Voltage Regulator - XR200

[twagner44]

Anyone know where I can get a voltage regulator that will work on my kid's 02 XR200? I got him a light for his birthday, but can't figure out what/where to get a regulator. There are a bunch on eBay, but I want to make sure I get one that will work properly. Are they pretty much all the same or...? Thanks!

[Chuck.]

There have been several electrical changes thru the years. What year XR200?

Trail Tech and TT sell a AC regulator that was about $13 two years ago, easy two wire hookup and works like a champ.

[twagner44]

It's an 02. Tag on the frame says its an R but I'm discovering that many of the write-ups don't seem to jive with what I am looking at on the bike. Anyway, I found an old posting (2005) on 4Strokes where a guy had the same issue - 3 wires coming from the stator with 2 of them looped together. Aparently, this one takes a 4 wire rectifier/regulator. Found one on eBay for $19 and ordered it. Hope it works out - we'l see. My kid is getting really bummed looking at that sweet Baja Designs headlight that the got from his uncles for his birthday just sitting on my bench collecting dust. Thanks for chiming in though! TT is awesome for this sort of thing.

[Chuck.]

You don't need a rectifier to run lights, AC works just fine. The rectifier is used to convert the AC output of the alternator to DC for battery charging and those electrics like a horn that require DC. Honda uses AC lighting on a lot of bikes, even those that have a DC system with a battery.

So unless you need DC stay with AC. see the previous thread.

On rereading your post I see you ordered a rect/reg from eBay, no problem. The yellow and pink wires from the alternator are the outputs for the lights. The pink wires in the harness is a short jumper used to short out the alternator, unplug and connect the rect/reg, then build a wiring loom for the lights. I try to follow the Honda color conventions for wiring but aftermarket stuff usually follow a different color scheme, making a schematic will help you sort thru the confusion.

[twagner44]

Mine doesn't have the pink wire in the harness like that. All the schematics I've seen posted for this don't match up with my bike. That's the difference and what was addressed in this old thread that I found. I'll let you know how it works out.

[Chuck.]

You need a XR200R schematic, Clymer manuals have them.

There are only 2 wire harnesses for the 86-02 XR200s; The differences are: Late version has the pink jumper in it and no wires for lights. he jumper is only about 2" long so it is easy to pull it out of the harness. Early version has wiring for lights; a blue wire for the alternator, a blue & green pair for the headlight, a brown & green pair for the tail light, and a white/yel & green pair for the regulator.

So first check is to determine what wire harness is on the bike.

Do the same check on the alternator: two wires (blk/r & blue), or three wires (blk/r, pink, and yellow).

[twagner44]

Coming up from the stator are 3 wires. 2 of them are connected to each other with a short pink wire. Is that what you are talking about?

[Chuck.]

Yes, those two wires are the output for the lights. The pink jumper shorts out the lighting section of the alternator when lights are not installed, pull it when you install the lights. The alternator provides AC so pick one for "hot" and one for the "return" when wiring the lights. A two wire regulator also connects to these two wires.

[twagner44]

So do you connect the regulator in-line on the way to the lights? I'm not too familiar with how AC works.

[Chuck.]

Not inline, parallel.

Regulators on motorcycles (at least the XRs) regulate by putting a load on the alternator (a controlled short). So the two wire regulators connect to the output of the alternator just like a light.

[twagner44]

So its as simple as 1) pulling off the pink connecting wire 2) connecting one of the alternator wires to the light input and one to the regulator 3) connecting the other alternator wire to the light output and the remaining regulator pigtail?

The light I got from BD has 3 prongs - high, low, grnd. Where does the output come into play?

Btw, thanks for walking me through this. I really appreciate your knowledge. As you can tell, electrical is my weakpoint. I love learning though.

[Chuck.]

So its as simple as 1) pulling off the pink connecting wire 2) connecting one of the alternator wires to the light input and one to the regulator 3) connecting the other alternator wire to the light output and the remaining regulator pigtail? Yes

The light I got from BD has 3 prongs - high, low, grnd. Where does the output come into play? One alternator wire to the light grnd. ou want hi/lo beams then the other to a Hi/Lo switch and then two wires from the switch to the high & low prongs on the light. If no hi/lo then the other wire to a high or low prong on the light.

Btw, thanks for walking me through this. I really appreciate your knowledge. As you can tell, electrical is my weakpoint. I love learning though.

Here are two wiring diagrams for the XR200s, the first is the 90-02 and the jumper wire is near the top. The second is 86-88 and shows a two wire AC regulator and lights. The difference is the early alternator uses the frame ground (green wire) as a return to the alternator.

[twagner44]

Wow, this is great. Thanks again. Ok, one more question and I've got this. The light switch I got from BD has 4 prongs on it. (I should probably just ask them, but have found their response times to be significantly longer than justified by their pricing.) Do all those prongs come into play or do I just need to use three of them as you described above?

[Chuck.]

Do you have a diagram of the switch?

[twagner44]

No. I'll go back to BD for specs on that. Thought maybe there was a standard set up or something. Thanks again for all your help!

[twagner44]

Just picked up a regulator from a local bike shop and talked to BD re: the switch...one of the wires is for the tail light - DUH, of course!! If I end up putting a tail light on it later, I'll just need to hook that wire up to the light and the ground wire to the same wire from the alternator that I hooked up to ground on the head light. Correct?

[twagner44]

Hooked it all up and now the bike has no spark. When I reconnected the pink jumper wire it fired right up.

In summary here's what I did...Disconnected pink jumper wire between alternator wires. One of the alternator wires I ran up to the hot wire for the light switch and also spliced into one of the regulator wires. Ran the other alternator wire to the ground for the light and spliced in the remaining regulator wire to that. Ran a wire from low on light switch to low on light. Ran a wire from high on light switch to high on light. Left tail light wire from switch open (could this be my problem? - an incomplete circuit?). Any input would be much appreciated. We're taking our bikes camping next week and it would be cool for the kid to have a light.

[Chuck.]

A puzzle for sure! Electrical stuff always seem to offer new experiences. ?

I've done similar hookups on two wire and three wire alternators without problems.

When you reconnected the pink jumper did you also disconnect the lights & regulator?

What brand is the regulator? From your hookup description I assume it is a two wire regulator.

Do you have a multimeter? A cheap Radio Shack one is good enough for trouble shooting.

[twagner44]

The saga continues... Unfortunately, I threw away the packaging for the regulator so I don't know what brand it is - I didn't notice. The guy at the shop referred to it as a generic regulator and the packaging kind of matched that description. "12v Regulator" was the description on the price tag. Seemed good enough for me ;-). Anyway, the regulator doesn't look like the little flat 2 wired ones I see in the pictures. It is a bit bigger with a hole through the middle of it. I had used that hole to mount it to the frame. When I unmounted it, the bike started. But the light still doesn't work. Perhaps the regulator is the problem. I have a multimeter. What should I look for with that?

[twagner44]

The regulator I got looks exactly like this...http://www.bikebandit.com/baja-designs-internal-stator-replacement-ac-regulator?mg=8358&t=1&td=1