Second alternator fail in 1000 miles

[Carved]

This time I was stranded 100 miles from home on a cold dark road.  Thank god for cell phones or that may have been a long walk.

I bought a used low miles GoldWing alternator from Pinwall last October when the first one failed. At the same time I put a new AGM battery in. I checked all the grounds, looked for pinched wires etc.  Everything looked brand new and the P.O. did a nice job with the accessories, a set of loud horns fused near the battery with a relay and wrapped in flexible plastic conduit. The only other mod is a Pingle petcock and an LED Daymaker headlight.

I’m thinking it’s my heated gear but not sure. When I put in this alternator, I tested voltage with my heated jacket (HotWired brand) and it was over 14 volts at idle. I rode a bit this winter and spring with the jacket on including a 150 mile ride 2 days before it failed.

I have another ‘88 gold wing alternator, as well as an lcd volt meter, ordered on the way.

Today I looked at the battery connections, tight and clean, and checked the 55 amp fusible link. I charged the battery and it started right up but was only reading 12.3 volts while running. 
What else can I check?  Is heated gear just not ok for this bike? 

I know some folks carry spare alternators, but I’m not sure this is a side of the road with a headlamp type of fix.

[hubcapsc]

Our bikes can handle heated gear fine, I use a jacket and gloves.

I've had a low mileage Pinwall alternator on my bike since 2019.

Maybe you were just unlucky with your used alternator?

-Mike

[da prez]

 My two cents before taxes.  If you have a good DC repair shop , take the alternator in and diagnosed.
  It may be repairable or the field may have shorted out.   It will eliminate  some of the looking.

                                     dab prez

[Carved]

Good suggestion. I meant to do that with the last one but never got to it.

Glad to hear heated gear can work as I like pushing the riding season on both ends. 

[Avanti]

My wife and I use heated gear, pant liners, jacket liners, and glove liners pulling a trailer (more lights) with original alternator. I remove clean and check bearing and brushes once every year. Replaced brushes once so far at 153,761 miles. On some unexpected day it may succumb to its task, but it was not today.

[Grandpot]

Alternators are a weak point on our bikes.  I have 115,000 on mine and on my 3rd alternator. 

[Pluggy]

Used alternator?  Unless you take it apart and examine it, you have no idea of how much life it has left.  

General rule:  The more amps you load on an alteranator, the quicker it wears out.  Adding heated gear may not have caused yours to fail but may have been a contributing cause.

[hubcapsc]

I felt that replacing my old well used alternator with the carefully chosen
low-mileage alternator from an apparently pampered bike I
got cheap from Pinwall was a better bet than heads or tails...
I made the switch in 2019...





-Mike

[old2soon]

    Honda cheaped out when our Phatt Ladies were built. The winsings were made with chicom wire. That wire was NOT quite up to Japanese or American specs. The High Failure Rates of O E M alts are all the Proof that is needed! As daprez stated find yerself a good automotive electrical repair shop.  And that alt fail-been there done that got the T shirt!  RIDE SAFE.

[Bagger John - #3785]

You should have at least 200w reserve power with the incorporation of the Daymaker light (it draws a bit less current than the stock halogen bulb).

Not sure what you have in the way of heated clothes, but my Firstgear vest and Gerbing gloves draw ~130w total if run on high temp setting. I use these when riding my Concours 14s and their alternators are in the Valkyrie ballpark in terms of output. At freeway speeds the C14s don't notice the additional electrical load.

All of my bikes have voltmeters aboard. It's one accessory I highly recommend for early detection of charging system problems.

[Carved]

Thank you for the input and info. Sounds like I may have been with the replacement.

Brushes and bearings look great on this one I just removed. 

I will be wiring in a voltmeter to I hopefully give me some warning. Some of them will start flashing if voltage drops below 11.4 or so. Does anyone have experience with how far you can go on just the battery?  Thinking of putting a spare lipo 18ah battery in the saddle bag to get me out of a bad spot if this happens again. Lighter and easier to replace than the alternator in an emergency.  If it will get me 10-15 miles with the headlight and tail light on I would have some peace of mind. If the bike uses 200 watts to run and have lighting, it should safely give me 30 minutes to get to town.

Thoughts on that idea?  Overkill?

[98valk]

'88-'95 Goldwing GL1500 are the best alternators all made 100% in Japan

'96-'20 Hitachi switched all GL1500 alternators to china made.

I checked my brushes and the rear bearing at 52k miles. brushes where fine, but the bearing was not smooth. I changed it out with a SKF bearing from NAPA.

bearings will ruin anything faster than one can believe.

[gordonv]

My post on them,

http://www.valkyrieforum.com/bbs/index.php/topic,107156.0.html

Also done on the road in about 30 min before the others left the lunch table after I had wolfed my food down.

You mentioned the voltage at the battery while running. What about the voltage at the alternator while the bike was running? Was the exciter lead working (12v from the battery to the alternator to energize the alt and make it work).