TOPIC:

I mounted a sidecar on a '78 KZ650 B2. The extra lights cause the headlight to run dimly and the signals are slow. I checked on availability of alternator upgrades and they have them for later models. Can I change rotor, stator and cover and make it work? Any other ideas?

I haven't diagnosed the electrics yet to see if there's something wrong but I'm pretty sure I will need more output.

Post edited by: GaryG, at: 2007/06/26 15:02

You might look into replacing the stator, rotor, and regulator with those from a GPz750 Turbo. I'm pretty sure that either Ricks or Electrux makes high output stators and reg/recs for the 650's.

Another option is to convert as many lights as possible to LEDs.

steell wrote:

You might look into replacing the stator, rotor, and regulator with those from a GPz750 Turbo. I'm pretty sure that either Ricks or Electrux makes high output stators and reg/recs for the 650's.

Another option is to convert as many lights as possible to LEDs.

I did see high-output stators but they don't list them for this year. I'm going to give them a call.

I checked the voltage. It's 14.4 with no lights at 2000 RPM. It dips to 12.85 or so with lights on but without the small sidecar headlight. With that, it goes down to 12.25. Not good enough, in my view.

I didn't think of LED's. Good suggestion. I'll check it out. I did thing of a headlight modulator but that would only help in the daytime.

Gary, measure the voltage again at a bit higher rpm... such as 4K rpm... where you will actually be running with the extra lights most of the time. The 2K rpm is a bit too close to idle where the battery isn't going to charge too much anyway. I think if you look at a higher rpm, the story won't be so grim.

Actually, it doesn't get much better at 4k. I'm going to switch what I can to LED and see where that leaves me.

Thanks