I started this upgrade a little over three months ago when I realized the 28 amp alternator on my '94 was leaking. Honestly, the hardest part was finding an Adapter base plate. You cannot buy them new anymore. A hundred or so phone calls and e-mails later, I found the whole shebang, a used plate with bearing, gear and alternator at a salvage yard in Ohio. $260 later it was mine.
I'm not going to go over every detail of the install, as that has been done over and over. Have you ever gone through all 16 pages and 18,965,532 posts in the ST1100 alternator forum? Lots of reading there that can get really confusing. I know because I went through them all in my quest to learn how to do this. There's also vids on YouTube that help a lot too!
So first, I want to really thank John O. His advise, both in written form and over the white courtesy phone (yes he actually answered it!) was immeasurable! Add that to the awesome install kit he sent me made this possible. I know I couldn't have done this without his help. I didn't need everything in the kit, but everything I needed was in there. Thanks John! I hope to share a beverage of your choice with you some day. Also thanks to all the guys who did this before me who added terrific notes and ideas to the forums and to the install pages in the kit.
Second, it wasn't really all that hard to do the upgrade. If you can change your own oil, and mabe brake pads, you can dod this. There's litteraly tons of info available from the hundreds of guys who have already done it. It's time consuming, as I did it over three days, but I can only stand on the concrete for so many hours anymore. Plus it takes time to figure out stuff, like how to run tubes, wires, and so forth.
Third, disassembly. The most difficult was removal of the swing arm. Especially if you're doing it alone like I was. But I got it out. One side benefit was that I also discovered a few things that needed attention, like that both top and bottom fiber bushings in my shock eyelets were toast. Can't buy them, and I wasn't going to buy a $400 shock, so I got some metric brass bushings at my local Ace Hardware store (where they make you wear a mask now) and machined my own with the help of my drill press, a file and a knife sharpening stone. The new brass one have to be better than the old non-existent fiber ones. I'm 66 so if they last another 25 years or so I should be good.
Fourth, Installation went pretty much as advertised. The Lewis pin scared me. Thoughts of losing that thing in the engine, or ever worse...breaking it... gave me nightmares. It took three tries to get it to work. I'm sure I was the problem. The first time the pin came out of one of the gears, but not both. It was like it was wedged or something. The second time, the wire pull broke where it threads through the Lewis pin eye. Maybe fatigued after the 150th pull? Scared the hell out of me! Now I'm shook, so I called John O to figure out what to do. His moral support got me through one more pull. I re-threaded the wire through the Lewis pin , twisted it back on itself and heat shrinked the twists as it had been. This third time though, after inserting the pin in the hole, I turned it a couple of time with a pair of pliers to ensure that it was free...(yes I had lubed it all three times, and it worked fine with the test pull when in the vice) . Then I allso inserted a strand of picture hanger cable up through the plastic guide tube, through the Lewis pin hole and back down through the plastic guide tube where they all three hung out through the drain plug hole. Now when I removed the guide tube I had three wires to pull on. I pushed it to get a little bit of pull slack then popped it and the thing literally popped out and fell out of the drain hole like butter. Don't ask me, I don't know what I did different the first two times except for the extra wire.
Next was the alternator Chinese torture puzzle. I'd read all the write ups and watched the YouTube video more than a few times. But when I stuck that thing up in there it just wouldn't go in! Nothing I could do would make it fit between those two bars. Yes I had the tab bent up and the rear plate removed, but it just got stuck. So I pulled it out, drank a coke and then tried it again. I had literally stuck that thing up in there and bang, it fell into place. I honestly didn't do anything! I felt like I could have gone across the street and thrown that thing at the bike and it would have gone in there, although I didn't pull it out to try it! Anyway, I bolted it in, trimmed the cover and put it on and called it a day.
Fifth was the wiring. Mechanics I can do, but electrical is like magic to me. Before I started, I was having a hard time figuring it out, hoping it would make sense when I actually saw what I was dealing with. Again with John O.s help, complete with diagrams and pictures it was like “BING”! Suddenly I got the flick!
