Voltage regulator - need some help

[Worden18]

The voltage regulator on my 84 YTM 200EL is bad; my neighbor owned the trike for 25 years (since '88) and never had the lights working. I changed the head and tail-light bulbs first, the new headlight blew out at full throttle. I then tested the regulator as per the Clymer manual (page 184) and sure enough there is no continuity thru the regulator, I guess allowing too much voltage to surge thru the system and blow out the headlight.

Here's what I don't understand. The manual says put the positive lead on the red wire, and the negative lead on the white wire...there should be continuity (I had set my multimeter to beep on ohms). It then says to reverse the leads, and then there should be NO continuity. Well what difference does it make if the leads are switched around when you're just testing for continuity? I'm no expert with the multimeter of course but the test doesn't make sense.

I've bought (and returned) 2 used regulators from ebay because they don't have continuity at all (parts were sold as working, but obviously they were not tested). Didn't matter which lead I had on the red/white wire, there was no continuity. I'm kinda getting frustrated with this thing, I need the lights to work for night riding. So far I haven't seen a new manufactured regulator for this trike. Any suggestions on this test? Is the regulator on these trikes one of those "yep they went bad/those are junk" parts?

[tri again]

Wish I knew.
Terribly frustrating when we do exactly as told and are Still wrong.
Sounds like someone's girlfriend wrote that fix it book.

Regulators generally aren't super specific. I bet there are aftermkt units that could work.
I'll go look on dratv and see if I can find anything.

[dougspcs]

Agree..ebay is full of them. May not be the same great quality but if it can be made to fit the application then it becomes yet another way to repair these aging machines since parts are getting more scarce..

I read a thread the other day of another member using an Ebay CDI on his 250ES..

[tri again]

yupp, at least 10 on dratv.com,
6 and 12v and universal, and for hi output etc

If nothing else, it's good info to know or extrapolate from.

[Howdy]

I use a moose 12v regulator when I have this problem and it's solved every time.
This is why I keep these in stock.
Howdy

[TecateDan]

THe manual sounds like it's full of hore poo. Manuals are wrong more often than you think. Liky howdy said new and universal is the way to go

[Worden18]

Thanks for the responses gentlemen. I'll see if I can get a universal one hooked up and then let everyone know how it turns out :)

[Yamada]

I use a moose 12v regulator when I have this problem and it's solved every time.
This is why I keep these in stock.
Howdy

How do you plug these regulators? Inline on the + side or you groung one of the wire?