.m1438.l2649

<edit> I emailed the seller asking if their regulator included any documentation or suggested wiring schematic and I received this reply:
"Dear eboydog, Hi, I wish I knew as well. The manufacturer doesn't offer anything, neither do the suppliers. I haven't been able to find anything on line either.

Sorry
Rufus"

Has anyone bought one of these and had any luck with it? If wire color means anything I would guess the two yellow wires go to the coil, black is ground and red goes to the battery?? (Just speculation)


With no disrespect to the used parts sellers on eBay, $45 for a use one is excessive:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/330938808713...84.m1438.l2649

Thoughts?

[eBoyDog]

I'm going to tear into my ytm200 this week and study the wiring diagram better so I can better understand th e stator wiring and operation. I have nbeen lurkimg in some other sites 2 wheel forums to see what others have created to use some of the newer and less expensive regulators as the new one usinng MOSFET semiconductors instaed of using a diode based regulator.

The China seller sent me a little bit of tech info on their $5.89 12 volt regulator/rectifier:


If I can find the right pigtail harness for the particular regulator/rectifier modules, I believe I can create a mucher better regulator that wont burn out or run so hot. My biggest concern is damaging the CDI module as its sensitive to overvoltag.

So no one has created a, regulator for their 80's trikes?

Does anyone know if the Yamaha trikes was 2 or 3 AC outputs from the coil? Frome what I cant deduce from the 4 wire yamaha regultaor, there appears to be 2 ac outputs from the magneto, which the regulator converts the ac to 12 volts with one circuit for the battery, one for the cdi ignition, the battery output from the regulator keeps the battery recharged and any excess voltage is shunted to the ground which in the older regulators they overheat and go bad.

Given the fact that our trikes use have little amp draw, the small 12 volt $5 regulators should work and if I can find a proper pigtail for it, I should be able to make a newer, better regulator than what was offered in the mid 80s for less than $10! I belive the going cost ofer a new Yamaha oem regulator is over $150 which is nuts, that's almost what my ytm200ek cost me!l

[DohcBikes]

Contact Tony Weeks at http://oregonmotorcycleparts.com/ He custom builds reg/recs and im sure he would be happy to build you one, he may even have one in his line that already works for your application.

Ive purchased from him for several vintage bikes, the prices are very reasonable.

[eBoyDog]

I'm going to tear into my ytm200 this week and study the wiring diagram better so I can better understand th e stator wiring and operation. I have nbeen lurkimg in some other sites 2 wheel forums to see what others have created to use some of the newer and less expensive regulators as the new one usinng MOSFET semiconductors instaed of using a diode based regulator.

The China seller sent me a little bit of tech info on their $5.89 12 volt regulator/rectifier:


If I can find the right pigtail harness for the particular regulator/rectifier modules, I believe I can create a mucher better regulator that wont burn out or run so hot. My biggest concern is damaging the CDI module as its sensitive to overvoltag.

After numerous email exchanges with the China seller (there was a language translation issue) I finally got more info from the China seller on the little $5 regulator/rectifer for the pinout assignments so I'm going to try it on my YTM200Ek this afternoon and see what happens.

As I described if this works it could be a cheap solution to fixing this damn regulators. I suspect they may not last long but if you get 7 or 8 years use out of it, that can't be bad which beats the crap out of the price of a new Yamaha regulator/rectifer which I couldn't find for less than $160. Granted it's physically smaller, it uses newer mosfet transistors and semiconductor regulator, the only problem might be heat disapation since the heat sink is smaller but due to it's modern design this should be better.







This is how I'm going to hook it up, wire colors are for the '83 YTM200 however the wire colors are the same for the similar mid 80's trikes using the 4 wire regulator that round plug which I'm going to cut and solder the plug off my bad regulators to allow me to just plug it into the OEM harness. It only has one mounting hole but that should work without making any major changes.

Pin 1 is ground (black)
Pin 2 & 3 connection connects to the stator output (yellow/red and white)
Pin 4 is 12 volt regulated (red)

If you look carefully at the above pic of the regulator plug, the pins are labeled 1 though 4.


Only catch now is to find a plug that works with this, I have one off a YFM200 wiring harness that I'm going to use but it appears that it's a standard 4 conductor square plug so that shouldn't be hard to find.

Give me few hours and I will report back my results!

[eBoyDog]

Well it works and nothing melted or blew up but....

This regulator /rectifier is not regulating the 12 volt voltage very well, in fact unless I run with the headlights on, at mid ram nothing fast as a typical rider would push it, the regulator is pushing out way too much voltage. At idle the voltage at the battery starts out at a healthy 13.5 volts and with faster rims climbs up to 16 volts at brief high rpms. Now with turning the headlights on the highest voltage was much more manageable around 14.5 but if you ran this regulator without the headlights on you will burn out your battery.

My verdict is that this cheap $5 regulator will not work for fear of drastically shorting the life of your battery. My educated guess is that this regulator is designed to run an atv that has a larger current draw while the engine is running such as high wattage headlights or some other electrical draw.

Now there is a way to make this work which would be to install a second 12 volt only regulator, one that only regulates the DC voltage but the idea is to keep it simple. Now I'm curious about my Yamaha bigbear rectifier/regulator I installed on my YTM200Ek, I assumed my lighting coil was bad with it as I was getting a very low AC output with the engine running and dim headlight that changed only slightly with higher engine rpms, it did a better job regulating the DC as a measured a clean 13 volts at the battery with no change when the headlights were on. I think I'm going to run with YHM BigBear regulator and go ahead and replace the lighting and charging coil as that's really the only way I will know for sure which is better.

I'm not sure if there is a sweet spot in finding a cheaper than oem regulator for these things, there are a few two wire regulators out there for around $40 which might be a better way to go, but this Chinese cheap regulator/rectifier will not work by it's self.

You can't tell me you Yamaha guys have spent big $$'s for the new oem ones, gosh I only spent $200 for my YTM200Ek and being a poor boy, I can't justify spending $175 on a new Yamaha one!

What have others used, just taken your chance with used ones?

[kb0nly]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ATV-VOLTAGE-...d5f113&vxp=mtr

Thats the model i have used on at least a dozen or so Honda's to replace their existing one or convert them to DC. It does a very good job of regulation. That cheap one you used must be poorly designed to allow the voltage to go that high, it should have a point at which it cuts off. The ones i use are around 14.2v max and usually sit around 13.8v when the battery is fully charged.

The nice thing about these is they have a pigtail so they are easier to adapt to anything without having to make a plug specially for them.