With John O's advise I returned the weather proof 60 amp Maxi Fuse I'd bought at NAPA and ordered an OEM fuse block. I waited all week for it to come, then I got a nasty gram saying that due to COVID-19 their supply lines were experiencing delays with apologies for any inconvenience. Man I'm hating this convenient COVID-19 excuse for everything. I went to O'Reilly and Auto Zone and their shelves were bare of fuse blocks too! I was all set to go, with everything else I needed, so I re-bought the NAPA 60 amp Maxi fuse, studied all the pictures I could find of previous installs and figured out how to put it where the old voltage rectifier went, and made a bracket using the existing holes that I think turned out pretty cool. You can see it in the pics. I soldered all the connections and it turned out pretty decent. I doubt I'll ever need it, but I have an extra 60 amp fuse in my tool kit.
Now was crunch time. Would it work? So Istarted the bike up, and put the meter on it. 14.4 volts at idle. Hot Damn!
The rest as they say is history. I put everything back together and then took Vger on 90 mile test run today. Ran perfectly. Couldn't tell any difference with my non-fiber shock bushings either.
The bike has 27,000 miles on it. It was a hanger queen when I bought it three years ago with 17,000 miles. The old 28 amp alternator was making juice just fine, but it was leaking like an old Norton which is why I decided to do the upgrade. As far as I can tell it was the o-rings which had to be where it was leaking. I imagine I could have replaced the o-rings and maybe it would have been just fine. I don't know, but it has a brand new shiny 40 amp alernantor in there now.
If anyone wants a working 28 amp alternator (that needs o-rings replaced) PM me and we can work out a deal. I've already promised the 6 pin plug to a fellow ST rider.
I've actually bought a second adapter plate from a salvage yard in France. The price was right and I figured that maybe I could get specs off it and maybe someone with a mill or CNC machine could reproduce the adapter plates as I imagine that there are sill 91-95 ST's out there that are going to need the upgrade sooner or later. When the plate gets here, I'll get the spcs off i t, then I'll have the plate, bearing, 40 amp shaft bolt and used 40 amp alternator that I'll be offering for sale to someone who wants to do the up grade. I'll be on a road trip through Utah, Colorado and New Mexico in September. Hope to see you on the road. Thanks again to all those who have come before.
![0730201503[1].jpg](/forums/data/attachments/125/125738-8500406f8178f466185245ac2b27cf90.jpg)
I'm not going to go over every detail of the install, as that has been done over and over. Have you ever gone through all 16 pages and 18,965,532 posts in the ST1100 alternator forum? Lots of reading there that can get really confusing. I know because I went through them all in my quest to learn how to do this. There's also vids on YouTube that help a lot too!
So first, I want to really thank John O. His advise, both in written form and over the white courtesy phone (yes he actually answered it!) was immeasurable! Add that to the awesome install kit he sent me made this possible. I know I couldn't have done this without his help. I didn't need everything in the kit, but everything I needed was in there. Thanks John! I hope to share a beverage of your choice with you some day. Also thanks to all the guys who did this before me who added terrific notes and ideas to the forums and to the install pages in the kit.
Second, it wasn't really all that hard to do the upgrade. If you can change your own oil, and mabe brake pads, you can dod this. There's litteraly tons of info available from the hundreds of guys who have already done it. It's time consuming, as I did it over three days, but I can only stand on the concrete for so many hours anymore. Plus it takes time to figure out stuff, like how to run tubes, wires, and so forth.
Third, disassembly. The most difficult was removal of the swing arm. Especially if you're doing it alone like I was. But I got it out. One side benefit was that I also discovered a few things that needed attention, like that both top and bottom fiber bushings in my shock eyelets were toast. Can't buy them, and I wasn't going to buy a $400 shock, so I got some metric brass bushings at my local Ace Hardware store (where they make you wear a mask now) and machined my own with the help of my drill press, a file and a knife sharpening stone. The new brass one have to be better than the old non-existent fiber ones. I'm 66 so if they last another 25 years or so I should be good.
