Bike Quit! PMA Hot Bad Voltage Regulator?

[glennpm]

Well so much for a nice ride today ... not! I got about 6 miles from the house and my bike just died cruising along.

I have one of Hugh's PMA and regulator kits. I have 1,000 miles on the combo now. When it quit today I noticed smoke coming from the left side cover/PMA small cover. since I had done recent work 400 miles ago to replace a bad 5th gear OD, I thought maybe I had one of the PMA wires exposed from inadvertent rubbing. This was not the case. Other than evidence of running hot as you can see from my picture, the wiring was okay. I did notice though that the black wire sleeving beyond the PMA, was pretty brittle from the heat exposure. the rest of my wiring and crimps are first grade. i have good crimping tools.

I called my friend and luckily he was home and he rescued me with his trailer. Only good part was a passerby stopped as we were loading my bike and he loved it. He was real knowledgeable about our bikes too but unfortunately since I was focused on getting home, I didn't get his name although I thanked him a couple of times. Per usual around here in NC, lots of bikes went by and not a one asked if I needed help.

Anyway back to what I found:

For reference I have a kickstart only, small alarm system type battery and a Spark capacitor. Wiring is first rate with excellent grounds.

PMA

- infinite resistance for each of the three yellow wires
- .4 ohms between all combinations of the yellow wires
(my meter with leads reads 2.8ohms at the 200 ohm setting. I got 3.2ohns for resistance for each check between the three yellows)

I connected a motorcycle battery to my circuit. The bike started right up and ran fine.

I reconnected the PMA and started the bike again monitoring the voltage output to my little battery. I got 14.4 volts at high RPM but then it started decreasing down to about 8 volts or so. I shut the bike off and tried it again but the second time with my slightly drained battery it kicked in at about 14.6 to 14.7 volts at 3500RPM or so, then lowered a bit. It did not drop back to the low voltage like before.

I'm thinking that I have a failing voltage regulator. I'm going to send this to Hugh too, but would love feedback on perhaps a better voltage regulator to buy.

Thanks

 

[glennpm]

Anyone tried one of these with their PMA?

http://roadstercycle.com/Shindengen%20Mosfet%20Regulator%20about.htm

 

[figure8]

I've seen others have that issue I believe from bad soldering on the stator. Contact Hugh, it's an issue he had with a batch of his PMA's.

 

[glennpm]

Thanks figure8, I sent a PM to Hugh with a link to this thread and hope to hear from him tomorrow.

Glenn

 

[Punkskalar]

Ooof! That looks like toast, and I like my toast a bit less burnt.

Email received, and I'll gladly send out another PMA, just make sure to email me your address.

As for the regulator, we'll send a new one of those as well, just to be sure. So long as you send us back the old components after you install the new stuff. You shouldn't have any issues from here on out.

Even 3 years later after purchase, we are here for you - lets get you back on the road!

Hugh

 

[figure8]

Hugh, what do you suspect is the cause of this?

 

[glennpm]

Hi Hugh,

PM sent and thank you!!

Yes, your thoughts on causes please. Any way to test the regulator with an ohm meter? I run a 55/60 amp headlight and the rest of the lights are LEDs so not much load on the PMA. Any suggestions on preventing a recurrence?

Thanks!
Glenn

 

[Punkskalar]

Hugh, what do you suspect is the cause of this?

We obviously don't manufacture the stator in house (that's big business!) - and our supplier had a bad batch of solder between the yellow leads and the stator windings... When the connection comes loose, the stator is still generating power but with no place to go, so it searches for ground and shorts out - building up a lot of heat.

Typically this can be repaired if you find the bad connection quickly enough. In this case, it's toast - we'll send a new system out just make sure he's back on the road without any issues. Rarely is the regulator damaged, as power didn't make its way to it due to the bad connection. The heat can kill the flywheel as well.

On bikes with a battery, it goes longer without being noticed, and then the results you see above can happen. If running batteryless using a capacitor, usually the bike will just shut off (not enough voltage to run) and then the issues can be traced back to the yellow lead connections.

If anyone had an HHB PMA system, it won't hurt to pull the stator and check those connections - they can be resoldered as needed or we can exchange the unit as well. We only had a handful come through with bad solder ( OP bought his 3ish years ago or so) and it has since been rectified, but as always we stand behind ya should you ever have any issues.

Hugh

 

[Punkskalar]

Hi Hugh,

PM sent and thank you!!

Yes, your thoughts on causes please. Any way to test the regulator with an ohm meter? I run a 55/60 amp headlight and the rest of the lights are LEDs so not much load on the PMA. Any suggestions on preventing a recurrence?

Thanks!
Glenn

In your case, it looks like intermittent connection as the bike was still running. You have plenty of power on a proper system to run those lights - definitely no overloading the system by any means.

 

[figure8]

Thank you

 

[glennpm]

Thanks Hugh!

Glenn

 

[glennpm]

Okay, just got back from a couple of hour ride and all is good with my PMA again ;-)

Just wanted to send out a big thanks to Hugh for covering everything under warranty which he volunteered before I asked BTW! We are lucky to have Hugh and Pamco Pete supplying good parts and warranties for our XSs!!