vr-115 install on '71(pic heavy)

[angus67]

Even though my original voltage regulator was working fine, I was just not comfortable running it on a 43 year old bike. I would like to keep the bike original looking on the outside, but solid state on the inside. Kinda of a retro rod.
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The original is in perfect shape, so I may keep or sell, don't know.
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Heres the new, Its for a 1974 cj5 with a 4 liter 6.
As you can see, it is not plug and play. I cut the connector off it and the plug from the wiring harness that plugged into the vr.
Then joined and soldered the orange and yellow wire to the brown wire from the harness, soldered them together, then soldered the green to green, black to black with 2 layers of shrink on all three solder joints, mounted to stock location.

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Put the battery back on, fully charged, starter 'er up, found I have -+ 12v to the new vr. When reved to 4k , the voltage only climbed to high 13v, and bounce around.
So thru twomanyxs1-b's help, I started tracking down the system. Found almost 1v drop from brown wire that feeds the vr. Then checked battery voltage to the iggy switch, full volts there, checked red/yellow out of the switch, .5 drop there, acceptable.
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This looks to be a new unused original switch. it was in a bucket of parts and hardware I got from the po. Looks much better than the cheap one I got from mikesxs. I have batt voltage into the switch on red wire, and .5 drop on the red/yellow wire out.
Checked Battery voltage to brown that feeds the vr in the head light, good there, check the other end, 1 volt drop. Twomany suggested checking volts to outter brush on brush holder, unattached from stator..more than 1 volt drop there.
Ick. time to unwrap the harness. So after unwrapping, I look for squiggly wires(sign of overheated wire), dead end wires. Found a couple of those, some original solder joints that didn't look too god, redid those, checked grounds on upper motor mount, sand papered those to shiny metal, put it back together, fired it up. satisfied that the wiring looked good, unhooked all the bullet connectors in the head light shell cleaned those, Put all those back together, turned key on, left flasher was bright a hell! not flashing either. Uh, oh. No power to the vr, either. Unhook all that mess in the shell, and for 4 hours couldn't figure it out, unplugging, plugging, unplugging......Finally, everything came back on correctly, except the rear tail light. more fiddling with the wires up top. Once I was sure it was all fine, I just lightly taped the tail bulb, it flashed. Pull the bulb, broken filament. Stupid thing. Throw in a led 1157, every thing worked.
Topped off battery, let it normalize. 12.8 volts in battery not running. Start the bike, at 1300rpm idle, 13.2 volts. at -+4500rpms, 14.2. rock solid up to 6krpms. I let it idle down, slowly went down to 13.2 volts. Turn on the high beam, turn signal, brake light(I know brake and turns are occasional use), volts at idle 13.1, at 4k, 14.2.
Yay!! Time to wrap it up. fresh electrical tape every were.
One question I have is since The vr-115 can only be mounted using one hole, is it ok? or should I mount strap of metal to bridge the gap to a second hole? As seen in 3rd pic.
Thanks to all that have contributed, especially Twomanyxs1-b.

 

[5twins]

Your VR mounts a little differently (opposite side) than my '78 but you can use the same method I did for mounting. I cut an adapter bracket template from card stock to determine the size and shape .....

Then I traced it to sheet metal and cut that out. It mounts to the VR and I use one bolt through the VR, one through the adapter plate .....

 

[angus67]

good idea. thanks.

 

[pkovo]

Nice work!

Not a great pic, but I took a more ghetto approach and used a piece of a thick plastic cutting board cut to shape as a mounting plate. I rubber mounted the mounting plate to the frame, and also put rubber between the plate and the VR. If it fails, it shouldn't be from vibration. I also went overboard using every available mounting hole on the VR.

 

[angus67]

yeah, that should stay put. looks clean.

 

[pamcopete]

angus67,

I think you may have had better results on your initial test if you waited a bit. The battery has to have a chance to recharge after start up so you wont see the ideal 14.5 at 3,000 RPM + initially. There is only a couple of extra amps to charge the battery, so it takes a while.

 

[racerdave]

When I was building my tracker, I mounted mine along with the radio shack rectifier setup under the battery box. The box was cut down though using a Shorei battery.

 

[TwoManyXS1Bs]

Hey, Angus. Glad to help. Especially glad you got that harness sorted. Amazing that the harness wires looked near new, yet had those internal problems. A testament to aging...

 

[angus67]

Yes. The original solder joints were grey, and had signs of age hardening. Works fine when cold, but throw some volts threw it, and the cracks expand, making momentary contact. learned about it on the main relay for my 92 Honda accord. Ran fine cold, but once warmed up, would die. Didn't help it didn't have ANY airflow under the dash.
My soldering skills are good, not perfect. I used to work for a company that makes well monitoring devices, and I learned how to solder there.
Pete, I did realize this. but at upper rpms, the volts were doing the tango, so it gave me an excuse to unwrap the entire harness. The original purpose of unwrapping the harness was to put some shrink wrap on the part of the wiring that shows just ahead of the gas tank. Unfortunately , I couldn't get the shrink I want around the largest connector in the shell, so it was all for naught. I ended up just wrapping with electrical tape. I wish there was heat shrink that was a roll, like electrical tape. the easiest Ive found is thin vinyl tape that stretches well.

 

[pamcopete]

angus67,

Go to www.heatshrink.com They have all kinds of heat shrink tubing with different shrink ratios. When you need to slip it over a large plug, get the size needed to slip over the plug with a higher shrink ratio so it will shrink down to the diameter of the wire bundle. They also have heat shrink tubing as large as 4 - 6 inches which I use to to repair speedos and tachs.

 

[angus67]

That 4" grey 3:1 would be great for the 12" section between the gas tank and the headlight. Thanks!