[SilverOrphin13#]

I started up bike and thought I heard a weird sound and lights started flickering. I drove it home which was just under a mile and alternator completely quit and lights went out. The puzzling part is the crankcase breather was blowing oil out when this occurred. I am trying to figure out what the relation would be to the two? I can turn the alternator outside cover by hand now. I am 110% sure something has come undone inside.

You can see stats of my bike listed on my profile. 93" SS sidewinder engine.

This is the alternator I am running on my bike.

V-Twin Manufacturing Chrome Alternator Generator Conversion Kit - 32-1674

www.jpcycles.com

The engine turns over but I did manage to empty my oil tank about halfway.

Any info or insight would be appreciated.

TY Frank

 

[joe49]

Pull that thing off and check for teeth on the gear.

 

[SilverOrphin13#]

Great advice and already was in process. Looks like previous used a shitty China idler gear. Luckily it seems filter caught all the shavings. I opened up the oil pump for good measure and dropped the pan on lower casing. It seems all shavings was stopped from entering engine. So explains the oil blow by as filter was basically clogged. Any advice on putting it all back together or suggestions are appreciated. I just ordered a new Ss idler gear.

 

[Dutch Dennoz]

Flush thorougly Anyhow, you don’t know how long those crystal meth teeth already started to look like that.
Poor quality egg roll gears…and check those other gears for wear or damage , putting in just one new gear can [email protected]#* up twice as hard.

 

[SilverOrphin13#]

Am I able to remove just that gear or have to remove cam gear as well? Ty prior

 

[Dutch Dennoz]

clean the parts like a surgeon first, check your oil for metal flakes. deburr comes in every size!

 

[joe49]

Loose the Vtwin Alt spend some money on a Cycle Electric generator and regulator. On to the engine all oil lines at least removed and cleaned, replaced would be best. Oil tank removed and cleaned. Oil pump comlpetely disassembled and cleaned that means even the fittings. Do not forget the tappet screen. Pay close attention in those nooks and crannies in fittings and in pump and engine passages. When you finish cleaning, it clean it again. Any thing that gets through to the tank will come back to the engine. Under stand the filter which is on the return side has a bypass when it started plugging up it was bypassing unfiltered oil. Now the not so good news the engine may already be fucked. Now what I would do. If I found any metal in the oil tank, I would disassemble the whole engine every part clean and inspect everything and passage for damage. Now many may think this to extreme, but at this point if there is damage it's not terrible, and if there is no damage a gasket set is cheap. Now likely you won't do that so some advice going forward when you have strange noises and something isn't right save your self lots of grief shut it off.

 

[joe49]

More bad I looked up your strainer (oil filter) it's 35 micron vs a Harley which are like 21 micron that equals more crap got threw. A heads up notice those needle like slivers they can be 34 micron across and much much longer and will pass threw your strainer.

 

[SilverOrphin13#]

Hello Joe and thank you for information. So far before I left I had inspected the tappet screen and it was clean. I removed the front valve cover and inspected for metal in front cylinder. Neither had any sign of metal. The oil tank I inserted a magnet into and no metal shards were found just some metal "fuzz" in small amount. I plan on removing pump, oil tank and cleaning. I will also remove the breather gear. The oil lines i am replacing with all new lines. I will look into generator conversion. TY Frank

 

[SilverOrphin13#]

One other thing was I have Delkron lower cases that has the pan and drain plug. I drained oil in sump and found no metal shards or anything stuck to magnetic when i inserted into collected oil. I may have dodge a bullet and no real metals pieces entered the engine.

 

[JasonMcElroy]

I know it's easy (and not totally unreasonable) to blame the M.I.C. gear for this failure, but we're objectivists and scientists here, right?

Another possible cause is gear binding forcing that gear into failure mode.

Did you confirm enough gear lash when setting up the timing case?

I find this is frequently overlooked. Have also experienced many cases where the gears were too tight and I had to try a bunch of pinion gears to get one small enough to leave a little lash. No color coding system for the early ones so far as I know. . . just check until you get one that fits.

Jason

 

[SilverOrphin13#]

I removed valve cover, sump inspection cover and push rod covers. No sign of any metal pieces. The gear that shredded is def not SS quality or hardness. I am waiting on new SS gear to arrive and in meantime flushed oil tank, new oil lines and rebuilt oil pump. Engine tunes over freely and no signs of damage as far I can tell. I will start it up and run for about five minutes and confirm oil flowing back to tank. After that I will flush the oil and add new. Hopefully this will be just a painful past memory. If not I will tear her down for a rebuild. Lol

 

[bigfoot]

I have seen at least 5 other engines ruined from those alternators. They're great for breaking gears due to the vibration they cause from the pulsations from there strong magnets. Get rid of it! Go with a regular generator.

 

[Scott McKelvey]

I have seen at least 5 other engines ruined from those alternators. They're great for breaking gears due to the vibration they cause from the pulsations from there strong magnets. Get rid of it! Go with a regular generator.

4th vote for the alternator having something to do with it.