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Rotor should not need to be re-magnetised as it relies on the smaller centre coil to give the magnetic field required and the rotor will just break down the field to create a voltage. I’d be looking at the regulator.
I would guess that they will be pretty similar on the exciter side of things and all that may change would be more windings in the outputs. To add more to the exciter coils would mean heavier duty internals to feed it as resistance will change, so as they would all be using similar calculations for the electronics (and probably suppliers) they would most likely work.
What you have to be careful of when mixing and matching is the battery current (which Michael had considered) and also the resistance of the exciter coil as it will affect the regulator which may not be able to supply enough current to the exciter to get the voltage flowing.
The thing to remember here regards total number of wires is that the combined regulator / rectifier will have only 3 wires in from the alternator and 3 out (1 to battery, and two going to the exciter coil in the alternator to regulate the output.) whereas the seperate items will have 3 into the rectifier and one out, and one into the regulator (from the rectifier) and 3 out (battery and two to the exciter coil). The regulator varies the voltage to the exciter coil to change the voltage / current from the 3 output coils of the alternator.
Indicators on my bike did flash at a different rate due to a blown idiot bulb. And I think they should have 25 watt indicator bulbs as the standard 21 watts used by most cars isn’t enough draw to make the bi-metallic strip heat up in the flasher unit
When I first got my bike the starter was turning but the engine wasn’t. That turned out to be the main outer gear turning inside the starter when it should have been fixed solid. I packed mine out so it was clamped tighter when the two ends of the starter were bolted up tight. It’s still working..
Sounds like you have some serious issues there. It may be worth bearing in mind that the alternator on the twin needs a voltage fed in to get a voltage out (inner coil is an exciter coil which has a voltage varied by the regulator to maintain the voltage of the output at a set rate) if the battery voltage was low then the charge rate would be low, although my bike has charged from a battery which only just ran the neutral light 🙂
Michael is correct in saying the 3 outputs from the alternator (yellow wires) can go in any order as they are just feeding through a bridge rectifier to be turned into one direct current voltage into the regulator.
As Michael said if you have no voltage increase when the bike is running and revving above 1500 rpm, there is a charging fault and just running the bike will slowly drain it. Check the earth lead (negative battery lead) and check the connections to the rectifier and voltage regulator.
You can also check voltages at the 3 yellow wires from the 3 phases of the alternator, and these are prone to corrosion in the multiplug connector.
Points only systems will keep running at even very low voltages, down to 6 volts but you will get misfires as the battery gets lower.Battery chargers with low outputs will take a long time to recharge your battery, on a twin I believe it would be 14AH (14 amp hour) battery so if your charger only outputs 500 ma (1/2 an amp) it will take around 28 hours to charge your battery back up fully. Voltages are an easy way to measure batteries, but not the most reliable method (as a forklift truck engineer working on battery powered trucks this is something I have a fairly good knowledge of).
You need to do one thing at a time, as your battery seems to be dropping off, that needs to be corrected before worrying about electric starters which will drain a battery very quickly (they can draw 100’s of amps so as an example a 14 A/H battery being asked to supply 280 amps will be dead in 3 minutes). So before anything else you need a good battery and charge system, bearing in mind lights, indicators, stop lights, running the coil for ignition etc. all take power which the battery won’t keep up with unless you have a good charge system to keep the power flowing.
Another thing to bear in mind is if you use the bike for a short journey and park it up, and then another journey and another rest, the battery will pick up a little as it stands (to a certain extent anyway) and can make it seem as if the battery and charge circuits are OK for a while, so your 150 miles if done in one go would kill a battery if it’s not charging but a few trips with rests will allow it to recover slightly each time.
Reminds me of the golden oldie joke..
I was sitting on the train when a beautiful Thai girl sat opposite me. I kept finding myself looking at her and couldn’t stop. I thought to myself “please don’t get an erection” but she did.
