1982 XS 650 charging issues

[GLS4004]

I purchased my bike that had been rewired, pretty nice work... I do not get any power to my brushes on the stator. I have power and ground going into the regulator/ rectifier. Coming out of that unit is brown and green wires going to the brushes with no power with the switch on, and the three white wires going to the windings. Looking at a wiring diagram there appears to be power from the ignition switch to the outside brush, should that power source be connected to the brown wire coming out of the rectifier? Obvious I need to power one of the brushes when the key switch is turned on. Does it matter with brush should get power. Any help or suggestion will be appreciated.

 

[Jim]

Looking at a wiring diagram there appears to be power from the ignition switch to the outside brush, should that power source be connected to the brown wire coming out of the rectifier? Obvious I need to power one of the brushes when the key switch is turned on. Does it matter with brush should get power.

The factory spliced into the brown wire inside the harness and ran that direct to the inner brush. The outer brush has the green wire, which goes back to the regulator. In the grand scheme of things, switching the wires to the brushes won't hurt anything. It just means the (magnetic field) polarity of the rotor will be swapped. The stator doesn't care what the polarity of the magnetic field is.... because it's output to the reg/rec is AC.
So yeah... it'll work either way.

If your brown wire to the outer brush is missing, yes, you could just splice off the brown going into the regulator.

On these bikes, the brown is switched power. It goes most everywhere power is needed. You can basically tap into it at any convenient place.

EDIT: I had the wire colors backwards. Fixed it for posterity.

 

[GLS4004]

I have the brown wire coming out of the regulator going to the outer brush and does nothing. Looks like I need to splice switched power to that wire. It appears who wired this bike may have missed that. I greatly appreciate your response.

 

[Jim]

I have the brown wire coming out of the regulator going to the outer brush and does nothing.

Then that will need addressing also. The regulator needs a battery feed as part of it's regulating function. It can't regulate the charge to the battery unless it knows what battery voltage actually is.
12V switched needs to go to both places... the regulator and the rotor brush.

 

[GLS4004]

interesting... I have a direct wire from the battery that is always hot going into the regulator as well as a ground. Looks like I need switched power connected to the brown wire feeding the brush.
Thank you

 

[Jim]

interesting... I have a direct wire from the battery that is always hot going into the regulator as well as.....

Remember, that's a reg/rec.... combined two components in one.

The regulator needs the brown switched to know where to regulate.

The rectifier needs the unswitched red wire going to the battery. That's your charge current.

 

[GLS4004]

That would be the brown wire coming out of the unit that goes t the brush, correct?
Thanks again for your help, much appreciated.

 

[Jim]

Correct.
Brown is 12V switched power TO the regulator. Tap into that and run it to the brush.
Red is 12V unswitched from the rectifier to the battery.

 

[GLS4004]

Correct.
Brown is 12V switched power TO the regulator. Tap into that and run it to the brush.
Red is 12V unswitched from the rectifier to the battery.

I have a rectifier/regulator ( 1981) only two wires going into it, constant hot and ground. coming out is the three whites for the stator plus green and red for the brushes, total of five wires coming out. Maybe it should be wired with the old way with separate regulator and rectifier?? Got the unit from Mikes, maybe incorrect?

 

[5twins]

On the later system like you have, a brown wire (switched power) from the harness connects to the INNER brush. The outer brush gets the green wire from the regulator, which is a switched or regulated ground. As Jim mentioned, you also need a brown wire from the harness connected to the brown on the reg/rec.

 

[Jim]

The MikesXS reg/rec doesn't exactly have a stellar record. There's a thread in Tech on building your own reg/rec for a lot less that that unit. Easy to do and should last forever.

Black is ground.
3 whites are AC output from the stator to the rectifier side of the box
Red is DC from the rectifier to the battery (unswitched).
Green is the regulating ground from the brush to the regulator.
Brown is switched power from the battery.

https://www.xs650.com/threads/diy-reg-rec-5twins-and-jim.55842/

Lookin at your pic, it looks like that's the older 'B' type regulator which won't work on your '82. It needs the newer type A.