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Do you have after market headlight relays, I am trying to understand why the headlight is blowing.Perhaps it's time to change to a direct connect regulator, they measure the voltage at the battery terminals instead of downstream of the relay.The black wire from the case to battery negative is far too small, I always recommend an extra ground wire from the regulator case to a timing cover bolt.
Dielectric grease is not proper for that application.. right Wayne?dielectric grease is for. It is NOT a electrical conductor. It used to shield metal parts from corrosion - however, if you have strong metal to metal contact, use can still use it on the connectors. If you have a weak or not very strong metal to metal contact - then this grease will inhibit electric current.
Vaseline is Gods gift to electrical connections.
The black wire in the loom is too small, it has to carry 30 Amps if the regulators not grounded, I advocate a short wire from the regulator case to a timing cover bolt.Make sure your main ground is well connected to a gearbox bolt.
If the reference voltage to the regulator is low because of a high resistance connection somewhere, then no regulator in the world can work properly.Think about it. The regulator uses that reference voltage and only reduces the alternator output when it sees that reference getting up to 14v. In your case it's never getting there, so the regulator keeps the alternator at full output.I would remove that reference wire and replace with a new one directly from the ignition switch (the switched side). Having it also connected to other circuits which load the voltage is never a good plan.
The black wire at the regulator is normally about 0.6 Volts lower than the battery, this is the Voltage drop across the headlight relay.What you are seeing is what destroys the regulators, too much Voltage drop, it causes the regulator to overcharge until it melts the leads off the internal diodes.Do you have after market headlight relays, I am trying to understand why the headlight is blowing.Perhaps it's time to change to a direct connect regulator, they measure the voltage at the battery terminals instead of downstream of the relay.The black wire from the case to battery negative is far too small, I always recommend an extra ground wire from the regulator case to a timing cover bolt.Actually your bike is even worse the Voltage reference is taken downstream of not one but two relays The Start relay and the Headlight relay try wiggling them in their sockets and see if it improveshttp://www.thisoldtractor.com/guzzi007/schematics/2000_Quota_1100_ES.gifLook at the red/black wire to the regulator.Here is a diagram of the regulator. Click on it to zoom in.And here is a sketch comparing a direct connect fitted to later bikes. There are some good 3rd party ones available.
Unplug your headlight bulb and see if regulation returns to normal. That's what happened to my bike. The bulb was causing a 2V drop. I now power a $6 relay from Autozone with the headlight wire and ran a separate line from the battery to the contacts of the relay. Been running it like that for several years now. The relay fits inside the headlight bucket, and, the headlight is brighter.
Without the bike running turn on the key and measure the Voltage between Battery + and the Voltage reference socket.So the key is On, headlight is On and you are looking for a Voltage of around 0.5 to 0.7 Volts, note this down.Then, Wiggle the first two relays in their sockets, note the Voltage.
On the regulator, the black wire is the reference voltage "in" (my term). I disconnected that plug (2 prong plug, black and white wires on regulator), and put my black wire from my meter into the plug that goes back into the wiring harness (red wire, matches to black wire on regulator), leaving the black wire going into the regulator just hanging unplugged.Then connected my red meter wire to the + terminal of the battery.Key off, v=12.5. Key on (with high beam light on), and the v=261. Yes, two hundred and sixy one. Key off, volts back to 12.5.
Sounds like an auto ranging voltmeter, and it is displaying 261 MILLI volts. As in .261 volts. As in about 1/4 volt.Probably a pretty normal voltage drop.It is an odd failure mode for that regular to internally fail in constant overcharge, but I think that is what you have.
Are the voltage regulators that expensive or hard to come by ? Peter
Check ebay for original type. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Voltage-Regulator-Rectifier-For-Ducati-MONSTER-400-Moto-Guzzi-CALIFORNIA-V10-U-S/333502959836?fits=Make%3ADucati&epid=23019997753&hash=item4da65350dc:g:WM8AAOSwFmtcuTnB
Tends to melt in high tempretures.