Yamaha Rectifier/Regulator
- Thread starter Rhinohead
- Start date
BlackRhinoPerformance
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We used to sell them many years ago. They were actually pretty popular. That is until we had 3 Rhinos melt their wiring harnesses. One machine in particular smoked out the garage when only the wife was at home. She called the fire department, who showed up and was about to axe through the garage door until she camed back and opened it. In the end all they did was take bolt cutters to every wire they could find 
We talked to the manufacturer, who offered to reimburse the customer something like $25 for the rectifier. We ended up buying 3 full factory wiring harnesses for each of these customers, to the tune of $500 each.
We issued a recall, advising everyone to pull these off. We refunded full refunds to anyone that bought from us, no matter how long ago, took them all back and threw them in the trash. We ate the full cost. It just about killed us.
We suggested to the manufacturer that he discontinue or fix his design. We've suggested to other dealers that they should discontinue. We still see them for sale everywhere. They're usually shown on web sites next to the 'Magic Power Box', which by the way is from the same manufacturer. I'll keep my opinion to myself on those, but I don't know them to be dangerous.
But bottom line, if you have an aftermarket rectifier on your Rhino, pull it off and throw it out before you melt your wiring harness, or worse. If you have friends with one, tell them the same. I'm amazed that 1) these are still offered by the manufacturer; 2) retailers still sell them as I hear about melted wires from these fairly regularly and find it hard to believe that other dealers don't pull them just over the danger; and 3) no one has been sued (that I know of). Keep in mind that we issued our recall back in 2005.
It is a fire hazard, and doesn't do anything. Especially not adding 2 HP!
We talked to the manufacturer, who offered to reimburse the customer something like $25 for the rectifier. We ended up buying 3 full factory wiring harnesses for each of these customers, to the tune of $500 each.
We issued a recall, advising everyone to pull these off. We refunded full refunds to anyone that bought from us, no matter how long ago, took them all back and threw them in the trash. We ate the full cost. It just about killed us.
We suggested to the manufacturer that he discontinue or fix his design. We've suggested to other dealers that they should discontinue. We still see them for sale everywhere. They're usually shown on web sites next to the 'Magic Power Box', which by the way is from the same manufacturer. I'll keep my opinion to myself on those, but I don't know them to be dangerous.
But bottom line, if you have an aftermarket rectifier on your Rhino, pull it off and throw it out before you melt your wiring harness, or worse. If you have friends with one, tell them the same. I'm amazed that 1) these are still offered by the manufacturer; 2) retailers still sell them as I hear about melted wires from these fairly regularly and find it hard to believe that other dealers don't pull them just over the danger; and 3) no one has been sued (that I know of). Keep in mind that we issued our recall back in 2005
. It is a fire hazard, and doesn't do anything. Especially not adding 2 HP!
BlackRhinoPerformance
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Joey, sorry I missed ya'll at Pala. Looks like it was a LOT of fun. Good and muddy. Reminds me of the PIAA WORCS race we were in a couple years ago. You couldn't tell what color ANY of the cars were. In fact, most of the time you couldn't make out a driver, they just molded into the mud blob
WOW ,, thanks for the run down on the phony magic power box !! it was on ebay that they claim a sensor shuts off the charging sys and frees up some HP but how can that be with no clutch sys ?? or create more spark ?? Total BS ,, anyone have a decent one they pulled from there R1 Rhino conversion they wanna sell ?? looks like some crazy mudbog pics and Vid from PALA !! thanks again !! check out my trashed 660 motor !! Yo joey ,, how do i post a bigger pic ??
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Ok guys, I'm an electrical engineer (by degree) and this is how these "boxes" work:
They use a diode connected to the base of a transistor to "regulate" the turn on of the transistor. Most are setup to turn on the transistor at something just over 12V. Once the magneto produces over the set voltage of the diode (12 volts) the transistor is turned on. This transistor acts like a switch with varying degrees of resistance (this resistance it dependant on how hard or how much current is feed into the base of the transistor). The transistor shorts out the excess (over 12 volts) voltage and as the voltage tries to increase because of the speed of the magneto this produces a greater current flow to the base of the transistor and that turns the transistor on harder allowing more of the magneto current to be shorted out.
If you have ANY floating ground in your machine, this magneto current will not flow directly to chassis ground, but flow through the resistive harness and back to battery ground. I suspect this is why the harnesses were smoking. The magneto can produce something like 33A of current (a LOT) @ 5k rpm.
The real kicker is any HP savings would be so insignificant that there would be virtually no added load on the engine...snake oil!!!
They use a diode connected to the base of a transistor to "regulate" the turn on of the transistor. Most are setup to turn on the transistor at something just over 12V. Once the magneto produces over the set voltage of the diode (12 volts) the transistor is turned on. This transistor acts like a switch with varying degrees of resistance (this resistance it dependant on how hard or how much current is feed into the base of the transistor). The transistor shorts out the excess (over 12 volts) voltage and as the voltage tries to increase because of the speed of the magneto this produces a greater current flow to the base of the transistor and that turns the transistor on harder allowing more of the magneto current to be shorted out.
If you have ANY floating ground in your machine, this magneto current will not flow directly to chassis ground, but flow through the resistive harness and back to battery ground. I suspect this is why the harnesses were smoking. The magneto can produce something like 33A of current (a LOT) @ 5k rpm.
The real kicker is any HP savings would be so insignificant that there would be virtually no added load on the engine...snake oil!!!
BlackRhinoPerformance
BRP Site Sponsor - UTVUnderground Approved
Why do you think so many of them were/are melting harnesses? The guy whose wife called the fire dept called swore the machine had been parked for a week. All the others I know of happened while the machine was running.
As far as I know, the harness damage always happens in the harness leading to the rectifier. But at least at the time, you couldn't buy sub harnesses.
As far as I know, the harness damage always happens in the harness leading to the rectifier. But at least at the time, you couldn't buy sub harnesses.
Not sure if this was directed to me, but my guess would be they are using a diode and/or transistor that isn't rated for the harness (gauge). In this type of configuration, the transistor is a voltage controlled current device. The diode is simply in place act as the half cycle voltage switch at the base. If the battery charge is above 12V (or whatever they set the transistor switch at), then all that magneto current will short out to ground above this 12V switch level (and not continue to charge the battery). As the magneto rmp increases, so does the current and if the harness can't handle the peak current then all that heat (caused by the high current draw) goes somewhere...like melted insulation. Essentially they arcing the magneto current direct to ground through a diode and the transistor. If it was the harness before the rectifier/regulator circuit, then I'd say the diode failed and caused the negative half cycle of the AC magneto output to drop across the harness and burn it up.
BlackRhinoPerformance
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Thanks Bob, that's what I was going to say Acutally I didn't follow a lot of that, but I got the general concept. And so, it is feasible that these can fail even if the machine is not running?
Acutally I didn't follow a lot of that, but I got the general concept. And so, it is feasible that these can fail even if the machine is not running?Thanks Bob, that's what I was going to say
No, it wouldn't catch fire just sitting there, more likely is you go to start it (magneto starts to turn) and the harness and/or diode, transistor is already damaged and this causes the fire/smoke. Hard to tell though.
