Original text from Alan McKeeve.

I can only quote you what I have done that works.

I removed the separate rectifier and regulator completely and fitted a single rectifier/regulator unit from a Honda Bros because it had the same wiring colours two green, three yellow and two red+white.

The new rectifier/regulator fits in the same place as the old rectifier, on the side of the battery box next to the battery. The bolt holes line up.

The GL1000 has a single connector and the Bros has two small connectors one with three yellow wires and the other with two green and two red+white wires.  I cut off the connectors because mine on the wiring harness were badly corroded, matched up the wires and soldered them together.

If yours are in good condition you could cut the plug from the old rectifier and join the wires there, that would leave the original bike wiring intact.

Now this is important! Remove the old regulator from the dummy tank panel and tape up the three pin wiring connector and zip tie it out of the way, do not connect or short it to anything it is now redundant.

Now start up the bike and check across the battery terminals with a digital multi meter, you should get a reading between 14 and 15 volts.

Yes! That's it finished. It is that easy!

If you are concerned about the old regulator connector “hanging loose” I will explain what it used to do.

There are three wires  green, yellow and black.

Green is ground, Yellow is a tap from one of the alternator wires.

Now the Black wire is the reference or “sense” wire, it is the voltage on this wire that the old regulator used to set the charging voltage over the battery.

Here is the problem. By the time power has been through all those thirty odd year old wires and connectors (including the ignition switch) there is a voltage drop, the regulator thinks the voltage is much less than it actually is and therefore puts to much power over the battery. Less than a one volt drop is enough for the regulator to destroy the battery.

Note the picture of the CBR600 regulator, it has no black sense wire. The output voltage is internally regulated so cannot be affected by external wiring problems.

It is much cheaper to do this alteration than to totally rewire the bike.

I know the wiring on my bike was really bad so I had a “clean out” of dodgy wires and corroded plugs and sockets; there was a heap on the floor.

When my mate came in, he gasped; I hope you know what your doing! Of course I said!

See the picture below I took this from ebay, it is for A CBR600 it has the correct wires, just cut off the connectors. I think its perfect, I would use it.

I have recently done this conversion to the Swan and very pleased to say it works very well indeed. In my view this is a 'MUST-DO' for any GL1000!