Did my alternater fry

Eeky · Posted: September 20, 2009, 11:14 am Post subject: Did my alternater fry

Was riding home last nite on freeway, engine started to miss and lites flickered and within 60 sec dead on side of the road. Flashlite in my mouth replaced 20 amp fuse and that one popped instantly. Did my alternater fry? ,brushes are good. Put in a breaker instead of fuse and it feels like a dead short. Where do I start? Stock 75 with all stock parts on it. Not a great place to be at 1:00am No lights 3 feet away from 70 mph traffic. Three Harley riders rode by individually and never missed a beat. I would never pass a stranded rider but I don"t belong to their little club. Hope karma comes around goes around

kingwj · Posted: September 20, 2009, 4:08 pm Post subject: Re: Did my alternater fry

Need to run some tests. Something went south in your electrical system, personally I'd spend the $30 bucks to upgrade to solid state regulator with Radio Shack rectifiers to eliminate them as an issue before worrying too much about the alternator. It will be money well spent.

kingwj · Posted: September 20, 2009, 4:10 pm Post subject: Re: Did my alternater fry

I pushed a dude about half a mile to bump start his harley. I got plus karma points.

xsleo · Posted: September 20, 2009, 6:36 pm Post subject: Re: Did my alternater fry

Eeky, the wires in the tail light could be shorting out, happens often. The blue wire rubs against the side, wears through and grounds, draws straight through main fuse. pop goes the fuse.
Try unplugging the wires to the tail light. If stuff works, check the wires closer.

Joseph · Full Member Joined: May 22, 2007 Posts: 767 Location: NY

My first thiought would be a short somewhare also, it hapened so fast and sudenly. I agree check all the wires unplug the other fuses 1 at a time and other electrics 1 by 1 keep testing uintill you hopefuly find one that if disconected the fuse wont pop.

Eeky · Posted: September 20, 2009, 8:11 pm Post subject: Re: Did my alternater fry

thanks for the advice brothers, will try tommorow.. Joseph, one fuse for the whole bike back in 75. I was going to push her home for a few miles but with no lites and dressed in black I thought it was a short time before I ended up in the grill of an suv.

xsleo · Posted: September 20, 2009, 8:18 pm Post subject: Re: Did my alternater fry

Thats when the cell phone comes in handy. A call to a friend with a pick up or a trailor and you get a ride home.

Eeky · Posted: September 21, 2009, 4:50 pm Post subject: Re: Did my alternater fry

Fixed it today. Went with the advice to do the simple first. My recently added JC Whitney dual chrome horns which I was so proud of, mounted on two brackets in front of the motor , one round horn vibrated, rotated and the uninsulated female connector touched the chrome acorn nut on the valve cover and ZAP!! . I was ready to tear into the alt. Do the KISS rule keep it simple stupid. XSLEO I used my phone and the trailer arrived.

xsleo · Posted: September 23, 2009, 3:12 am Post subject: Re: Did my alternater fry

Cool, easy rescue and easy fix.
When a problem comes up the first thing to check is the last thing you just did.

pumps · Posted: September 23, 2009, 9:01 am Post subject: Re: Did my alternater fry

"one round horn vibrated". VIBRATED!? No way!
Seriously though, glad you got it going and that it WAS something simple. Have you got a picture of those horns and how do you like them. My old stock one works but it pretty much sucks.

Eeky · Posted: September 25, 2009, 4:38 pm Post subject: Re: Did my alternater fry

When I said round horn vibrated I meant , the center bolt holding it on the mountihg bracket was loose and it turned counterclockwise with the vibration enough to come in contact with the acorn nut and short out the fuse. The horns are great. The stock roadrunner beep horn was useless. These have the high low tone and sound like a caddy blast. Wolo dual chrome horns from JC Whitney $ 20 range. Without the issue which was my fault , one of the best additions to the bike.

xsleo · Posted: September 25, 2009, 9:22 pm Post subject: Re: Did my alternater fry

They sell a cheapy set of air horns I have been thinking about. Harbor Freight has them around $20. auto parts stores have the same thing closer to $30. a small compressor and two horns. Some where around 130 db's. real loud.

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