Katana Owners Club U.K.

right... bike was fine when i stopped using it last year... turned on the ignition a few weeks ago and it starts blowing it's main fuse. 15A. so, start checking this and that, open up and check clean switches etc, check and clean connectors, earths look ok. disconnect the RR and it stops blowing fuses. result.

now i realise the issue is a knackerd RR (electrex one btw that isn't really that old... the motor has a recent generator change too also from electrex). i was wondering why the RR stopped working so was doing some more checks on the wiring... i noticed that the "live" in the harness that the RR plugs into is constantly live. As the earth goes to the negative on the battery the RR is constantly live... is this right? i'm looking at a wiring diagram and that explains that the black on the RR goes to an earth and the red on the RR goes into the loom on the red that feeds into the fuse box, which in turn goes directly to the battery.... from this i can assume that it is a "feature" that the RR is constantly powered....

is it me or does this seem a strange way to do things.... ignition is on or off and there is power going through the RR... why is there a need for that? i'd have thought the "red" on the RR should have gone to a switched live as that is the only time when it's needed and it would stop power constantly going into it... now, i am not close to understanding how diodes etc work so i guess i'm asking..... is there an issue with this or am i over thinking something that isn't a problem?

any ideas on my rambling thoughts?

The electrex RR on my Ducati is connected straight to the positive and negative terminals on the battery.
No problems in 10 years. The original one when through the ignition.
Electrex internally design there own RRs to work better than the original. So use the wiring diagram that came with the RR or go on there website to find a diagram for your model RR.

there was no wiring diagram that came with it as you're supposed to replace wire for wire on the harness. 3 yellow from generator to the three yellow on the RR.... black to earth and the red to the live in the harness. i checked my ET and it has the same constant live so i figure it's a feature... wasn'tsure why it burned out so quickly. been on the bike for maybe 5 yearts but the bike doesn't really get that much use tbh...

replacement already ordered so lets see how that one goes...

Put a couple extra earth leads from the battery to the new rec reg and the bracket it sits on.....

and make sure that the phase that goes through the lighting switch has been bypassed.

yeah... light circuit was long ago removed.... stoopid idea it was too!. i'll add another earth from the battery to the plate the RR mounts on too... the RR was connected directly to the neg. terminal before too...

cheers lads.... appreciated for the sanity check and advice