Battery not charging

[ribbert]

It beats me why on the newer FJ's Yamaha elected to put a LCD clock in the cluster rather than a voltmeter.  But that's how it is. 
George

Yes George, voltmeters are a good add on for sure, but I use my clock many, many times every day and if it didn't have on, I'd fit one.
If I was using my voltmeter for advance warning of impending doom, I'd still be waiting 120,000km/22 years later for it's first use.
You are talking about an event that might happen once or twice in the bike's lifetime (alternator/regulator problems) and batteries generally give out their owns signs of being in the death throws.

Noel

[ribbert]

On second thoughts I should not have suggested this unless someone is aware of the stator r/r communication and function and most importantly what electronics are self load dependent.

If it doubt leave it out.

Good call. Something I try and consider with every post, who is reading it and what are they likely to do with the information. Not everyone has you level of understanding and simple procedures like this are just the sort of thing people pick up and run with.

Noel

[X-Ray]

but I wish I had a dollar for every time I reached for that ever elusive 6th gear...

  Yep, we would be rich Pat. Even with 18/38, I still look for it, lol.

[Mark Olson]

Here's a tip for those that have no working fuel gauge.
Next time you think you may need fuel, drop a lit match into the tank to verify it
_{(only kidding)}

Haha, I like that. At least you'd get a conclusive result (unless the tank was full to the brim)

Noel

Yes very funny ,, However at some point you will be riding with an Idiot who will actually do that.

True story .. I was riding with some friends of a friend and we had stopped to smoke a cigarette and one of the guys opened up his gas cap on his KZ600 and wanted to know how much fuel he had left in the tank . Since it was dark outside he could not see the level so he took his lighter and lit it over the open gas tank. The fuel vapors lit and a pretty flame illuminated the night sky . Now all the other guys scrambled for cover as I hustled my ass over to the bike-b-que and quickly closed the gas cap extinguishing the flame . I proclaimed to the Idiot , " well there was gas in it" .. 

[FJ_Hooligan]

Mark,
Holy Crap!  Sounds lke you interferred with a potential Darwin Award Winner.

Maybe we don't want that guy riding motorcycles?  :-)

[FJmonkey]

I am sure Mark had second thoughts about saving the bike after the fact. Knowing Mark, he was not thinking about preventing a Darwin award, the damn bike was gonna burn down.... But he did have to make a choice...

[Burns]

 I remember a 1%er dude (club name shall go un-named) who took the cap off his Fat Bob, which was full to the brim, and calmly lit it with his Zippo. A tiny blue flame flickered on the surface of the fuel.

Scared the shit outta me. He just grinned and finished his Lone Star.

Gasoline fumes displace air leaving little or no 02 in the tank I later learned.

I bump/splash would have ended the story different of course.

[craigo]

The Rectifier and stator are both shot. I used the Yamaha factory service manual and the Haynes manual tests. Both with the same results. Just be cheaper to get a good used generator and be done with it.

CraigO

How much life is left in a second hand alternator?

Have you considered getting it reco'd by an auto electrician? This is an option many forget about and is very cost effective, and you know what your starting with. I recently had a quote on one, $120 including bearings vs $1300 for a new one (BMW)

Noel

Yeah Noel, I thought about that. All I can do is pray that it's going to last. But for the $65 I am paying for it makes it a worthwhile gamble. (please note that I didn't buy the "new" generator from Randy but off of Ebay)The auto electrician sounds like a good alternative. Maybe they can do it a lot cheaper than I can as the costs of new OEM stuff is insane.

CraigO

[aviationfred]

The Volt meter that I just installed is less than $10.00. As for durability, that remains to be seen. If it is still working by this time next year, I will proclaim it a great bang for your buck.

