Blown Bulb. Any way to put a regulator in the circuit?
Wiring for Kohler regulator? Anyone running one?The regulator should arrive today. I've got an old stock rectifier that I'll use for the connectors so I can plug it in directly. I'm wondering about the wiring. Anyone know which wires from the stock harness connect to which terminals? I've seen one picture that shows, looking from the back of the unit with the terminals sticking out to the front, wires arranged brown/yellow/red from left to right. Is that the proper wiring?
The brown and yellow on the two outside terminals doesn't make any difference which one goes where - - the red to the center terminal (to battery)
Exactly what are you wiring and how? After much investigation the Dream alternator is a two wire. I have a Kohler regulator/rectifier coming - I think if you tie the pink and yellow wires together and then tie in a Kohler regulator/rectifier it will work. Will know in a day of two.
The stock wiring (yellow wire) uses 1/3 of the alternator capacity for battery charging when the headlight is off. The remaining 2/3 of the alternator capacity (pink wire) is tied into the yellow wire (through the ignition switch) when the headlight is on. So if you tie the pink and yellow wire together (headlight off) you get full alternator capacity all the time. Wired like this you would overcharge the battery unless a regulator is tied in somewhere to regulate voltage.
There are a number of two wire regulator/rectifiers available. Some are automotive and some are small solid state units used on small engines. Kohler has a small solid state regulator/rectifier rated at 15 amps - I doubt the Dream charging system puts out more than about 8amps. So I have ordered a Kohler unit to try. Other folks seemed to have tried this with success. The rectifier in the picture is the stock one and is wired correctly. You said you had a regulator coming - is it just a regulator or a regulator/rectifier?
I ordered a Kohler three-terminal regulator/rectifier. I'm not sure what the three terminals correspond to and if they perform the same functions as the three tabs on the stock three wire rectifier.
What I got from Kohler is a 41 403 10-S. From what I can see in the wiring diagrams for Kohler engines and CA77 engines, the set-up is the same. Yellow and brown (the two outer terminals on the Kohler unit) go to the alternator and red (center terminal on the Kohler) goes to the battery. I'm not sure about the origin of the increased amperage when the headlight switch is activated, but I don't think that's a function of the rectifier. I think the alternator has an auxiliary winding that kicks in when the ignition switch is set to the "headlight" setting. It may be different on engines other than the CA77. The alternator has a standard 6 coil stator. Normally it would be wired in series and have two output wires. Honda just tapped into the wiring and used two stator coils for battery charging and 4 coils for the headlight. The voltage produced is the same but the watts (amps) avaliable varies.
I have ordered a Kohler unit probably much like the one you have. If you don't tie the pink and yellow wired together you will only get 1/3 of the alternator potential. With out the regulator you would probably "cook" the battery. But the Kohler unit has a regulator. So the brown wire to one side, the yellow/pink wire to the other side, center (red) the the battery. Once this is installed run the engine and check DC voltage at the battery. We are hoping for at least 12.7VDC at fairly low RPM and it should increase to somewhere around 13.5/14VDC at higher RPM. My problem is heat - I am sure this Kohler unit will get hot and if it is in the side case it won't get much air flow. When I try this I will probably mount some kind of heat sink to it. Mine should be here in a day or two so I can test. Let me know what happens.
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