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Alternator Question

1896 Views 6 Replies 5 Participants Last post by  exavid, 
T
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My 1500 has been a bit finikey about starting promptly lately and something that I found, may be the culprit...

On the lower lefthand section of the alternator assembly, there is what appears to be a mounted capicator of some sort, attached to an electric terminal on one end and a metal bolt/nut mount on the front end... It was severely pitted around the metal tab that attached to the terminal and the bakealite/ceramic type end was cracked...

I cleaned the whole thing up and filled the crack with epoxy and reinstalled the part...

The bike seems to start perfect now...

Does this part have a name??? I looked at the local dealer and this part is not shown in their schematics... Could I have a compufire??? I hope, I hope...

Could this have been my problem???

Thanks in advance for any help.... Snake
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exavid
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Doesn't sound like it'd affect starting. Sounds more likely to be a noise filter for the alternator to keep the buzz down in the audio systems.
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B
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Paul is right, that's only a suppressor for the alternator. Mind you I suppose itcould cause problems, disconnecting it and running the bike would show this up.
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T
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Oh well... It's still starting great... I should be happy... Thanks guys...

Hey! Whatvoltage should a healthy alternator put to thebattery terminals??? I'm getting 13.78v...
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englishted
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13.78 isn't too bad. A new one will put out over 14 volts. Does it increase over 13.78 when you put a load on at idle (extra lights, radio etc)? If the output eventually drops to nearer 13 volts you will need to get the alternator looked at.
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Jason
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13.78 is acceptable. Ideally you want over 14 volts at idle with a full load on. With a low load (lights and other things off) 13.5 will be more usual.
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exavid
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Should be able to get slightly over 14V at 3500rpm. Make sure your battery is fully charged, and run the bike a few miles and see if it will come up. I usually have 14.2V or so at 60mph. Abunch short trips with lots of stop and go, considerableidling, might well cause the voltage todrop because under those conditions the alternator may not be able to keep up with the demand.
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