Regulator mounting

cmd

I'm rebuilding a Ducati 888 from boxes which I unfortunately did not take apart so am finding a few things I cannot work out. Today's is the mounting for the regulator. Looking at the holes it would seem that the regulator is rubber mounted but normally they bolt directly to the frame and earth through the frame. The previous owner discarded most of the fasteners so some bits require a little guess work!

griff851

Yep, they have to earthed. Also a good idea to fit it somewhere with good airflow and not going to cause dramas if it craps out and decides to spontaneously combust.

marvin

I mounted my regulator lower in the airflow. I made a aluminum mounting plate and used transfer grease on the backside of the regulator to help transfer the heat to the aluminum plate. Those old style regulators aren't very efficient. Once the battery gets charged all of that energy is just transformed into heat. If you don't disipate that heat somehow the regulator fries. A newer style mosfet regulator is much better. They can be purchased and retrofitted. They aren't inexpensive though !

Mr.R

I fitted a Mosfet to the underside of my 14g alloy tail tidy to get it out into some cooler air/away from the heat of the motor.
With Silver plated heavier gauge wires soldered onto Gold plated bullet connectors, it's been Bullet proof in operation ever since.
Highly recommended by me and I've tried several solutions and reg/recs over the years.

Steve R

PTwo

Mr.R wroteI fitted a Mosfet to the underside of my 14g alloy tail tidy to get it out into some cooler air/away from the heat of the motor. With Silver plated heavier gauge wires soldered onto Gold plated bullet connectors, it's been Bullet proof in operation ever since. Highly recommended by me and I've tried several solutions and reg/recs over the years. Steve R

Do you, by chance, have pics/drawings of your tidy tail? I'm thinking of doing one.

Mr.R

I'll try to get my daughter to take some pic's tomorrow. She's just gone out for the 1st time in several weeks as the Gov' have started to soften the Coronavirus lockdown.
I've no drawings it was just something I knocked up when I working in my lunch break and had access to folding machines and TIG welding equipment.
Having said that I'm pretty happy with the result, it's lasted a few years now and looks pretty "Factory" to me.

Steve R

econti

PTwo wroteDo you, by chance, have pics/drawings of your tidy tail? I'm thinking of doing one.

I've attached mine, I made it using a very high tech bending method (2 offcuts of wood and some clamps) out of exceedingly expensive NASA grade titanium (aluminium offcut from the local supplier).
One single sheet, just followed it from the forward mount points and bent as I went.
Rear number plate surface got a bracket mounted on the back with 2x 90 degree bends on each end for some little indicators off ebay.
Took an hour to knock out, painted black, looks very tidy and OEM+ in my opinion. Don't have a picture of it painted but you all know what black aluminium looks like.

If I had something more accurate than a tape measure I'd measure it and post them up, but I don't, so you'd have to make it up as you go.

marvin

Heat transfer compound/grease is really important on the backside of the regulator. Without it heat transfer (conduction) is only partially efficient.

Just one of many ranging in price from this to really expensive

brad black

i remember years ago that we had an 851 in that was shutting down at 7,500 rpm, like a hard limiter. i was told to look at the voltage regulator mounting, and if it had the original well nuts to remove them and solid mount it, and if it was solid mounted to refit with well nuts. i think i ended up doing a couple of them, going both ways. was pretty funny.

patrick

Hi friends
Old post, but i confirm a rigid mounting of the original regulator makes bad cuts to the engine near 7500 rev.
Don't know if it is an electric bugg or due to rigidity mounting.
I also added a second ground black cable directly to the battery and since that, my second-hand original model hasn't yet failed for 10 years 🤞
Patrick from france