Looking at another project 86 Aspy (bought)

[ritalz]

Found the cause of the exhaust leak. The junction where the header meets the muffler was rusted out and broken. Fortunate to have another set of headers on hand from a part out bike. Not as pretty but should be good enough to stop the leak.

[Fred Camper]

Nice to have a solution. Time to ride.

[ritalz]

Interesting thing happened yesterday. Running some errands and I noticed the newly installed volt meter showing some low numbers. Kept an eye on it and headed for home. Pulled the battery cover to check connections and found one of the stator wires was very hot. While moving the stator wires the voltage would go back to normal. Decided to cut and replace all three wires again since the connection on one was obviously not making a good connection. My soldering skills have really gone downhill. Got it done and the charging system is back to working properly. I did at least get all the legal stuff done. Ordered a historical vehicle plate that has some riding restrictions but I don't figure on a lot of miles on this one.

[Fred Camper]

Good to have the meter to tell you to investigate before getting a no start. Yay!

[Track T 2411]

Good to have the meter to tell you to investigate before getting a no start. Yay!

And an easy fix!

[ritalz]

This one has decided to act up some the past couple of days. The plastic cover I made for the suspension control panel shattered yesterday. Made another one but used aluminum this time. Then the hydraulic clutch was not working right. Fluid level was very low and cloudy. Thought I had flushed it but couldn't find it in my notes. Anyway, it's working now as it should. Today I took it out again to run some errands and noticed the volt meter reading low again. At idle it would go down to 11 volts and running it would only go up to about 12.8. Not sure but I'm thinking the battery (new) is failing since it does charge some as the revs go up. Didn't feel like messing with it today as I had other stuff to get done and it already cost me an hour. Perhaps tomorrow I can play musical batteries as part of my diagnostics. Just another day in the life of an old bike.

[ritalz]

Swapped the battery from the 84 in and it acted normal with charging in the 14 volt range. Gonna have the removed battery load tested and maybe get some warranty consideration.

[ritalz]

No warranty action. Couldn't jump through all the hoops to qualify. Came back home and put everything back together with the batteries swapped. Good news is both bikes seem to be charging as they should. Not sure what is going on but I'll leave it be and enjoy the ride.

[ritalz]

Spent a little more time on the charging problem. Think I got it figured out this time. First picture is the plug where the wires attach to the rectifier. Knew right off that this wasn't good.

burnt plug.jpeg

This was the harness that attaches the rectifier to the main harness.

harness.jpeg

Rewired all the wires directly to rectifier and eliminating the attaching harness.

wiring.jpeg

This is the volt meter showing everything playing well together.

volts.jpeg

I think that when we cut out the stater plug near the battery we should also pay attention to the plug near the rectifier. Not sure about the 1000 or 1100 but this is on the 1200 and turned out to be very important. One question I still have is the amount of heat coming off the regulator. It is hot to the touch after running for a bit.

[ritalz]

First ride since rewiring the regulator went well. Volt meter showed normal charging and bike started easily after making a few stops. Still a little concerned about the amount of heat coming off the regulator. I know that some heat is normal but I feel like this one is too hot. Hot enough to feel through the shelter side.

[Fred Camper]

Not okay I think, may be time for a mofset regulator. A Honda 600RR had the same wires as my 1977 Gl1000.