My 1999 SV had a history of killing batteries with its previous owners, and the bike sat for a while before I bought it. I replaced the dead battery with a new one, since the old one would not hold a charge(sealed batteries are known for their 'memory'). However, the bike didnt want to turn over after a few days of riding, and my headlight looked yellow and dingy. Some quick diagnostics with a multi-meter showed my charging system was generating AC power, but the regulator/recitifier combo was wasn't charging my battery at all. A new one prices around $200 from Suzuki. I found a similar looking one on eBay for a 1997 GSXR 750 that works perfectly, for around 20 bucks. Just about any one would work though, as long as it is a five-wire regulator/rectifier. Many manufacturers use a six-wire charging system, dont try to use one, the sixth wire is used to control the charging coils as a voltage regulator, and this system cannot be adapted to the SV's system!

The hardest part is getting the connectors to match up, which required unclipping the connectors from the stock wires and slipping them onto the wires from the new box. You can remove the plastic connectors by inserting a small flat-blade screw driver into the individual sockets and smashing an angled tab flat, so that the metal connector blade and attached wire can slide out of the plastic connetor housing. Its difficult for a first-timer to get one out, but after one is out and you see how they work, the rest are cake. Be sure when re-inserting the connectors into the plastic connector sockets that you re-bend the angled spot out so it catches and prevents the wire from pulling back out. Also, double-check the position of the wires in the plastic connectors, so that you dont have one wire not connected to anything(Suzuki used a four-pin connector for a three-pin job on the 99's, and switched to a six-pin on the newer models, but there is still an un-used slot). The order on the three charging wires doesnt matter, since they are the generator wires and all alternate current anyway. So, simply put the three common wires from the SVs harness connecting to the three common wires on the new box, in no particular order. On the stock box, they are yellow, but on the GSXR one they are all solid black. The only wires that matter are the two black wires with a white stripe and a red stripe. The red stripe is your battery 'hot' or positive, and the one with a white stripe is the ground wire. These didnt fit right into the stock plastic housing, so i had to cut the stock wires off close to the connector housing, and strip the ends of the respective new wires then solder them together. A butt-connector of the crimp type would work as well, but isnt as clean looking or weather-proof. The new unit is noticeabley larger than the stock one, but not much, and all that was required to mount it were longer bolts, the holes are the exact same. You'll find that there are a wide variety of these boxes that interchange with only minor connector swapping. Now my battery shows 13.5 volts at idle and my headlight is as bright as can be! No more dead batteries for a fraction of the factory replacement cost! Any questions on this article, please email me.

Happy SV riding!
~Jim
skullfracture@yahoo.com