1 '92 K75 Intermittent Alternator (light) Sun Oct 08, 2023 7:52 pm
jjefferies
Life time member
Second Sunday Breakfast today followed by a ride up N. Morgan Territory Rd out by Livermore. For anyone not familiar with the S.F. Bay Area, Morgan Territory Rd is east of the Bay area out by Livermore and its nuclear labs. But the Rd climbs what I think is several hundred feet in height turning from a two lane country rd. to a one lane rd that the ride leader described as "technical". Meaning that if you got off the side you might technically be dead. Actually it's not that bad and we saw at least a dozen bicyclers pumping up it. But it is steep and twisty and there is NO runoff room.
Things were going fine on the ride out and even when climbing up. Beautiful views of the Livermore Valley. But heading down I noticed that the alternator light would intermittently come on dimly. With time the dimness went away in favor of brightly (even in the bright sunlight) on. Thinking at first it might be due to the slow speeds we occasionally would hit in 1st gear, I tried revving the engine to 5000. rpm but without affecting the light., I also noted that when the light was out(Normal) my digital voltmeter indicated 13.2 V but when the alternator light came on the voltage would drop to 11.2 Volts. This continued and I am of the opinion that the heavy pounding the bike was taking was part of the problem. Once we got back down and onto city streets the problem disappeared even on high speed bumps.
Any suggestions of where to start looking?
Well, other than staying off N. Morgan Territory Rd.
Things were going fine on the ride out and even when climbing up. Beautiful views of the Livermore Valley. But heading down I noticed that the alternator light would intermittently come on dimly. With time the dimness went away in favor of brightly (even in the bright sunlight) on. Thinking at first it might be due to the slow speeds we occasionally would hit in 1st gear, I tried revving the engine to 5000. rpm but without affecting the light., I also noted that when the light was out(Normal) my digital voltmeter indicated 13.2 V but when the alternator light came on the voltage would drop to 11.2 Volts. This continued and I am of the opinion that the heavy pounding the bike was taking was part of the problem. Once we got back down and onto city streets the problem disappeared even on high speed bumps.
Any suggestions of where to start looking?
Well, other than staying off N. Morgan Territory Rd.
Last edited by jjefferies on Sun Oct 08, 2023 8:28 pm; edited 1 time in total