Plug wires & charging rotor question

[shinyribs]

I got the wiring done on the bike,but it's shooting sparks everywhere. Wires and boots are both leaking. The wires on the bike now are solid core wires. I have tons of automotive suppression core wire. Can I use that and just not run resistor plugs? Or should I keep the resistor plugs? Oooor is suppression core wire useable in the first place?

Help please, all this 3 ohms, 5 ohms, resistor plug ,resistor cap......etc stuff on these bikes is nuts. What happened in Japan in 1969? Seems they went nutz

Also, I keep seeing people on here testing the rings on their rotor. I have never fooled with the charging system on my other bike since it works fine,but decided to test the system on the chopper. I saw nothing in the FSM about rings on a rotor. It had info about the stator coil and the field coil,which checked out fine,but nothing about testing the rotor. Isn't the rotor just a big hunk of steel? I could see where it is a three different pieces made together,but I never saw any type of anything to test. I'm probably wrong. Correct me please

[alehman]

Hey shiny,

when you take off the alternator cover the face of the the rotor is a dirty copperish plate with a few rings like this:



I'm not sure the specifics of the SOHC charging system testing but on my 79K I had to test the resistance between the two shinier rings. There should be some resistance (something between .40 and .50 ohms) although my there is no factory specified value to look for. If it reads as very high (infinity), you have an open in your winding. Also check for continuity between each ring and the center core of the rotor, which is the ground. if there's continuity there then there's a short in the winding.

[shinyribs]

Hmmm. My rotor doesnt have a face like that. Or do I have to pull the rotor to see the face on the other side?

[alehman]

Well, the stator has little brushes that run along those copper rings to maintain electrical contact so those rings should probably be on the same side the stator is on. Your rotor face might also be really dirty with carbon deposits. Try wiping it well with some sort of cleaner.

Also just thought: look into the alternator cover for those brushes. They look like two twin bars, and their placement should correspond to where the rings on the rotor are.

[shinyribs]

That just the thing. Ive never found any brushes on either bike. I think im completely missing something

[TOOLS1]

No rings on your rotor Shiny. That's DOHC stuff. Also get the correct plug wires.
TOOLS

[alehman]

oops, my mistake!

[shinyribs]

Ah,cool. I thought I was going crazy. I really dont understand how it works without brushes...but oh well


and by correct wires you mean soild? Right,spend more money


lol.Its all good alehman, i was looking for the rings and brushes,so we were on the same page.

[LukeM]

The reason for a little resistance in the plug caps has to do with protecting the ignition coils.

If the output of the coil (spark plug lead) is shorted to ground, the coil will deliver the maximum amount of current to ground.  This is a bad thing, and tends to kill the coils.  Even a little bit of resistance (2-3 ohms) will keep it healthy.  I believe both bikes use the solid wire core for spark plug wire, as the output of the coil is a bit weak.  Also, the reason cars use the suppression wires is to keep static away from the AM portion of the car radio, which was commonplace in the 60s and 70s (before FM and such took over).  

I would assume the same goes for the charging system: a little bit of resistance in the rotor (again, 2-3 ohms, if memory serves) keeps things going longer.

Strictly my opinion/observation. Your mileage may vary.
Luke M

[shinyribs]

Thanks Luke,that makes perfect sense to me. I misspoke when I said suppression core. I meant graphite. I dont plan to install a radio so I dont think I'll need the supression core. I ended up robbing the factory resistor caps off hackjob tonight to get the chopper running. I love spare parts.


Oh,and on what you mentioned about the coil. I touched the starter button when it was wired without resistor caps and it threw a 1 1/2'' FAT blue spark! My race car ignitions never did THAT! It's quite subdued now that it has resistor caps.

I discussed this with Eric today and he said that running the iridiums ( resistor type plug) along with the factory resistor type caps is why my bike idles rough after installing them. He said iridiums should be run without resistor caps.Anyone else have any info on this?