Ironhead Anyone swapped a NEW style Gen for an OLD stylele

[robby212]

Originally Posted by Dakota Kid

One more thing,I had forgot to add,when I check to see how bike is charging with my digital multimeter (its a higher end one so its not the culprip) ,I cannot get a reading its so eratic with bike running its all over the place. I have to use my old solid state engine analizer to check voltage when running and it shows bike is charging ,but only when i roll the throttle several hundred rpms past idle.

I use a fluke 77 which is a pretty good meter I also went through the charging system check out I'm gonna swap out the voltage reg and see where I'm at. Right nw o show no charging at all. This really shouldn't be such a mystery there is not much to this system.

[Neil74]

When working on a generator you have to make sure the battery is fully charged to begin with. The battery if going bad or weak may only take a charge just above 12 volts, it then regulates the regulator. With the meter jumping around eratic I would put the battery on a charger an check voltage when charged, now leave it overnite an see where it falls to without being hooked up. If your charger can't put over 12.6 to 13 volts into the battery the generator won't either.Make sure to polarize when you reinstall it an maybe raise your idle.

[Dakota Kid]

Battery,holds good overnight and gen is polarized,battery will hold charge overnight above 13 volts,now I just got voltage reg this week and put it on and have done no diagnostics on bike since then from lack of time. My only diagnostics since voltage reg was installed was the gen light still has the same symptoms, so im betting nothing changed. last weekend before reg was changed, I would take reading on the battery,say it read 12.87 volt and take it for a 7 mile ride at highway speed, return home and take reading and it would be 12.81 volts.
I had rode the bike for a couple weeks when I first got it, and after a couple weeks I could tell battery was getting a little low.
The charging system is working ,just not keeping up as good as it should.
I will do a little more testing this weekend and see if mutimeter is still eratic after new reg installed, and install new headlight.
Oh one more thing,my rear engine mount is cracked on my 81 ironhead,Ive heard this will make bike vibrate more and it does seem to vibrate worse than my 78 , I been googling for pringle motor mounts and can find no info on them exept poeple talking about them in the forums,who sells them?

[steve0suprem0]

Originally Posted by robby212

what did the shop tell you?just said it was good or did they tell you how many amps it was putting out? And how did you determine it was actually bad?

One HD master tech just told me it passed inspection on the growler. Next place i went they told me the field was shorted.

[robby212]

I just changed the Volt reg on mine and that did the job. I also cleaned all connections and changed all hardware for the gen reg and main CB I tested 1 washer and got 6.5 ohms maybe you're charging but can't get steady current due to bad hardware continuity. I dunno just a thought

[steve0suprem0]

Well it's all been ripped out and replaced by now. It was all because of a wire pinched under the cam cover.

[Dakota Kid]

Well,did some more tinkering,checked charging system output with multimeter,still eratic, with new reg. put multimeter on another bike works fine so am puzzeled on that.
But fired up the 78, gen light on at idle,pulled out old atlas headlight sealed beam and installed my new wagner H5006 sealed beam, gen light out.
I checked battery voltage non running 12.60 volt,fired it up took it on a 15 mile run and rechecked bat voltage 12.94.
The old atlas headlight came out of my buddies arcives and could have been 40 years old for all we know,but seemed to be drawing juice pretty hard, kind of a weird deal but between the new voltage reg and new headlight Im pretty happy tonight.
Ps the new wagner H5006 is rated 35/35 watt on the info I found so its not a big draw on system.