Hi Ppl,
So my new to me MY10 monster 696 has not been without its issues. After having done a belt job and posting the guide here - it decided it wanted to leak oil all over my rear tire after hard runs.
after tearing most of the bike apart and replacing all o-rings with updated (green) parts and resealing the left and right cover with threebond 1215 all seemed well on a shake down ride...
THEN...
DUN DUN DUN!!
on a hot 38C day the crappy oem regulator cracked the sads - overcharging then not charging the battery. I must say this was quite dangerous...
SYMPTOMS:
I was JRA, and then i notice a drop in power, then dreaded engine light, then stall. Happened just once while i was meeting a mate - decided it fired right up again should be good. Nup - several episodes of the above occurred.. with much frustration and traffic behind me i managed to limp it home. When i did get home it failed to start.
batt showed surface charge of 12.7v but with the key and instrument panel on, only showing 10v. Cycling thru the instrument pod showed error HI BATT - looking up the manual shows this only comes on when the batt shows >16v. Not good.
after removing the battery and smart charging it, it's now operating normally and fires up the bike fine - the rectifier diode test returned normal, but i'm not completely happy with the reg. it heats up quickly (kinda normal) but even revving to 3k rpm, the dash and multimeter shows less than 14v, dropping to 13.7v and isn't terribly consistent, never exceeds 14v. manual states it ought be 14.5v +/- 0.5v @ 3k rpm
overall, i'm pretty sure it's the reg once it gets hot - the battery is not capable of showing over 16v, unless the reg is on the blink, and it all adds up as it was a rather hot day.
I decided to do the job properly and recently ordered in a shindengen MOSFET type rectifier/regulator. This ought eliminate the run-away thermal issues of the stock shunt SCR type reg, and has proven to be a reliable unit. After the issue I had, i'm not prepared to go through that again marooned on country roads (thanks to all those who stopped for me! including another duke rider on a sport classic)
So after scoping the upgrade threads and seeing that the triumph link lead ought be a plug and play upgrade with this particular MOSFET, it all seems all rather too easy. It appears all i will have to do is make an appropriate bracket, and the whole thing ought be plug and play and importantly easily returned to stock with no wiring modifications.
Details (guide) to follow when the unit comes in... So far no one has made a guide for this for modern Monsters and there are a few questions that I would like answered (by myself).
Anyway, it seems from all the threads - that this is common. I can only suggest to my fellow riders on the stock rec/reg in hot climates to seriously consider the upgrade BEFORE you break down and it's a problem.
until then
