Modify worn brushes?

[bloodthirstysystem]

My outer alternator brush was worn just below 3/8" and my bike wasn't charging. While inspecting the brush length the solder broke, holding the wire to the mount. i begin to solder it back on and realize i can solder the wire short of where it originally attached, letting the brush extend farther out of the holder.

for now it is charging fine, about 14v at idle. i took it out for a short ride of 6 or 8 miles and it ran great.

this is just a temp fix until i order new ones but it may be helpful for some one trying to get a bike to run

 

[XSLeo]

Yes resoldering can get a few more miles out of a set of brushes. The only problem I can see is if the brushes wear short enough they may fall out on the rotor side.
On the later models They use the same brushes for both. So you can swap them around. This evens the wear, kinda like rotating your cars tires.
The older models use two different brushes so yoi cant swap them as easy.

 

[motorbikerx]

Really....swap em around?
Will that get me further on breakdown?

 

[5twins]

No, not really. Swapping them around equalizes the wear so they don't reach the breakdown point as quickly. The outer brush usually wears more because it covers more distance in every revolution. The diameter of it's slip ring is larger. If you've reached the point where one brush has worn down too much to work anymore, it's too late for swapping.

 

[motorbikerx]

Ok and thanks.
On my way back to bike now.
Txt while being driven diffucult.
Wonders if my local yammy dealer has brushes and whats my options?
Any ideas...?
Also when searching i saw a warning ofjump starting off a runni ng car
Sonethjng i did wgen first getting the bike running for previous owner.
Hopefully no damage cauds by me

 

[5twins]

One of the first things you do when you get one of these bikes is perform the simple charging test. You clip a voltmeter to the battery terminals and start the bike. At idle you should see around 12 volts, revved up to 3K or 3500, around 14. If you see no change in voltage when you rev it, you've got charging issues. It could be worn brushes, which you hope for because it's simple and cheap to fix. But there are several other common not so cheap-to-fix causes too.

 

[motorbikerx]

Well fitted battery and it got me a few more miles not many 8 or10 maybe then died again.
Hope its still there when i return!
Gonna charge battery again.
Its a new battery...
A month or so old.
Think dropping my battery charger the other day mightve hurt it cos its as old as the bike ..
Gonna take battery to a mates workshop and put it on his charger for a few hours then go put it in bike and see how far i can get closer to home..