rectifier

[trick.]

hi there.just put a new rectifier on my storm bought from dave silver the later finned one. its putting in 15 volts on tick over and getting very hot is this normal?? trick.

[tony.mon]

What voltage do you get when you rev it?
15 volts isn't excessive, especially if the battery isn't fully charged.
Mine usually runs 14.8v.

[trick.]

its a new battery. the other got fried.its the rectifier do they run that hot?is that normal?? trick

[tony.mon]

Not "hot" usually, warm, certainly.
The regulator ide is designed to turn excess voltage into heat.
But not usually hot at tickover.

Have you metered out the three phases of the generator?

[VTRDark]

There's a guide in the workshop section for checking your charging system. I would suggest going through it, especially with a new battery. You don't want a new battery fried from the R/R.

http://www.vtr1000.org/phpBB3/viewtopic ... 31&t=28771

(:-})

[Pete.L]

Yes you need to check it but it might also be normal. If the battery requires charging, a lot more current will be passing through it so it will get hotter.

Pete.l

[Tweety]

About 14.8 V is "normal", 15 is high, anything above 15.4 is bad, and seeing 15 or above on a regular basis is cause for concern...

"Hot" is a question of definition really... Normal is "ouch" if you hold it, but touching it is sort of OK, just not that fun...

The fallacy with your thinking there Pete, is that if is in fact charging a low battery, which could temporarily drive the voltage as high as 15V, (shouldn't but could) the R/R should actually be noticeably cooler, since the regulator part is largely unaffected by the amount of current passing through it...

It's only concerned about voltage, not current... At that stage, on tick over or idle, the only parts creating heat in it, is the rectifier part to a very small part, which conforms it to DC current, as the rectifier that shunts the over voltage to heat, which at idle, is close to nil, since it takes at least 3500+ rpm to rise the AC voltage enough for that to happen to any large extent... And those parts are actually not making that much heat... The main heat source in it is when you get rev's and the voltage goes up...