R&R food for thought

Ever tried to diagnose a bad term strip?

 

I don't think a Harley, or Detroit could handle the manliness that oozes out of us.
Did I mention I didn't ride this weekend because it was drizzling?

 

I do think I would feel right at at home in Australia.

We do have our lights on all the time by federal law.

I am new to the VFR electrical system so let me get this straight, the VFR swings a fixed magnet driving a two wire alternator and the extra current is bleed off as heat at the R/R? This is a description of a 70s vintage British bike with a Lucas charging system.

 

Me neither. It was raining like a cow pissing on a flat rock. Our cows are not dangerous BTW and all harleydoods are manly until the lights are turned off.

 

Well almost right, its actually a multi pole fixed magnet in a drum. Inside the hollow space you will find a mulitpole star wound 3 phase stator. With all the tails tied together only 3 leads are needed. These leads go to the r/r unit which does a couple things. First it uses a 3 phase bridge rectifier to convert to dc and second it controls output voltage by shunting the output leads together. This causes the heat. This is a gross oversimplification of the r/r unit but is adequate.

The main problem is the system uses too small of connectors and not enough of them to spread the load in the connector housing. This allows excessive resistance in the connectors to cause enough heat to melt the connectors. At this point its not fused (dont ask why, it should be) and the first short on this line frys the output of the r/r and we get all kinds of issues. The other thing is that this system relys on good frame connections to provide battery negative to everything. One bad one and nothing works right.

the lucas system (still in use on some lawn tractors) can not produce more than about 10amps due to limitations of the design. The system we use is limited only bybthe strength of the magnet in the drum. Else it is exactly like a normal automotive alternator save the controllable field.

 

And even the crocodiles are scared:


http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/news/2014/03/snake-eats-a-crocodile-in-queensland

 

Next snake dies of spider bite?

 

lads im getting scared my bike will fail at some point because f electrics, im nowhere near your level of knowledge on this subject, can i ask two questions, maybe explained as simply as possible! what is the stator, and what would you recoment i do with my bike to safeguard against possible failures- im thinking i should install grip heators and keep my lights on!

 

The 'Stator' is the stationary part of the alternator, which has the coils that produce the AC Voltage. There are 3 groups, that is why there are three wires, the R/R takes the three AC Voltages and rectifies them in DC (direct current). Plenty of info on the web through Google on theory and operation. Most important connector to check for heat and corrosion is the 3 pin connector on right side of bike.


Here is my tip for burnishing contact for making good contact. I used a emery board for filing fingernails. Trimmed it to 1/4" wide and peeled off coarse side sandpaper.
Insert into contact and move in and out. Turn 180 degrees and do other side.

Look for any discoloration in white plastic (see my center contact), that is from heat produced by bad contact. Most stators will fail due to wiring faults, not the other way around.

 

My advice is to change your battery before it fails. I give them three years tops and then I change them. A failed battery or shorted cell will put undue loads on the system causing problems up stream.

 

The battery is new, the bike was lying up for couple years before i got her, so thats why im just gona wait till i get my hands on multimeter and make sure the current being supplied back to it is ok, ill check wiring soon too-- just noticed the FI light blinks when I use the brake lever, any ideas on that one? Iv been busy watcing youtube videos on how the electrics work, think iv got the stator and /f figured out--- one thing did occur to me though, in my mind it seems that it shouldnt matter what power you use from the battery, like having the lights on or off should not make any difference in so far as the r/r is concerned, its going to resupply the batter either correctly or incorrectly either way and whatever power you consume from the battery will be taken from its supply whether its getting recharged properly or not!?

 

From Jack Flemming at roadstercycle.com who sells a ton of new Shindengen R/R's:

This is why it makes a difference.