At Least I Made it Home

[Chrisj CMA]

Thankful for the volt meter. On our breakfast ride today I glanced down and saw 12V. Oh No!!  So I pulled over. Everyone is like. What’s up?  Dog bone fuse good so I pulled the headlight fuse and turned off the highway lights and since we were at the midpoint in our ride we just continued on. Had a nice ride through Blackwater and got home with 11.9 V on the battery.



Could have been worse I guess. Everyone had a nice ride and the Cobra bike is safe in her parking space. Now to see if it’s brushes or put the spare in.

[Ken aka Oil Burner]

Every bike should come with a voltmeter from the factory, but so many don't/didn't. They can be worth their weight in gold. Not just the alternator like on our beasts, but so many bikes throughout the last half century have had stator, regulator, and cooked connection problems that can leave you stranded. At least a voltmeter gives you a head's-up before the battery is depleted.

Glad you made it home OK. A Valk on a trailer or tow truck bed is so embarrassing 

[Jess from VA]

I wish I had a real voltmeter.  I have one of those stupid Kuryakyn multi led fancy idiot lights.  Mostly it shows green (good charging), but once in a while it drops to all yellow.  On both Valks, it never show more than one green (like in the picture).

Mostly at low idle, which is understandable, but sometimes just tooling along (WTF?).  But when I reach up and push on the plastic cover, it goes right to green again.  Been this way going on two years, so I'm not too worried.

I love gauges you have to push, tap, or smack to make them work. (or at lest think they work   )



If it gets any worse, I'm going to have to put a piece of electrical tape over it.  

[Chrisj CMA]

Yes, and thanks. Ok well this part will probably do better on the tech board. But oh well let’s see. I have the alternator apart and all “looks” good brushes are good no broken wires. What do you think about what looks like rust on those ribbed contact looking things around the inside of the outer winding. Could that kill the alternator. Could cleaning with a brass brush help. What do you think?

[Serk]

I wish I had a real voltmeter.

$10 and a few minutes of your time can change that.... I drilled a hole on the left air pod on my Interstate and installed one of these in there:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B078M2RCDT/

[Jess from VA]

Bookmarked and will order next Amazon shopping.  Thanks Brian.  (though the comments are + and - )

[Chrisj CMA]

Good news and bad news. The good news is that the spare alternator is in and it’s working. The bad news is the one that died was a fairly new MARS rebuild. I was confident it would last longer than 20K miles. Oh well. I’ll probably take it to an alternator shop and see if they can diagnose.

[Farside]

  20k miles on a rebuilt is disappointing but glad it was determined to be your alternator. You know someone I ride w/ has hounded me to get a voltmeter.   I guess it was a good thing you have one on Cobra. Now I'll probably get me one ordered too.  

[Chrisj CMA]

20k miles on a rebuilt is disappointing but glad it was determined to be your alternator. You know someone I ride w/ has hounded me to get a voltmeter.   I guess it was a good thing you have one on Cobra. Now I'll probably get me one ordered too.  

Ya, I’ll send you my bill for the dramatic demonstration 

[Oss]

Jess  when you get the new meter I will take the kury voltmeter off your hands\    the cover fell off of mine and kury would not replace it

shows 2 green while bike running all the time except once it was yellow and I knew it was the alternator going    I saw that at a gas stop and knew to pull the headlight fuse and just run on the led fog lights
Since I carry a small charger in the saddlebag when she died @ 5 miles from home I just plugged in at a gas station for an hour and continued home

[Chrisj CMA]

Whatever you have is better than nothing but I detest “idiot” lights. No personal offense intended. 

[Jess from VA]

Whatever you have is better than nothing but I detest “idiot” lights. No personal offense intended. 

None taken.

Idiot lights.... one of the better named vehicle parts.   

The light is not the idiot.

[Chrisj CMA]

Whatever you have is better than nothing but I detest “idiot” lights. No personal offense intended. 

None taken.

Idiot lights.... one of the better named vehicle parts.   

The light is not the idiot.

Nailed it 

[mhallock]

Every bike should come with a voltmeter from the factory, but so many don't/didn't. They can be worth their weight in gold. Not just the alternator like on our beasts, but so many bikes throughout the last half century have had stator, regulator, and cooked connection problems that can leave you stranded. At least a voltmeter gives you a head's-up before the battery is depleted.

Glad you made it home OK. A Valk on a trailer or tow truck bed is so embarrassing 

Only time my 2001 IS was on a wrecker was when the alternator failed at 110,000 miles....

Mark

[csj]

I've had two alternators fail on a 99 goldwing trike. In both cases it was the rotor (field) winding. It snapped right as it leaves the terminal and starts into the winding. I've spent months researching this and I find that the majority of failures are rotor, and at the same spot. I have yet to hear of a stator or diode failure, though there must be a minority out there.

Now that the alternator is apart, you can put your ohmmeter to the slip rings (rotor winding). There should be a very low impedance. If it is open circuit, well there it is.

This 99 wing is now on its 3rd alt, and there's now a jdm voltmeter on the handlebar. It has digits and idiot lights. In bright sunshine, the idiot lights are the only thing visible.