Fourth, Installation went pretty much as advertised. The Lewis pin scared me. Thoughts of losing that thing in the engine, or ever worse...breaking it... gave me nightmares. It took three tries to get it to work. I'm sure I was the problem. The first time the pin came out of one of the gears, but not both. It was like it was wedged or something. The second time, the wire pull broke where it threads through the Lewis pin eye. Maybe fatigued after the 150th pull? Scared the hell out of me! Now I'm shook, so I called John O to figure out what to do. His moral support got me through one more pull. I re-threaded the wire through the Lewis pin , twisted it back on itself and heat shrinked the twists as it had been. This third time though, after inserting the pin in the hole, I turned it a couple of time with a pair of pliers to ensure that it was free...(yes I had lubed it all three times, and it worked fine with the test pull when in the vice) . Then I allso inserted a strand of picture hanger cable up through the plastic guide tube, through the Lewis pin hole and back down through the plastic guide tube where they all three hung out through the drain plug hole. Now when I removed the guide tube I had three wires to pull on. I pushed it to get a little bit of pull slack then popped it and the thing literally popped out and fell out of the drain hole like butter. Don't ask me, I don't know what I did different the first two times except for the extra wire.
Next was the alternator Chinese torture puzzle. I'd read all the write ups and watched the YouTube video more than a few times. But when I stuck that thing up in there it just wouldn't go in! Nothing I could do would make it fit between those two bars. Yes I had the tab bent up and the rear plate removed, but it just got stuck. So I pulled it out, drank a coke and then tried it again. I had literally stuck that thing up in there and bang, it fell into place. I honestly didn't do anything! I felt like I could have gone across the street and thrown that thing at the bike and it would have gone in there, although I didn't pull it out to try it! Anyway, I bolted it in, trimmed the cover and put it on and called it a day.
Fifth was the wiring. Mechanics I can do, but electrical is like magic to me. Before I started, I was having a hard time figuring it out, hoping it would make sense when I actually saw what I was dealing with. Again with John O.s help, complete with diagrams and pictures it was like “BING”! Suddenly I got the flick!
With John O's advise I returned the weather proof 60 amp Maxi Fuse I'd bought at NAPA and ordered an OEM fuse block. I waited all week for it to come, then I got a nasty gram saying that due to COVID-19 their supply lines were experiencing delays with apologies for any inconvenience. Man I'm hating this convenient COVID-19 excuse for everything. I went to O'Reilly and Auto Zone and their shelves were bare of fuse blocks too! I was all set to go, with everything else I needed, so I re-bought the NAPA 60 amp Maxi fuse, studied all the pictures I could find of previous installs and figured out how to put it where the old voltage rectifier went, and made a bracket using the existing holes that I think turned out pretty cool. You can see it in the pics. I soldered all the connections and it turned out pretty decent. I doubt I'll ever need it, but I have an extra 60 amp fuse in my tool kit.
Now was crunch time. Would it work? So Istarted the bike up, and put the meter on it. 14.4 volts at idle. Hot Damn!
The rest as they say is history. I put everything back together and then took Vger on 90 mile test run today. Ran perfectly. Couldn't tell any difference with my non-fiber shock bushings either.
The bike has 27,000 miles on it. It was a hanger queen when I bought it three years ago with 17,000 miles. The old 28 amp alternator was making juice just fine, but it was leaking like an old Norton which is why I decided to do the upgrade. As far as I can tell it was the o-rings which had to be where it was leaking. I imagine I could have replaced the o-rings and maybe it would have been just fine. I don't know, but it has a brand new shiny 40 amp alernantor in there now.
If anyone wants a working 28 amp alternator (that needs o-rings replaced) PM me and we can work out a deal. I've already promised the 6 pin plug to a fellow ST rider.
I've actually bought a second adapter plate from a salvage yard in France. The price was right and I figured that maybe I could get specs off it and maybe someone with a mill or CNC machine could reproduce the adapter plates as I imagine that there are sill 91-95 ST's out there that are going to need the upgrade sooner or later. When the plate gets here, I'll get the spcs off i t, then I'll have the plate, bearing, 40 amp shaft bolt and used 40 amp alternator that I'll be offering for sale to someone who wants to do the up grade. I'll be on a road trip through Utah, Colorado and New Mexico in September. Hope to see you on the road. Thanks again to all those who have come before.
