Wharfcreek
Near 50 Yrs of Experience
Yes.......... But..............
OK, to digress a bit, I was having a charging problem on my '79 Standard. I've had this bike for a LONG time, and used to ride it a lot more......took it to Michigan (I live in Maryland) about 6 years ago, and just recently brought it back home. To the best of my knowledge it's always had a bit of a charging problem, and some years back I replaced brushes, Voltage Regulator, and it seemed to be working fine then. But, owing to limited use, it also seemed to suffer some in the 'fully charged battery' area. So much so that at one point I put a switch into the ground line on the headlight....just so I could kill the lamp and conserve some battery power.
Anyway, long story short, I decided to replace the mechanical Voltage Regulator just as a matter of arbitrary decision and being 'suspect' of it's functionality. I might add that the bike was not charging at all......so, this VR replacement was just a decision I made as I wanted to get a solid-state unit regardless......and..... I hoped it would fix the problem. After some great help from XSLeo, RetiredGentleman, and 5Twins, I managed to complete the swap with absolutely no problems.....other than the bike still wasn't charging.
So, after some tracing of wires and voltages, and finally getting to the 'ohm out' of the rotor, I found that my old rotor was S.H.O.T.!! (You can replace the 'o' with an 'i' and still be right) As it happened, I had 2 rotors here from later Electronic Ignition bikes, and I decided to try one. It bolted up fine, and the contact points on the brushes lined up perfectly with the wiper area. HOWEVER....this rotor is cut just a bit less deep on the bevel land....so the rotor itself extended outwardly just a very small bit more than the original rotor. Enough that the screws holding the brush assembly to the Field Coil housing actually contacted the rotor and locked it up. One of them put a small 'nick' in my wiper contact area that I had to smooth out. But, once I shimmed out the screws with some washers.....the unit was tested and seemed to work perfectly. I measured about 14.4 volts at about 3K rpm......and I have a visible 'rise' in headlight illumination from idle....but then it stabilizes perfectly! In all.....it's looking like the bike's charging system is 'fixed'...perhaps for the first time in 15+ years!!
I don't know if there are other issues with using this rotor vs the proper 'stock' one, or even a proper 'replacement' version. But....for the purposes of what I was doing, I think I'm going to stick a fork in it and call it 'done'!! Comments welcome.
WC
OK, to digress a bit, I was having a charging problem on my '79 Standard. I've had this bike for a LONG time, and used to ride it a lot more......took it to Michigan (I live in Maryland) about 6 years ago, and just recently brought it back home. To the best of my knowledge it's always had a bit of a charging problem, and some years back I replaced brushes, Voltage Regulator, and it seemed to be working fine then. But, owing to limited use, it also seemed to suffer some in the 'fully charged battery' area. So much so that at one point I put a switch into the ground line on the headlight....just so I could kill the lamp and conserve some battery power.
Anyway, long story short, I decided to replace the mechanical Voltage Regulator just as a matter of arbitrary decision and being 'suspect' of it's functionality. I might add that the bike was not charging at all......so, this VR replacement was just a decision I made as I wanted to get a solid-state unit regardless......and..... I hoped it would fix the problem. After some great help from XSLeo, RetiredGentleman, and 5Twins, I managed to complete the swap with absolutely no problems.....other than the bike still wasn't charging.
So, after some tracing of wires and voltages, and finally getting to the 'ohm out' of the rotor, I found that my old rotor was S.H.O.T.!! (You can replace the 'o' with an 'i' and still be right) As it happened, I had 2 rotors here from later Electronic Ignition bikes, and I decided to try one. It bolted up fine, and the contact points on the brushes lined up perfectly with the wiper area. HOWEVER....this rotor is cut just a bit less deep on the bevel land....so the rotor itself extended outwardly just a very small bit more than the original rotor. Enough that the screws holding the brush assembly to the Field Coil housing actually contacted the rotor and locked it up. One of them put a small 'nick' in my wiper contact area that I had to smooth out. But, once I shimmed out the screws with some washers.....the unit was tested and seemed to work perfectly. I measured about 14.4 volts at about 3K rpm......and I have a visible 'rise' in headlight illumination from idle....but then it stabilizes perfectly! In all.....it's looking like the bike's charging system is 'fixed'...perhaps for the first time in 15+ years!!
I don't know if there are other issues with using this rotor vs the proper 'stock' one, or even a proper 'replacement' version. But....for the purposes of what I was doing, I think I'm going to stick a fork in it and call it 'done'!! Comments welcome.
WC
