Alternator Cover

[Sourdough]

The cover on my 97 is badly bubbled and really looks like crap. I managed to buy
a new one to replace it, but before I do, is there anything I should do to keep this from happening again ? I have looked at several valks, and some covers are bad and others look just fine. I did check the archives, but couldn't find much.

[Ricky-D]

It is dependent upon the stage of cure when it was plated.

The plastic shrinks when curing and the chrome cannot so the result is bubbling chrome.

Heat affects the curing, speeding up the process.

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[DFragn]

It's my understanding the alt. cover chrome is vacuum applied which pulls it a bit thin at the corners of the letter box and of the letter corners. That's where they mostly begin to crinkle then blister. Heat expedites the bubbling.
I peeled mine and painted it when I did my fairing & pods. It looked great until I ran it hot while syncing the carbs. It warped badly on me this time. I'll be needing a replacement now. I'm under the impression my painted remedy would have survived well if I had removed it for what became an hour long sync. The fan at the radiator didn't help the alt. cover at all. Heck I wasn't even checking on the cover, oh well!

Here is the painting results:
Sorry, I was too disappointed to take pics of the heat warping after I painted it.

I used Bondo to fill and level, not the spot putty.



Completed

[F6Dave]

When removing the tank, if you disconnect the fuel line and spill enough gas on the cover that can cause the plating to bubble.  It happened to me when the bike was new (I now always have a towel in place, just in case).  I showed it to the service manager and he said 'Honda doesn't like a Valk to look like that', and he had it replaced under warranty.