Prince of Darkness light found (2012)

Short history to confuse investigation. Week prior on new back road hit a hole so hard thought I'd blew the rear and might be what chunked tire to show cords. Didn't though, so next day rode with Wes and got stalled dead few miles out. Found battery zip tie snapped and battery on its side ugh but no evidence of acid spill but both terminals loose. Upped battery and nipped terminals then got a shove off and she ran and charged so lit out for back road parts unknown to again have fire go out. After much fretting not finding anything but not juice when key turned on and thinking too dead a battery dragging charger down Wes began removing his battery to try, while a wild hair hit me and tested good looking fuse to find it non conducting. Yea put in the spare and finished day fine.

Last pm's return as sun set caught me out with no light or charging for surprise frantic Gravel antics by cloud filtered moon light through tree canopy during 1st bow season day for freaked out crowds of deer but we made it. Gritted teeth to wrists so hard I spent rest of the night till almost daylight before neck ache let up. Ok today but hollow dodged fate again feeling.

Exam found no bad connections nor shorts but battery only read 11 v and dropped to 8.5 with key on, ugh. Wouldn't start just pop. Attention shifted to alternator So opened primary to hear a nut fall into catch bowl and see one of the stator studs nutless. Oh oh maybe the rotor got so heated rubbing it lost magnetism as none detected w/o removing rotor. The other 2 nuts found loose too. Put em all back, jumped battery and Trixie lit off and showed 13.8v on holding rpm over 2500. Light and horn bright w/o pulling volts down much now. I could still see light all around the rotor/stator space before I nipped back up, and stator resin not thermal discolored like Peels did on over rev event. Mystery why the charger quit with just one nut off yet not burnt up by friction fouling. It did not wiggle on tugging test, but ugh the once stable clutch basket does now. Maybe Wes's charging issue might be so simple, if not may not take his to L.o.P. Trixie has Tympanic reg/rect while Wes is still on factory regulator and zenor.

Rotor-stator clearance should be equal all around ,does affect output. You got off easy ,I've seen atom bomb smoke upon removing cover.

No kidding about the melting stator luck out, as I had on Peel's over rev event that crank ends tipped so much it turned the rotor and stator inter face to ceramic mess. I did not pull the rotor off Trixie as no outward evidence of heating of swarf in case and worked fine again, but am still mystified what actually prevented charging and a bit pensive I've missed something to be found the hard way a long way away this coming week end. BTW I cleaned up Peel melted Spark's 3 phase stator insides with coils exposed and filed rotor face nice again and it worked fine afterwards, so pretty dang tough unit and why i'm not going to check Trixie's rotor that is staying put after an earlier event the nut worked off. Will check today if battery ok to hold charge between over night starts. BTW if exceeding 8000-9000 rpm its not a bad idea to off center the stator towards top and rear as first contact from crank flex is 7 to 4 o'clock arc.

hobot said:

BTW I cleaned up Peel melted Spark's 3 phase stator insides with coils exposed and filed rotor face nice again and it worked fine afterwards, so pretty dang tough unit

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Any idea why the Sparx melted? I have one that I took off a Triumph to put on my 71 Cdo. It was in service for less that 3 months on the Triumph and the insulation was pretty badly cracked. Still works OK tho.

Ugh MikeG, Peel had a stuck throttle event in her prime peak of power configuration and went to over 11,000 so the end of the crank flexed so much the rotor fouled the stator a hi loads and rpm. I was amazed after clean up with chiesel and wire wheel it still worked a treat but ugly as sin. Anything can fail right out the box so its always a crap shoot on what stops your show every now an then.
I sold that off as unneeded on next Peel but would get another if I cared to leave Norton part numbers behind on Trixie.

So the battery was on it's side with loose terminals and improperly fastened down, the nut came off the rotor, the 3 nuts on staor were loose, the fuse was blown but somehow it's the tired old "Lucas Prince of Darkness" to blame? Are you sure it's not "Owner lack of maintenance/poor repairs" fault?

After all of these good years you'll not hear a disparaging peep from me. Lucas has done well by me.

hobot? 2012?