Gen 5 Regulator ID

Apologies for asking for help in my first post on the forum.

I'm a new Gen 5 owner--really new, as in four days ago. Long before I got the bike I was aware of the VFR's chronic regulator/rectifier issues. I'd like to preemptively upgrade my RR so I don't get surprised one day when the bike won't start, or it bursts into flame, or something. I've just about broken Google tonight looking for information about the various RRs and haven't found an answer to my situation. Here's the deal:

The bike is a 2000 with 22,000 miles. The RR in it now is marked SH689BD. The seller also included a spare new Honda RR; it's marked SH579 C-12. I inspected the plugs and the wiring on the one in the bike and they look fine; no obvious signs of overheating or an impending meltdown.

From what I've read and been told, the way to (mostly) prevent RR failure is to replace the OE unit with a MOSFET unit. What I can't seem to find is whether either of the units I have is MOSFET, or in fact worth using at all. I read there are some OE Honda RRs from other models that are, and before I spend the money on a third RR, I'd like to make sure that neither of the ones I already have is.

Thanks much. I'll post a proper intro when I get this situation figured out.

 

Welcome to the forum. Sorry I can't say if your r/r is the original but I can advise you yo get a kit from roadstercycle.com, as many here did. Very simple to install.

 

Hi AB. The 579 was stock on my 2000 VFR. As Nookiaz says, get to roadstercycle.com and order the Super Mosfet Kit before your VFR catches fire. Make sure you cut out the plastic connector and solder the yellow wires to the new Mosfet. Easy install, will run much more cool and give you peace of mind. Enjoy that bike and welcome to VFRW. Stay awhile..

 

STD equipment is a shunt type Hence SH, mosfets are FH coded. The latest being FH oo20a.

 

Welcome to the crazy House of VFR folks. Like mentioned above go check out the site. IMO since you have two, one sounds like an up grade part number, while the other sounds stock. I'll have to back and check numbers here. if it where me i'd throw a voltage meter on it and see how it goes, some vfrs are just prone to it, some not so, so some reallyb getb into the fix. Will what you have fail? hard to tell when, but more than likely it may. Yes the guys at Roadstercycle have the fix for sure, the culprit here is the connections out of the RR get corroded from the elements, electrical connections like to be clean. when that happens things goes down hill fast if not caught in time. but sounds like your off to a great start...

 

Thanks for all the responses. Roadstercycle r/r and adapter plate ordered tonight.