That little red light....survey

[James.A]

Let's conduct a survey on component failure. In my 15 years owning airheads, my experience in charging system failure is as follows;

Diode board------------2
Alternator rotor--------1
Voltage regulator------1

Therefore, in my experience the diode board is most likely to be the failed component.

[acehosedme]

1991 r100pd - voltage regulator

another r100pd (different bike) - defective factory battery

1992 r100pd alternator

the same 1992r100pd broken battery cable end

another r100pd bad diode board

1984r80rt (wish I still had it!) never failed me as long as I kept the battery charged fully

1987k75t dirty cables, dead or dying battery.

1988r100rs (wish I still had this one too) no problems

[The_Veg]

My only airhead, 1995 R100R:

Intermnittant charging failure, fought wityh it, threw parts at it, fiddled and futzed with it, culprit never found before I upgraded to the Omega system. 1000 Miles after installing Omega, the battery (Hawker Odyssey, less than 5000 miles) failed causing the diode board to melt its solder joints and go ****-up. Voltage regulator was also hors d'combat because of this failure. This incident left me stranded in rural Oklahoma where my cell phone does not work, but luckily within walking distance of a kind family who let me use their phone to smoke-test my Anonymous Book.
All of this happened in the last six months, with the stranding and aftermath happening three weeks ago. The final resolution was yesterday. All systems are now go, FINALLY!

[jgr451]

1984 R100RT:little red light for 100 miles=dead diode board and a battery that had given its all.I replaced the board after a tow and an extra overnighter in Vancouver,charged the battery,no further trouble.

Replaced the voltage regulator as a precaution but never really had trouble with it.

[splinelube]

Voltage regulator "got eaten up" by drippings from master cylinder. That has been only faiulure other than move-a - fuse wire wearing through and blowing fuses. Forgot to mention the voltmeter wire wearing through and causing the same problem -blown fuses. R90/S

[James.A]

Results so far.....

Diode board-------------5
Voltage regulator------4
Alternator---------------3
battery cables----------2
battery-------------------2
wiring---------------------2

Generally, I would consider betteries to be consumables, like tires. I decided to not count the incidents attributed to the K bike since this is the airhead tech forum. One of my diode board failures was caused by the small wire at the positive battery post breaking off at the connector.

The sum of my experience is derived from 5 bikes over 15 years. I still own 2 of them. I smoked the top end on 1 and sold it broken. 1 was crashed by the person I sold it to. and 1 has had 3 owners since I sold it and now is in the possesion of my friend who restores vintage Indians.

I think that Veg wins the prize for the worst situation to have a failure thus far.

[nrpetersen]

Have a 1975 R90/6 and had a R100/7. Both were converted to garden tractor batteries (the better to find them at any WalMart if needed). Otherwise I've never had charging problems in 90 K miles. The GT batteries lasted very well although at $19 who cares?

A friend had a '77 R100S that when new had a built-in charging weakness that in hindsight I now think was due to a phase being out in the alternator. He sold it soon after.

I wish my 2000 R1100RT could be converted to a garden tractor battery.

[coyotebmw]

I have a 83' R80RT that I bought about two years ago. I am the second owner and the bike has 89K+ miles. Shortly after I bought it I replaced the battery and last spring I had the "little red light" problem and replaced the Diode board with a Thunderchild after market board. No more problems, yet!

[James.A]

Results so far.....

Diode board-------------6
Voltage regulator------4
Alternator---------------3
battery cables----------2
battery-------------------2
wiring---------------------2

I started the survey because I wanted to collect data on the topic. I try to keep spare charging parts on hand, and right now I am out of stock on diode boards and voltage regulators. Need a larger sample base, but it looks like those are the most likely sources of failure.

Thanks to all respondents and keep the reports coming. JAS

P.S. Coyote, how's your R26 project coming along?

[coyotebmw]

WoodnSteel, the R26 is coming slow. My son bought a bike (a Ninja 500) and within a few weeks had his first accident and totally the front end of the bike. It now sits in my garage where the 26 would normally be to be worked on. Until my son "removes" his Ninja I don't have the space to work on the 26.

