Positive Rectifier To Battery Wire, Fused Or Not?

Wow! Good progress there. My regulator barely gets warm and the rectifier is only ever warm to the touch. I see you have put the rectifier in a nice place for cooling too. When it is all up and running just touch the rectifier heat sink every so often when you stop the bike just to see how warm it is running.

Are you going to add a voltmeter to the bike? They are an excellent add-on and enable you in one quick glance to check the health of your charging system. They only cost a few dollars but boy are they reassuring when you glance down and see 14.1V or 14.2V.

Best of luck with the rest of the project.

Yeah, I'll have a digital volt meter, permanent or temporary. I have the Fiat regulator and ebay rectifier with a digital volt meter on my Honda CB750C. It reads 14.3 to 14.4 volts when cruising, wired directly to the battery with a relay. The rectifier on the Honda never gets too hot to touch, I shouldn't even use the word "HOT", barely warm is more like it.

Scott

Yah I know... but I do not trust My VTOM at all and think it more likely that it is giving me a false reading , when I first tested the voltage it was down to 12vdc after starting and idling and reved up it barely came to 13.5vdc.... a few weeks later I checked it and it gave me the high voltage reading... the VTOM is a HF $17.00 one but the thing's selector switch has broken and doesn't click into the proper notch for the scale like it used to , I've tried to fix it 2 or 3 times now and have just about given up on it....time for a new one !
it's a crying shame too as I really like that meter but that's how it goes sometimes !
......
Bob......

The rule of thumb for a heat sink is as long as you can keep your thumb on it, it's not too hot

For the heat sink compound I used Duralast SL203 from Autozone, two small packages of putty, just enough to do the job for just over $1. The heat sink is an old twisted spirit level with nylon spacers as stand-offs. This design may change in the future, but it could be long lasting. The ring connectors and hardware to secure them are stainless. The ABS plastic is scavenged from old TV sets that I picked up from peoples front yards. The glue (three times for each joint) is a slurry of acetone and ABS beads, much stronger than using ABS glue.

Scott