Another conversion

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:thank_you: The belt is a Gates K030310, I got it from Parts Avatar.ca. This is the same place I ordered the Alternator from. The belt was not expensive and the Alternator was $118.00 cnd. I think they are located in your neck of the woods
 
Well, I have finally finished working on the Aspencade for now. The alternator conversion is completed. I did manage to go for a short ride yesterday and found this bike to run and ride really nice. I have 14 volts at idle running a 4 inch crank pulley and with 55 watts I can start saving for heated grips and vest. Things I found while doing this project:
The belts were way too tight causing too much heat contributing to the pulse generators dying.
The fan was coming on at 3 bars, possibly contributing to the stator failing.
Yes the lowers fit as original, I did have to use a heat gun on the left side to mould in a small amount of clearance.
This reconfirms why you should put new belts on a new to you Oldwing
Thanks to Dan for suggesting the 2 to 1 ratio for the alternator drive. And thanks to all that have posted pictures and talked about their conversions. I will post pictures soon as I have time.. :yahoo:
Next project is rebuilding the starter on the Interstate.
 
I did go for another ride today and every thing is working good. I am gaining confidence in the alternator. It sure is nice to see the voltmeter sitting at 14 volts from idle on up. I did not take a lot of pictures as I got focused on completing the project.
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[url=https://www.classicgoldwings.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=195687#p195687:2jb3obfp said:
Ohara » Yesterday, 4:28 am[/url]":2jb3obfp]
Well, I have finally finished working on the Aspencade for now. The alternator conversion is completed. I did manage to go for a short ride yesterday and found this bike to run and ride really nice. I have 14 volts at idle running a 4 inch crank pulley and with 55 watts I can start saving for heated grips and vest. Things I found while doing this project:
The belts were way too tight causing too much heat contributing to the pulse generators dying.
The fan was coming on at 3 bars, possibly contributing to the stator failing.
Yes the lowers fit as original, I did have to use a heat gun on the left side to mould in a small amount of clearance.
This reconfirms why you should put new belts on a new to you Oldwing
Thanks to Dan for suggesting the 2 to 1 ratio for the alternator drive. And thanks to all that have posted pictures and talked about their conversions. I will post pictures soon as I have time.. :yahoo:
Next project is rebuilding the starter on the Interstate.

Glad to hear all is well and the finish product is what you expected. I picked up a Poorboy crank pulley, but had an issue finding an appropriately sized belt to fit. Put what I had originally back on and will look at next time I have the front off.

You mention the fan coming on early. Have you taking temp readings of the coolant to determine what each BAR on the temp gauge relates to? I used a heat temp gun and have an indication of where my temps are, gives a warm and fuzzy feeling all is well.
A new thread on your experience with this and how you rectified the situation would be nice, with pictures of course.

Curious as to how the timing belts being tight could cause the PG sensors to fail. I wouldn't think the belts could generate heat.

Enjoy your ride. These are great bikes, eh what!!

Cheers
 
Thanks for the heat gun suggestion, I will have to pick one up as they are not incredibly expensive nowadays ....I saw one of your threads had a chart for what temperature related to each bar... I will document this fix if required... Yes when the timing belts are too tight they will generate a lot of heat..( Don't ask me how I know this). Actually I found this out a couple of years ago when I did my first belt change... :head bang:
 
How's the alt conversion working? Been a year now. Read your thread again and noticed that you have a three wire alternator, a lamp, sense and excite wire on the back of the alternator - don't know why I never picked up on this before. I did the same as you and only hooked up the excite wire at the start. Worked well for a while, but in the long term, not so good. If you still have this alternator, would recommend hooking up the sense wire, alternator needs it to function better. You can use the same excite wire for this purpose depending on where you get connect the excite wire to the system. Cheers
 
Hi Ernest, nice to hear from you.. I have been following your posts and have to say you do great work.. My conversion has been working problem free. "Touch Wood" It is nice to ride and not have to watch the volt meter. I will take a look at your suggestion. Looks like you are enjoying your 1500, it is nice to have 2 bikes as it allows time to do the up keep on one while enjoying the other.. With our shorter riding season I don't want to miss a day... We still have to meet up sometime for the cream pie and coffee..