[tvrla]

Of all the miles I've ridden my airheads I've never had a problem with the electrical system. Guess I'm just lucky. I usually carry a spare rotor and diode board on trips, and on one such trip a riding bud had his alternator rotor go out. It was nice I had it to loan otherwise the trip would have been over for him.

Oh, another friend had the brushes go out. Come to think of it, I had a 74 R90/6 that I'd just gotten and the brushes had deteriorated to the point where they left a black residue all over the points. (It wouldn't charge properly and would eventually die until I cleaned everything up again) I thought a seal was leaking, but when I got back in there, could see it wasn't. That's when I discovered it was the brushes - when they get real old they can deteriorate and spew black oily stuff everywhere.

From all I've heard the rotor and diode board are the two most frequent failures. The stator and regulator don't commonly fail.

[HERRBAYEMVAY]

My '84 R65 began showing its little red light more and more often in the last couple of weeks, and since I don't have the tools or the expertise to properly diagnose the root cause of the problem, decided to take it in to my local dealer. I was told the brushes needed to be replaced. My bike has 123k on it, and has run very well and been quite dependable up until this incident.

[R100RS]

Diode board - 1
VR - 2

[James.A]

Results so far.....

Diode board-------------7
voltage regulator-------6
Alternator----------------5
Alternator rotor---------2
battery cables----------2
battery-------------------2
wiring---------------------2


I decided to break out the alt. rotor reports since the rotor can be extracted on it's own.

[nrpetersen]

You guys having alternator rotor problems........

Have you ever simply taken the bad rotor to a rewinding shop? Redoing the rotor winding would be simple compared to the stuff they otherwise do. I know theycan even economically rewind an alternator stator, although I don't know how they keep it all straight.

Also - are many doing the garden tractor battery modification? It really makes battery worries a thing of the past.

[chrishea]

With 200,000 miles on Airheads:

1 bad diode board (on a new-to-me bike that I had just bought) I never had one fail on me.

2 rotors.... remember if the rotor fails - there is no red light. One failed at 45K the other at 48K on bikes I bought new... pretty consistent I thought.

I carry a rotor and diode board with me on trips.

Standard lead acid Batteries I change every 3 - 4 years out of habit. I am now running Panasonics / Westcos AGM batteries, we'll see how long they go!

Motorrad Elektrik, Eurotech, and Moto-International (Moto-Guzzi shop) and others offer rewound rotors.

[BubbaZanetti]

3 weeks ago on my ongoing trip around the country, my light would intermentently flash on, this got worse the further i went with it, but i was no where near a bmw shop. finally in rural pennsylvania, the light came on and stayed on, for about 40 miles, then it "went out" (blew) and i managed to get about 50-60 miles on the battery and rolled the bike into a gas station, i changed the gen light hoping that i might still have a little charging power and roll started the bike up and down a side street till i was blue in the face (and stalling everytime i had to slow down) i only had a cheap multitester and wasn't able to get much out of it other than not charging. finally got it towed (luckily i died in a town that had a bmw shop) and all three - diode board, voltage regulator and rotor tested bad........

[James.A]

Results so far.....

Diode board-------------9
voltage regulator-------7
Alternator----------------5
Alternator rotor---------3
battery cables----------2
battery-------------------2
wiring---------------------2


Thanks to all who have responded. If we were to combine all troubles attributed to alternator, it would appear that, so far as this survey is concerned, charging components fail in fairly equal proportions. The battery/wiring segment being less troublsome.

[The_Veg]

In my last post on this subject, I said I had got my problems with a bad Omega system sorted. I spoke too soon. After much hair-pulling, cursing, sweating, etc., I just got to what I NOW think was the bottom of it. The Omega rotor I installed had a fualt that only manifested while the rotor was turning- it checked good while stationary.
This strange fault was causing WAY too much energy to be passed on the the regulator, causing the regulator to overheat and fail. I destroyed at least three regulators trying to figure it out. Getting it solved also required several calls to Rick Jones at Motorrad Elektrik, who is a great guy to work with! Rick took much interest in my problems and was eager to provide excellent support with his products. I'll be traveling through Alabama later this month so I'll stop in and buy Rick a beer!