2 much heat?

[2whelman]

I have just added Dualstar heated grips to my 85K100RT, purchased Gerbing socks and jacket and am looking at some additonal lighting, fog/driving and some running lights. The Clymer manual says 480 watt system on bike, but how much does the bike itself need? Am I about to keep warm only by pushing a bike with a dead battery? Any suggestions on driving/fog lights will be helpfull.

[kioolt]

I have just added Dualstar heated grips to my 85K100RT, purchased Gerbing socks and jacket and am looking at some additonal lighting, fog/driving and some running lights. The Clymer manual says 480 watt system on bike, but how much does the bike itself need? Am I about to keep warm only by pushing a bike with a dead battery? Any suggestions on driving/fog lights will be helpfull.

I can't directly answer your question but I can tell you the combination of items that made my 91 K100LT battery go dead twice. Two Eclipse heated vests, factory radio, J & M Intercom, and a Pod cargo trailer with four running lights. I never had any problem with the battery until I was on trips with the trailer and vests. The first time the batery went dead it was less than one year old. After charging the battery and using only one vest at a time I had no more trouble on that trip. I used that same battery for about 7 years before it finally went kaput. After the second time the battery went dead under the same circumstances I installed a 700 watt alternator. I never had the battery go dead with the same things on again.

The 700 watt alternator is the way to go. They can be found on e-Bay for around $50. What a lot of people don't seem to know is that the 700 watt alternator for the oilheads and the K-bikes are interchangeable. You will need to get the appropriate coupling. It doesn't even matter what model year.

[2whelman]

Thanks for the info. I did not find any 700 watt alternator on e-bay though, is there a part number handy for this, or would an alternator from a later model have more juice, and be a drop in fit? I am putting the bike back together this weekend, will see if I have any problems with the stock alt, but my guess is that the battery will complain.


Merry Christmas!

[kioolt]

All of the 700 watt alternators are the same. It doesn't matter which year. If you get an alternator from an oilhead you will need to buy the correct coupling since the oilheads use a belt instead of being directly coupled. The 700 watt alternator will install in only one position because of an arc cut out for clearance so be sure to look for the clearance arc when installing.

The part no. for the 700 watt alternator is

12-31-21-306-020

The part no. for the clutch housing (coupling) is

12-31-2-305-329

[bikerfish1100]

any alternator from a K or oil-head R from '93 forward should fit the bill. unless i'm wrong.

[PGlaves]

Get the coupler for the 700w K bike alternator. Do not try to reuse the coupler from the smaller original one. The small alternator uses a keyed shaft and the larger one has a tapered shaft without a key. I tried using the keyed coupler without a key - relying on just clamping force. It didn't work. Get the right coupler for the tapered shaft. I lucked out. When the coupler started spinning on the shaft it didn't tear the shaft up - but I caught it from the noise quickly. It easily could have trashed the shaft and thus the alternator.

You will also need a different nut for the shaft - the thread size is one mm different. And - the small alternator uses a two-pole slide-on plug for the connector and the 700w uses two ring connectors on posts. You need to cut the plug off and put the two ring connectors on the wires.