Charging Problem

Maloymerc · Post by **Maloymerc** » Mon Jun 11, 2007 11:52 pm

My 1965 Dream seem to have a charging problem
I had my wires checked and it seems that the charging rate cannot supply enough current to keep the battery alive. As a result, the battery keeps dying on me every few miles.

The electrician says that the magnet of the Magneto is weak (minimal magnetism) and can only produce small amount of charge.

Is he correct?
Are there other factors why it's got low charging?
Any solutions?

kustommusic · Post by **kustommusic** » Tue Jun 12, 2007 6:09 pm

One main factor why it charges poorly is because none of these charge much to start with! Don't expect alot of voltage BUT it does need to charge enough to keep the battery up. You might need a new rectifier. You can find much discussion on those in this (Electrical) forum, look for it. Steve Greer

Maloymerc · Post by **Maloymerc** » Tue Jun 12, 2007 8:25 pm

kustommusic wrote:One main factor why it charges poorly is because none of these charge much to start with! Don't expect alot of voltage BUT it does need to charge enough to keep the battery up. You might need a new rectifier. You can find much discussion on those in this (Electrical) forum, look for it. Steve Greer

Correct me if i'm wrong Steve, but the rectifier's job is to convert AC to DC?

So it's still the Stator/Magneto that produces the volts?

kustommusic · Post by **kustommusic** » Wed Jun 13, 2007 6:53 pm

Maloy, That is correct,a rectifier (doide) will convert AC current to DC. Our hondas use a sellenium (sp?) diode to do that job and regulate the current flow,I believe. As far as the dynamo goes take a look at the post from Vince Lupo in this forum,if you haven't already. Just an aside, there is no magneto on these bikes. It's a standard points type ignition. Let us know how you come out !, Kustommusic

Maloymerc · Post by **Maloymerc** » Thu Jun 14, 2007 12:39 am

kustommusic wrote:Maloy, That is correct,a rectifier (doide) will convert AC current to DC. Our hondas use a sellenium (sp?) diode to do that job and regulate the current flow,I believe. As far as the dynamo goes take a look at the post from Vince Lupo in this forum,if you haven't already. Just an aside, there is no magneto on these bikes. It's a standard points type ignition. Let us know how you come out !, Kustommusic

thanks Steve...just read Vince's thread...it seems he also has a magnet problem, how does one determione if the magnet is already weak?

kustommusic · Post by **kustommusic** » Thu Jun 14, 2007 5:10 pm

Maloy, That's a good question ! Hope someone else can jump in here and help. Steve

Vince Lupo · Post by **Vince Lupo** » Wed Jun 27, 2007 7:29 pm

Here's a bit of news about the rotor magnetism that I received courtesy of our good friend, Loud Mouse (I'm sure I'm paraphrasing his words here!). Apparently, rotors that came equipped on earlier CB72's and CB77's had a higher magnetic charge than the later ones. Honda had determined that the early bikes were charging 'too much', and reduced the magnetic charge on 'later' rotors to compensate. If you can find a rotor that says 'CB72' as opposed to 'CB72 (L)', this will probably help. Loud Mouse supplied me with one of these early rotors, and the magnetic charge seems really good -- certainly much better than my CB72 (L) type. As far as the recharging / remanufacturing of the rotor by the the magnet company goes (see my 'Marginal Charging' post), I think the guy at the company has bigger fish to fry at the moment, so I'm not holding my breath. As well, I just picked up one of the rectifiers from RetroBikes (www.olypen.com/retro), so I'll keep you posted on what we end up with, charge-wise. But maybe try those options and see if they boost the output...