Vintage BMW Motorcycle Owners

Recently installed an electronic voltage regulator. Had generator assembly apart, cleaned, installed new brushes, springs. Charge light now stays on. Electrics work with fully charged battery, but fade and cut out when riding. My question is if in disassembling it now needs to be repolarised, by following what is found in the Rinckes manual is there any risk to the new voltage regulator?

Double and triple check that it is wired correctly.

I trust that you did follow the directions for the electronic regulator, and and disconnected the wire wound ceramic resister.

It is not used with any of the new solid state regulators. If you have it connected, the solid state voltage regulator will NOT work.

To "flash" the generator, (you do not have to have the key on) you simply, for just an instant, touch a jumper wire from the terminal #61 (which is the positive brush) to either of the terminals marked 30/51 on the face of the generator.

Then fire the bike up, and rev it up. It should put the gen charge light out when revved up. Put a volt meter across the battery posts, and you should see 7.2 volts, NOT more, and NOT less when the engine is revved up, if everything is working properly.

I will check the wiring again. I did remove the resistor prior to installing the electronic regulator. If the wiring checks out I'll follow Vech's (thank you) instruction to repolarize/ battery check with volt meter.

Do not do that to the electronic voltage regulator! I think Vech was talking about polarizing the factory generator. If you have electronic regulator you will fry it. Double check all connections. I have electronic regulator in 2 of my bikes and they work great,the ones I purchased, you can adjust a screw to alter voltage output. My 6V batteries are all charged up well now.

Am I reading correctly that I cannot re-polaruze the generator with the electronic voltage regulator wired in? That was my concern/question - that repolarizing with the electronic regulator wired could have a negative effect.

I have not ever had to "polarize" any of my generators, I understand the reason to,however I cannot recommend shorting out any power to ground with a electronic regulator installed. If Vech does this and it works, then I guess it works, however I thought this is something more of a mechanical regulator type requirement. You may have a shorted commutator on your generator...who knows? But these are usually plug and play if wired up correctly.