Brent, nothing wrong with those figures, mate! And no apology necessary; it's what the forum is about.
Judging by your readings I'd say you have a very healthy charging system and battery; and with a 60/55 headlamp I should think it's either been 'played with' or you have a high-output rotor (or both!).
I've been toying with the notion of a Rick's Motorsport stator & reg for mine but now that I've completed my own 'improvements' I'm very satisfied with my otherwise-stock system. The Philips MotoVision 35/35 H4 is bright enough for my night use and a good colour temperature (a tint specifically developed for high daytime-visibility to other road users) when viewed from approach; I use 6000K Xenon's in my Renault Espace and MINI Cooper dipped beams but that colour temp. tends to blend too well with sunlight to be of safe use for a m/c, IMO. Check it out next time you clock an approaching vehicle in bright sunlight.
Say What? Too much charging?I was looking for something in the "library" and happened across an old 250-305 Shop Manual that I had forgotten was out there.
It's dated January 1960 and while the first picture shows the SLS front brake, the later pictures show the early type TLS. That was interesting. On the back page the date is August 1969, so it must have been a reprint. More enlightening though was the generator output chart which shows a voltage of 12v rising slightly to about 2000 revs and them more quickly between 2 and 3 to plateau at about 16-17v from 3k to 10k. Output voltage is not regulated as we know. Basically the battery does that task. The Alternator has 3 pairs of coils. One pair is connected full time to the rectifier (yellow). The common connection (brown) is connected across the other side of the rectifier. The other two pairs of coils (pink) are switched in with the headlamp switch when the lights are turned on. They connect to the yellow lead going to the rectifier. I'd speculate that in any "always on" markets all 6 coils would be permanently connected. That technique was used by Lucas "the Prince of Darkness" on British bikes for many years. This really all predates solid state electrical devices, so we shouldn't be too critical. For a fifties design it wasn't at all bad. I'd forgotten how much data was in that old book. teazer,
Those are the charts I refered to in an earlier post to this thread. It's too bad Honda did not include the test conditions for those charts. I think the generators were bench tested for voltage at those rpm's with a minimal test load, if any. I'm guessing the charts were included in the shop manual so that Honda Technicians could compare bench test readings with the chart. The problem is that not many of us bench test our generators--we measure battery terminal voltages with the engine running. So we have the ignition circuit load, the neutral lamp load and whatever other switchable loads (horn, winkers, headlights...) to consider. I thought I would mention this just in case people figure their bike, while running, should show 16.8 volts at the battery. It better not! Wilf
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