Charging slash reg/rec issues?

Ok so a little while ago I bought a xs650 bobber. It's got a 77 motor and an 81 chassis. When I bought it it was like 75% done. The wiring was not done at all. So I had to wire it up. I followed the xs650 chopper simplified wiring diagram to wire it up. I'll attach the the diagram. The bike came with a racetech electrics reg/rec that I used when wiring. So after wiring it all up it fired up and ran great. I decided to check to see if it was charging the battery and when I hooked up the multimeter I saw it was over charging massively. When reved up I was hitting up to 19-20V. So I ran through curlys charging system troubleshooting list. Determined the reg/rec wasn't regulating. So I ordered a new reg/rec. I'll admit I cheaped out on it a little and got it off eBay. So now I swapped the new reg/rec in with everything wired the same. Now when running I get 12.05v at idle and it doesn't increase with rpms. I also got a New battery since the other one got over charged and it was just old, it reads 12.6v. I ran through curlys list again and cannot for the life of me figure out what is going on. Brushes are good ,rotor stator are good. Which I figured since it's capable of putting out 19v. So I'm at a complete loss of what to do or check next. Could it be bad luck with the new reg/rec? Frustrated enough to where if Hugh's pma kit was in stock I'd probably order it lol. If anyone has any ideas/input I would appreciate it greatly! Thank you in advance!

The diagram you put up there uses a type 'A' regulator. Power is sent to the rotor from the ignition switch and the regulator..."regulates" the ground through the green wire.
In a type 'B' regulator setup, power is sent to the regulator (usually a brown wire) and it "regulates" power to the rotor... with the green wire being a constant ground.
79 and older XS's use the type B.
80 and newer use the type A. You sure you installed the right type?

Yup the reg/rec is for a 80-83. I made sure to get the newer one so I didn't have to change the wiring. I have the black brush wire ungrounded and fed off a switched power. It is getting like 12.3-12.4v at the brush.

Use a jumper wire to ground the green brush. That bypasses the grounding function of the regulator and allows full power through the rotor. If voltage jumps to 18-20 like it was before, it means the regulators not working. Let us know and we'll go from there.

Ok I will go try that right now. Thank you! I'll be back with results.

Well I grounded the green brush and when running at idle it jumped to 14+, reved it up a little bit and it went up to 17+. Then... the reg/rec went "poof" lol. It's toasted now, but it was a cheapy anyways lol.

Well, there's your answer... bad regulator. It's pretty easy to build your own. Have a look here at comment 1742. I think I spent about 20-25 bucks making it.

Lol yea I supposed i shouldn't have expected much from a fleabay cheapy! I've glanced at a few of the threads on making your own. I may have to try that out. I like how clean the one you made looks! If I don't make one do you have any recommendations on a good type A reg/rec to get? I wouldn't mind getting Hugh's pma but they're never in stock

Rphutch671 said:

do you have any recommendations on a good type A reg/rec to get?

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Sorry no, I never looked for a replacement.

No worries. I do appreciate all your help! I'll do some digging around and see what others suggest for one. Might have to just make one like yours. Thanks again!

If you want to use the later type A ground regulating regulator on your '79 and older type alternator, you need to do the nylon screw mod for mounting the inner brush. If you don't, when you change it's black ground wire to a power feed wire, it will just ground out.

5twins said:

If you want to use the later type A ground regulating regulator on your '79 and older type alternator, you need to do the nylon screw mod for mounting the inner brush. If you don't, when you change it's black ground wire to a power feed wire, it will just ground out.

Click to expand...

I've already ungrounded the black brush with nylon screws and have it fed switched power. That's why I figured I'd just go with the newer style again. The racetech reg/rec it came with was the later type. But it was already on the bike and they didn't have the brushes ungrounded. So I don't know what they did to that one. When I wired it up it wasn't regulating the voltage at all. I ordered a cheap replacement off eBay that was for 80-83. But that one was only putting out a steady 12.05v.