Cheap insurance and peace of mind, especially after 100k miles. I did mine too, now that I think of it. My bike should be ready for 100k easy now.
Yes that about sums it up. The shop that tried to help could not test the alternator as a unit but they did take it apart at my request to check the individual components. I hoped maybe it was brushes or something cheap and reasonably easy to fix and the repaired unit would have a high probability of working when it was again buried in the abyss. Turns out the rotor was open circuit. The part is available for about $215. If I went that route I would have about $300 in a high mileage alternator that couldn't be bench tested only field tested. A new alternator is $510. I bit the bullet and bought a new one along with all the hoses and rubber bits in the cooling system that are inaccessible or hard to get to. Replacing coolant hoses were already on my mind before this happened.
Props to Honda of Jacksonville. They matched the cheapest OEM prices I found online for each of the 16 items and threw in a small discount on top of that total to salve the pain. The parts manager called me this morning and said the parts came in today. I ordered them Wednesday afternoon about 4 pm. That's pretty good service.
What is the reason?Well, my bike is starting to look like what yours did. I have my throttle bodies out and on the work bench...
Two reasons.What is the reason?
Oh I see. Without the need to replace the idle adjustment cable you can access the RH cam chain tensioner without disturbing the throttle body. Yes, it is tight but I did it without a problem when I needed to reshim a valve on that side. I used a small (3/16 or 1/8", can't remember) flat blade screwdriver and a little pair of vice grips instead of the Honda special tool. Others had done it before me and the procedure using a screw driver is outlined in one of the tech forums here. The screwdriver winds up the tensioner and the vice grips hold the screwdriver in place. I put the screwdriver in Mellow's traveling Hot Shims kit for the next user. I had to file it a little bit to fit in the hole.Two reasons.
The first one and main reason I went in this deep is because I need to replace some valve shims on the right side of the engine. The cam chain tensioner release for the right side is in the V of the engine up near the T-Stat. I might have been able to get in there without pulling the TB but it would have been really tight.
The other reason and the reason they had to come out was that I told myself that the next time I am down under the air box area I was going to replace the idle adjustment cable. Mine has been seized up for a while now. The cable is only $20 so might as well swap it out. While I might have been able to swap the cable without pulling the TB, I doubt I could have without knowing how the cable is attached and the amount of screwing around with trying to do the task would have been much longer than pulling the TB. I have had them off before (coolant lines) so it isn't a big deal and gives me a good chance to inspect how things look under there.
Oh then there is the fact that we have a foot of snow up here with a good inch of ice on the road that I live on. No riding anytime soon for me. This was all planned spring maintenance. I do need to order up some parts like the cable. I wanted to wait until I got in there so I could order everything I needed. I have already added quite a bit to my order.
Yeah, I found the tensioner and I agree it is accessible with the TB in place. I did the trick with a screwdriver when I did the left side a while back. The right side was getting really close so I put it off for a winter/spring project. Well, it is winter now. With the TB out I did pull the cable off to see how it works. Like you said it comes up from the bottom and while I might have been able to do it with the TB in place I would have been screwing around with it for a while. Without knowing how it came off I don't know if it would be possible. Well I could have gotten the old one off but putting the new one in wouldn't have been easy. I think it took me 30 minutes to get the TB out and it will be another 30 min to put it back. So the frustration levels from the other tasks makes up for the hour in my book.Oh I see. Without the need to replace the idle adjustment cable you can access the RH cam chain tensioner without disturbing the throttle body. Yes, it is tight but I did it without a problem when I needed to reshim a valve on that side. I used a small (3/16 or 1/8", can't remember) flat blade screwdriver and a little pair of vice grips instead of the Honda special tool. Others had done it before me and the procedure using a screw driver is outlined in one of the tech forums here. The screwdriver winds up the tensioner and the vice grips hold the screwdriver in place. I put the screwdriver in Mellow's traveling Hot Shims kit for the next user. I had to file it a little bit to fit in the hole.
The idle adjustment cable on mine was free and I placed a drop of machine oil where the shaft comes up out of the plate that contains the threaded nut the cable housing bears against in hopes of keeping it that way. I think the TB would have to be removed to replace it as it comes up from the underside into the TB plate.
But those 6 miles were on my ST1300!
Yesterday I did a valve check and found every valve in specification and then a throttle body synch. I was surprised the vacuum levels were as close as they were and only two cylinders needed just one click of the adjuster nuts on the starter valves. After the bike cooled I spent some time cleaning up the hard to access parts of the bike normally under the fairing and seat then let it idle for about 30 minutes to check for any leaks. Today I got the the upper gas tank back on. That new connector hose was no picnic. After the fairing parts were in place I washed the bike and went for a ride to check it out and fill it up with gas to verify the gas gauge was going to work properly. I connected my multimeter to the electrical system to check for alternator output during the ride to the station and it looked good.
As it was getting dark I came right back home with a great feeling this job is behind me and the ST is running great again. I want to thanks Sennister and brka13 and the forum for help. There were older threads I referred to at times that showed this or that as I went along.
I ordered one of these today so in the future I will get some indication of the health of the charging system. It might not be much warning and would not have helped me out in the middle of nowhere but it is better than the no warning the bike has now. I plan to mount the LED indicator under the existing panel of warning lights on the right side of the instruments.
http://www.rocketmoto.com/index.php/clearwater-voltage-sentry-cvs-lead-acid-gel-agm-battery.html
I don't think that the failure rate is all that high. Mine has never failed but I do know of a couple failures here in the US. While I am sure not all of them have been posted here but I would guess that if you were to get replies you would maybe fine 10 people. Not very common to say the least. That said failure rates seem a bit higher in the UK. Most of the ones that I have read about were over there. I suspect it has to do with road treatments. I also have seen photos of UK bikes and they seem to suffer from a lot more corrosion than I have ever seen on a bike here. Again points to road treatments. Of course totally speculation on my part but the alternator is air cooled so one could expect a certain amount of road spray to get to it. If you live in an area that sees more sea air (Dave lives in an area like this) one could expect a slightly higher failure rate.Dave, Sennister, do we have a poll on alt. failures? Might be some good info to put together. Miles,Farkles,etc. I just run Gerbing gear. No gps or any other electrics. How about a list of what to look for and replace when your in to the repair? thanks Bob/ace
Good job Dave. That charging system read out looks neat. Please show the install, as I know it will be first class, by U.
Ditto to both. I'll be looking for moral or otherwise support this spring when it gets warm enough to check my valves...Glad I could assist a little but it was likely more moral support than much else.
Nice to see that you are back on the road.