Electrical Woes

[Ozarkryder]

A sad tale to tell...

Went on a ride down across the state line, stopped at a bike shop for their open house, rode around a bit, then took the scenic way to home. Mileage so far was about 150. Some 10 or 15 miles from home the LCD display on the 'Wing flashed the trike sputtered, ran for a bit, the display flashed, the trike sputtered again, then again and the thing quit and coasted to a stop. Lucky thing was we were at the state line, and glided into a convience store.

Called a friend that runs an indy bike shop and he brought out a battery. In the meantime we tried to jump the trike, which ran fine until we took the jumper cables off. Then it died right away. New battery goes in and the trike fires up and runs like a champ. Get about 1/2 mile from home and, yup, LCD display flashes, the trike sputters, but we do make it home. A new AGM battery is ordered from my buddy, as the one in there now is 3 years old from Wally World. From what I have read and been told by a tech (what ever happend to "mechanics"?) at the local Honda shop, I ordered a set of alternator brushes. I hope that is it - brushes are a lot cheaper than a new alternater!

So it may be time for upgrades - Already got the sealed AGM battery coming, I am going to install a voltmeter, at least one of those 3 light battery meters, and maybe an ampmeter, too. If I have to get an alternater, it will probably be a Compufire. The stock alternater doesn't do much until 1500RPM, the Compufire puts out at idle and even more at speed. We don't have a bunch of extra electrical draw, but peace of mind is worth the extra $100 if a new alt. needs to be bought.

[John Luciano]

Your brushes are sticking. the bike I will bet has about 55,000 on it. mine stuck at 48,000. the problem is removing the alternator to clean the brushes, after you do that you may as well replace . Worse part is soldering the wire. Clean out the slides as best you can. When that happened , if you had a volt meter . (really don't need the amp meter )and you saw volts drop to 11.5 , if you tapped on the alternator with the back of a screwdriver you could have made it home. I came all the way home one year 154 miles doing that.

[jim peacock]

I had a compufire installed installed with the battery that comes with the kit five years ago,have had no problems so far.
Two of the reasons we had it done are the wife and I both have gerbings heated clothing and we also have a trailer we pull some times,plus we had the original alternator fail six months after we bought the bike new in 96 while honda took care of it,I got to worrying about the extra load on the stock alternator with the heated clothing and trailer.

[Ozarkryder]

Well, brushes it was. I had heard many horror stories about how hard it is getting the alternator out. I must have gotten lucky, as it slipped right out. (And in, too.) The problem was getting the generator apart.

Against everything I had been told by my father, my uncle the mechanic, high school shop teachers, Primitive Pete and many books, articles and instructions that come with tools, the Honda shop manual says to pry the generator apart with a screwdriver. I started out large, getting progressivly smaller screwdrivers until one fit the place the manual said at which to pry. The screwdriver bent. (Back to Sears) Got out the rawhide mallet and gently used the "Bigger Hammer" persuasion theory.

The brushes were worn past the little holes to put a wire through that is used to keep them in the slides when replacing the rotor, and they were also beyond the lines on the new brushes the service maual says are the maximun service wear lines.:eek:

Everything went back togather easily enough, I started the trike and got the multi-meter after it. 2500rpm, 14.2 volts output. Good! Trike still running at 2500rpm - disconnect the neg. cable and it's still putting out 14.2 volts. Hotdog! New battery fully charged and the alternator works as advertised.

Already have another set of new brushes in the tool kit, hope not to have to change them for another 40,000 to 60,000 miles.

[John Luciano]

How many miles were on the bike?

[Ozarkryder]

There are about 68,000 miles on the trike. We got it a few years ago with 46,000. I would say we got good use out of the brushes. I think I'll chage them again in about 30,000 miles at 100,000 as preventitive maintenance.