What have you done to your bike today....

MartytheMartian

MartytheMartian

Legendary Knight
Well today I put a new 44 tooth Sprocket on the Daytona ( Just managed to fit it with enough slack at the absolute minimum chain adjustment even though I had already dropped a tooth on the front sprocket. The Renthal 42 Teeth one I took off turns out to be alloy. Apart from the weight is there any other advantage to Alloy Sprockets? I would have thought that Alloy would be too soft for the job.

After the sprocket was done I removed the Reg/Reg that I had nicked off my Sprint and installed a new Electrex one. Fitting was a doddle, you get an aluminium plate of about 4mm to act as some extra heat sinking and it the output connects direct to the battery via an inline fuse. The Reg/rec from the Sprint was putting out about 13.8V and the new Electrex one is putting up a stable 14.5V. After that I re-fitted the removed reg/rec in it's old home on the Sprint. Jeezus whoever decided on the mounting point for the Reg/rec on the Sprint must have been a feckin sadist! When you try to get the bolts in you can't see where they are going and once they are in you can't easily get an Allen Key or Allen bit in to tighten them up because the wiring loom, shock absorber and upper crankcase all get in the way!
 
MartytheMartian

MartytheMartian

Legendary Knight
I have now put the Sprint back together and run the engine and the regulator on her is putting out the same 13.8V as it did on the Daytona. I guess that just happens to be what that particular one let's through. I suspect it's an older Electrex or possibly another MOSFET regulator/Rectifier. It's definitely not the OE one. Electrex quote a voltage anwhere between 13.5 to 14.8 as being acceptable output. Is this 'tolerance' simply the vagaries of how the device works?
 
Sarky B’stard

Sarky B’stard

Legendary Knight
The voltage output, in analogue terms, has a regulating valve ….. a zener diode that recycles excess voltage and prevents it reaching the battery. That’s why they get hot. The alternator produces more AC power than the DC battery can store. It get limited & rectified (AC to DC wave form) which is what the battery eats and regurgitates!
 
MartytheMartian

MartytheMartian

Legendary Knight
I thought the Zener diode was between the positive inside the regulator and the negative so that, if the voltage exceeded a certain level the Zener would break down and allow the excess to flow to the negative terminal on the battery essentially short circuiting the output from the rectifier. I believe that in the types, such as the Electrex a MOSFET transistor replaces the zener diode and, when the Gate voltage reaches a desired limit, it then allows the current to pass to the negative and so does the same thing that the Zener diode did but without a forced breakdown like the Zener. I have to say that my new Electrex doesn't heat up the way the Sprint rectifier did so that may suggest that the Sprint's one actually utilises a Zener rather than a MOSFET. When the Sprint is finally tidied up and ready for the road I may well think about fitting it with a new Electrex as well although I really don't relish the job of trying to fit one as it really is a bloody murderous task!
 
Sarky B’stard

Sarky B’stard

Legendary Knight
MartytheMartian said:
I thought the Zener diode was between the positive inside the regulator and the negative so that, if the voltage exceeded a certain level the Zener would break down and allow the excess to flow to the negative terminal on the battery essentially short circuiting the output from the rectifier. I believe that in the types, such as the Electrex a MOSFET transistor replaces the zener diode and, when the Gate voltage reaches a desired limit, it then allows the current to pass to the negative and so does the same thing that the Zener diode did but without a forced breakdown like the Zener. I have to say that my new Electrex doesn't heat up the way the Sprint rectifier did so that may suggest that the Sprint's one actually utilises a Zener rather than a MOSFET. When the Sprint is finally tidied up and ready for the road I may well think about fitting it with a new Electrex as well although I really don't relish the job of trying to fit one as it really is a bloody murderous task!
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Pretty much. There are several possible designs all doing much the same with multiple diodes including the zener switch. Picture is worth a thousand garbled words.
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Sarky B’stard

Sarky B’stard

Legendary Knight
chas said:
Do you have to remind them that 'Count' was never a rank in the Army?
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No. Count isn’t a feature of the British aristocracy anyway. It’s a title that marks out Johnny Foreigner, especially French and Italians. Even Germans prefer Graf. Besides, I’d fancy being one tank higher, a Marquis de Sarky doesn’t sound too ‘sad’ now does it? Count pah! Equates to Earl which goes back to Anglo-Saxon and Viking House Carls or Jarls (Yarls) Probably explains why so many say Ya! not Yes 🤨

Better be careful with the cucumber jokes, Duck. I hate the bloody things. I would quite cheerfully stick them…….

And funnily enough I’m suddenly reminded there’s a self important former colleague in the village who does throw his former rank about. I genuinely never use mine. I was asked if I had worked for him. The local gamekeeper said word got round fast when I replied, “No. Actually he worked for me.” Some people need to get a life. S**t! I’m stuck with you lot.
 
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MartytheMartian

MartytheMartian

Legendary Knight
I could never be 'posh' as I hate cucumbers! It ain't even just that I don't like them it's that even the smell of the feckers makes me gag and if I even tried to eat one I'd puke. Same goes for lettuce, it makes me physically sick. Even if someone gave me something that has touched cut cucumber or that they have handled after handling cucumber will make me gag even if I don't know that cucumber has been involved. Folks say it has almost no smell or taste but I can smell it a mile away and it tastes really strong and nasty to me. I guess I have a natural intolerance for it.
 
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