I have a '95 ST1100. Purchased it 3 years ago with 32,000 miles and now have 63,485 miles on it. Just got back from MLR, with a side trip through Dallas, TX, and rode the Cherohala Skyway and Tail of the Dragon on my way back to Allentown, PA.
Over 3600 miles and the bike ran flawlessly. So why upgrade the alternator?
Farkles
I would like to add more lights front and rear. Also been wanting heated gear for the days when the mercury stays in the 40 degree range. So I purchased a used alternator from Sirbike on Ebay. It came off an '01 with 30K miles. It was complete, just needed to be plugged in and it was ready to go.
Well I have some mechanical skills. I change my oil, brakes, wired an auxilary fuzeblock and have attended three tech days at Randy's garage mahall
However this project looked way beyond my abilities so I was looking for some help. As fate would have it, I have met Ace Dantinne through this site and in person at MLR. He sounded very enthusiastic about tackling this project with me. I was set to go.
Talked to JohnOo about getting the tool kit to complete the job. Received the tool kit and tackled the job yesterday.
Every thing was going smoothly, plastics came off, oil drained, gas tank removed, rear wheel removed, swing arm removed and old alternator pulled out, etc. Now came the difficult part, installing the 40 amp. Both Ace and I had read, reread, and printed out instructions from Mike Martin's web site. We were prepared.
However the 40 amp was not cooperating. We pulled off the split gears from the alternator, put the Lewis pin in and began the install. After 5 unsuccessful attempts at seating the housing we decided to give John Oo a call. He cheerfully acknowledged that we were doing everything correctly, suggested we stop for a break and then get back to it. Perhaps it was John's reassurance that we were doing every thing correctly that gave us faith. Well we tried again, and with Ace wiggling that alternator up, down and side to side it finally slid into place. Ace said to me "you pull out the Lewis pin, I'm leaving the garage because I don't want to hear that you can't get it". The pin came out after a couple of tugs.
Then we proceeded to get the body of the alternator installed. Included in John's tool kit is a video of how to get the alt. past the frame and into place. It just looks so simple that it makes you laugh. I tried, couldn't get it. Ace tried, couldn't get it. I went back to the video and couldn't believe how simple it seemed. I came back and grabbed the alt and it went right in
So other than taking an extra two or three hours of fiddling to get the gears lined up, it was a pretty straight forward job. I had a OEM fuse block for the re wire job, Sirbike from Ebay sent me that for no extra charge. Cut out the old wires to remove some clutter and only needed a very short piece of 10 gauge wire to tie it into the new fuse block.
Fresh oil, install the gas tank, swing arm, rear wheel and plastics I was ready to leave at 9PM.
Thanks to John and all the others that have gone before on this 40 amp upgrade :bow1:
Special thanks to Ace for his guidance, help and everything he did to make this happen. :bow1::bow1::bow1:
ps. Mrs. Ace, thanks for keeping us hydrated and fed.
Over 3600 miles and the bike ran flawlessly. So why upgrade the alternator?
Farkles
I would like to add more lights front and rear. Also been wanting heated gear for the days when the mercury stays in the 40 degree range. So I purchased a used alternator from Sirbike on Ebay. It came off an '01 with 30K miles. It was complete, just needed to be plugged in and it was ready to go.Well I have some mechanical skills. I change my oil, brakes, wired an auxilary fuzeblock and have attended three tech days at Randy's garage mahall
However this project looked way beyond my abilities so I was looking for some help. As fate would have it, I have met Ace Dantinne through this site and in person at MLR. He sounded very enthusiastic about tackling this project with me. I was set to go.
Talked to JohnOo about getting the tool kit to complete the job. Received the tool kit and tackled the job yesterday.
Every thing was going smoothly, plastics came off, oil drained, gas tank removed, rear wheel removed, swing arm removed and old alternator pulled out, etc. Now came the difficult part, installing the 40 amp. Both Ace and I had read, reread, and printed out instructions from Mike Martin's web site. We were prepared.
However the 40 amp was not cooperating. We pulled off the split gears from the alternator, put the Lewis pin in and began the install. After 5 unsuccessful attempts at seating the housing we decided to give John Oo a call. He cheerfully acknowledged that we were doing everything correctly, suggested we stop for a break and then get back to it. Perhaps it was John's reassurance that we were doing every thing correctly that gave us faith. Well we tried again, and with Ace wiggling that alternator up, down and side to side it finally slid into place.
Ace said to me "you pull out the Lewis pin, I'm leaving the garage because I don't want to hear that you can't get it". The pin came out after a couple of tugs. Then we proceeded to get the body of the alternator installed. Included in John's tool kit is a video of how to get the alt. past the frame and into place. It just looks so simple that it makes you laugh. I tried, couldn't get it. Ace tried, couldn't get it. I went back to the video and couldn't believe how simple it seemed. I came back and grabbed the alt and it went right in
So other than taking an extra two or three hours of fiddling to get the gears lined up, it was a pretty straight forward job. I had a OEM fuse block for the re wire job, Sirbike from Ebay sent me that for no extra charge.
Cut out the old wires to remove some clutter and only needed a very short piece of 10 gauge wire to tie it into the new fuse block.Fresh oil, install the gas tank, swing arm, rear wheel and plastics I was ready to leave at 9PM.
Thanks to John and all the others that have gone before on this 40 amp upgrade :bow1:
Special thanks to Ace for his guidance, help and everything he did to make this happen. :bow1::bow1::bow1:
ps. Mrs. Ace, thanks for keeping us hydrated and fed.