Here is the eBay link to the one I used.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/311173648767?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2648&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT




Fred

[moparman70]

craigo -- mark did let  me know of your troubles as I haven't been on in awhile.   Unfortunately I too had trouble just this past December -- and had to use my spare so I was unable to assist with either a troubleshooting part or replacement --- I haven't read the entire post but it does seem you got one to replace

tally - ho

funny thing for me is the 90 alternator went kaput --- with about 40k miles on it --- the used one that is on the bike now has well over 70K miles --- guess they made them better in 86 --

[ribbert]

I remember a 1%er dude (club name shall go un-named) who took the cap off his Fat Bob, which was full to the brim, and calmly lit it with his Zippo. A tiny blue flame flickered on the surface of the fuel.

Scared the shit outta me. He just grinned and finished his Lone Star.

Gasoline fumes displace air leaving little or no 02 in the tank I later learned.

I bump/splash would have ended the story different of course.

I thought this story was going to lead into how you got your name.

Noel

[ribbert]

The Rectifier and stator are both shot. I used the Yamaha factory service manual and the Haynes manual tests. Both with the same results. Just be cheaper to get a good used generator and be done with it.

CraigO

How much life is left in a second hand alternator?

Have you considered getting it reco'd by an auto electrician? This is an option many forget about and is very cost effective, and you know what your starting with. I recently had a quote on one, $120 including bearings vs $1300 for a new one (BMW)

Noel

Yeah Noel, I thought about that. All I can do is pray that it's going to last. But for the $65 I am paying for it makes it a worthwhile gamble. (please note that I didn't buy the "new" generator from Randy but off of Ebay)The auto electrician sounds like a good alternative. Maybe they can do it a lot cheaper than I can as the costs of new OEM stuff is insane.

CraigO

Yeah, I punt on used parts sometimes too, depends what it is, how much grief it will cause if it's a dud and the difference in cost. We have the advantage of no labour costs.
The condition of some parts can be gauged by eye, and others (like electrical components) can't, it's in the lap of the gods.
At least an alternator failure isn't going to stop you getting home.

I have a switched on auto electrician who is a real can-do sort of guy. The type that looks for ways to do something rather than reasons why he can't.
As you know, most auto manufacturers don't make their own ignition systems, and the ones that do, source their components from outside companies.
My auto elec tells me there is a lot of interchangeability for this reason and says the components he carries will rebuild most alternators. The spanner in the works is ....age!

I haven't asked about an FJ yet but if I had a problem, that would be my first port of call. He charges nothing to pull it apart and tell me if he can fix it. The price I mentioned the other day was actually the high end, he quoted between $80 and $120.

Noel

[craigo]

Noel,

Fortunately, the seller had other parts off the same bike including the gauge cluster. The bike had 22,800k on it. I also looked at the forks and they were very clean. Front wheel had some dings on it but stock rotors appeared to justify the mileage. With these clues, I decided to buy it.

But look at my bike and you'd never think the generator was bad. Clean and a tick over 50k on the clock.

Another cool thing is that it's in San Diego today from Syracuse, New York, which is getting hammered by snow.

Down side is we are expecting 50-80mph winds in the local mountains for the next couple of days so I won't be doing any riding.

CraigO

[craigo]

craigo -- mark did let  me know of your troubles as I haven't been on in awhile.   Unfortunately I too had trouble just this past December -- and had to use my spare so I was unable to assist with either a troubleshooting part or replacement --- I haven't read the entire post but it does seem you got one to replace

tally - ho

funny thing for me is the 90 alternator went kaput --- with about 40k miles on it --- the used one that is on the bike now has well over 70K miles --- guess they made them better in 86 --

Thanks for the response Mark.

Funny you say that as my last 90 FJ (the one that burned in my house fire) had to have it's generator replaced at around the same mileage as this one. I seem to remember using one off a VMax. It fit and worked fine but was a bit of a pain to mount. Now I have to wonder if the older ones are made with better parts.

CraigO

[FJmonkey]

Thanks for the response Mark.

Funny you say that as my last 90 FJ (the one that burned in my house fire) had to have it's generator replaced at around the same mileage as this one. I seem to remember using one off a VMax. It fit and worked fine but was a bit of a pain to mount. Now I have to wonder if the older ones are made with better parts.

CraigO

Looking forward to our next ride Craig.