Merry Christmas Ken..
 
Ken - good to hear that all is well. Made it back in November to visit family and friends in the north and Ottawa. Scheduled November because last year November was nice, not so lucky this year.

Thanks for the compliment. Doing version three of the wiring and getting a lot of the little issues cleaned up. Need two bikes with these old girls so that you always have a ride.

Check out the alt wiring, it will make a difference. Don't need the lamp hooked up, but I have had the pleasure of having it come on once and it did wake me up rather quickly.

Yes, pie and coffee and a good chin wag is needed.

Cheers
 
The sense wire can be hooked to the battery lead if you have good connections with minimal voltage drop. The sense wire is great when there is a large voltage difference between output B on the alternator and the battery post terminal so you can make sure that the battery is getting full voltage.
 
I do have a preferred spot for connecting the sense wire, and it is different from the generally accepted mindset. I would look for the bond/connection of the red and red/white wire from the starter solenoid and connect it there. Here is a schematic that shows how the wiring is done and illustrates the connection between the red and red/white wires:
gl1200 charger.JPG
On my 1200 this connection is about half way between the starter solenoid and the alternator (old RR position).

My rationale for this is that the battery shows voltage and does not represent the amps that the electrical system is using. Once the battery has been used to start the engine and has been replenished back to a 100% state of charge, the amount of current flow to the battery should be about 2-3 amps max. As long as the electrical system voltage is approx 14.2 VDC the battery will stay charged.

The remaining amperage some 20 amps say, goes through the ignition switch to power the bike for operation from this connection, so it is at the connection of the red and red/white wires in the wire harness where the current flow is split for use - "x" amount for the battery and "y" amount for motorcycle operation.

I will agree that this is probably splitting hairs with regards to time lag, etc, but I like to keep as much additional wiring away from the battery as possible. I figure if the OEM wanted to use the battery as a node, it would have.

I don't know how you have the new alternator wiring configured, but I stripped out the old stator wiring, and the red/white wiring as well. I installed a new power junction that allows me to connect the alternator, new wire to the starter solenoid, ignition wire, battery tender, the CFI 30 amp circuit, and a few others as well. This keeps all additional wiring away from the battery, and the system works well. Probably more work than what some want to do but it works for me.

Most of my research into this is from vintage car web sites. These fellows are very specific on this issue when doing a rewire of an older vintage vehicle. Here is a web site that explains a lot about what I am mentioning: https://www.madelectrical.com/electrical ... ire3.shtml It mentions the factory "welded splice" hidden in the wiring harness as well - with picture that is exactly what you will find in the Honda wiring harness.

Many ways to do this, some time proven so to speak; however, I seem to be in a different camp than most others on this. I do understand why a certain way is used because modifying/changing motorcycle wiring is not that difficult, but it takes time, and can be more expensive - we all want to keep our costs to a minimum.

Just a few more thoughts on your question regarding the sense wire, and just my opinion.

Cheers
 
The sense wire is so that the battery gets charged correctly and compensates for the difference between the voltage on the alternator B+ terminal and the battery positive terminal. Alternators without a remote sense wire have their regulator sensing battery voltage from the B+ terminal. If you have an excellent connection between the B+ terminal and the battery positive terminal then a remote sense wire is superfluous.
 
I will hook it up for peace of mind. Plus it will get me off the couch and in the garage. (My happy place). Thanks again for the information. Now to just have spring arrive early this year, it is a long winter here...
 
Hear you on the long winter. Was back in November to visit family and friends hoping to miss the snow and cold, did not happen. Have a wonderful Christmas, and safe and prosperous New Year.

Merry Christmas
 
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