2001 Alternator failure!

2233 Views 8 Replies 8 Participants Last post by GWEddie, Jul 22, 2005

wng-2

Discussion Starter · Jul 10, 2005

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Here's the story:Today my battery died and left me on the side of the road,I replaced the battery and Ididn't make it ten miles beforeI was dead again.
Important facts: I returned from a 7600 miletrip on 18 June. I rode the bike daily the following week. I put the bike in my storage garage rental
on Friday, 24 June and connected my battery tender.On Sunday 26 June, while at my storage rental, a severe thunder storm came up, I stopped loading things into my truck, and turned my bike radio on with the key on accessory ( bike still connected to tender), and waited the storm out, there was one particularly close lightning strike.Upon leaving,I noticed the tender was showing a dim red light and was warm.I disconnected the tenderfrom the bike, and the tender still did not act normal. The tender had been dropped, andI chalked it up to that, and left it disconnected.A week laterI bought another tender and connected it, it acted normal, and showed fully charged Friday evening, 8 June when I rode the bike one mile to my mechanic's place. This morning ,(Saturday 9 June)we replaced brake pads front and rear.I left there and went and got an inspection sticker, after witch it died thefirst time.After it died the second time today, I noticed I had an unwanted passenger, a mouse tail emerging from just below my port side lower vent. Back at the mechanic's shop we tore the bike down to the air filter witch I intended to replace today anyway. We evicted a family of mice from the air cleaner areawitch apparently moved in there within a two week period. There was no evidence of chewed wires anywhere. We removed the alternator, and it tested bad.
My question now is what caused it to fail?? If it's a lightning thing then fine, butI hate to buy another alternator and have to go through all this again.
The top shelter has to come off, not a big deal in this case becauseI had to change the air cleaner anyway. But the fuel tank has to come out too!
Just wondering if there were other alternator failures, I don't recall reading about any, appreciate any insight. Thanks, oh, the bike is an 01 with 77,000 miles.

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Jason

· #2 · Jul 10, 2005

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I've heard of a few alternators failing on the gl1800, and earlier than 77000 miles as well. It's easy enough to test the alternator in the bike and to eliminate the chance of wires being eaten by mice, I'm assuming your mechanic tested it before pulling the alternator. The GL1800 alternator can be repaired in auto-electrician shops so it's a good bet taht you won't need to buy a new one.
Who knows if lightning done this? I'd expect other things to be damaged as well (radio fried through the antenna for a start), so probably it's just one of those things.

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globetrotter

· #3 · Jul 11, 2005

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Thats pretty unsual as it is a very solid alternator. One assumes fuses and relays where checked as a failure here will stop the alternator putting out any output :leprechaun:

Could have done a diode or two

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sixt5

· #4 · Jul 11, 2005

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It sounds to me like lightning may have gotten to the alternator through the tender.

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englishted

· #5 · Jul 12, 2005

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Good poiints about the fuses etc., we have to assume that the mechanic checked these already and has checked the alternator again on the bench just to be sure. I've heard of a few alternator failures on the GL1800 as well, hardly an epidemic but it can happen even without storms.

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wng-2

Discussion Starter · #6 · Jul 12, 2005

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Thanks guys, all the fuses were good, I expect that a fuse would have blown had the mice eaten some wires. The Alternator was not charging, everything tested bad on it

once we took it apart. New one is on the way..

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BRowan

· #7 · Jul 13, 2005

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wng-2 wrote:

Thanks guys, all the fuses were good, I expect that a fuse would have blown had the mice eaten some wires. The Alternator was not charging, everything tested bad on it

once we took it apart. New one is on the way..

Just one of those things I suppose. If the lightning was to bleme then I'd say you got off lightly. Imagine if the ECM had fried! :realshocked:

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GWNorman

· #8 · Jul 21, 2005

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wng-2 wrote:

Thanks guys, all the fuses were good, I expect that a fuse would have blown had the mice eaten some wires. The Alternator was not charging, everything tested bad on it

once we took it apart. New one is on the way..

It's a pity you couldn't get the old one repaired, teh GL1500 alternator is easy to recondition. Your's isn't the first GL18 alternator I've heard of breaking down. It's not an epidemic of course, but it does happen.

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GWEddie

· #9 · Jul 22, 2005

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GWNorman wrote:

wng-2 wrote:

Thanks guys, all the fuses were good, I expect that a fuse would have blown had the mice eaten some wires. The Alternator was not charging, everything tested bad on it

once we took it apart. New one is on the way..

Click to expand...

It's a pity you couldn't get the old one repaired, teh GL1500 alternator is easy to recondition. Your's isn't the first GL18 alternator I've heard of breaking down. It's not an epidemic of course, but it does happen.

Heard of another one just last week!

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