Wierd Alternator motor combo

[ManitoulinLad]

I thought I'd mention this as I did not find this out anywhere in the searches. I am kinda takin' my bike apart & redoing all electrical etc on it. Better in the tarped shed then on the side of the road. I have a '81 midnight special with a '82 XJ motor in it. The P.O. had this bike 4 yrs ago at a big bike shop in southern ont. & had $3000 put into it, then only put a 1000 kms on it, then it was basically negleted after that. They put the XJ motor in it etc. I went to pull of the alternator cover seeing that it was an XJ motor I would have an alternator with brushes (went thru all of this with my XS650 what p.i.t.a. that system is) so the cover is on an XJ motor and it is the orignal black cover from the midnight motor & behold - the alternator is the permainent magnet one & is super clean & in excellent shape - I looked up & figured the bike gods where takin' car of me somewhere. What great luck. Mantenance free power. Man that cover was put back on & sealed in a hurry. I will never have to bother with that again. I thought that you could not fit a permainent magnet alternator on a newer motor. I thought that the covers etc would not let it work. This proves it can & I thought I would everyone know. I also went to the other side to do the pick up coil wire fix & low & behold this was all brand new, no fixy for me. I guess thats where some of the 3 grand went to. It was a great evening & now I'm ready to start to paint. - Dan

[bikerphil]

Yep, they had to put the older style components on the XJ motor so everything would plug right in to the harness, looks like.

[John]

What you probably have is, who ever did the engine swap used the original XS parts on the XJ engine. I did the same swap some years ago, in my 80SG, and it was much easier to use the XS peices, and not have to refit the harness to accept the XJ wiring. Tell me, does the alternator cover have just the Yamaha logo only, or is there the YICS decal right below the Yamaha logo?
It will be much easier to maintain in the configuration you have.

[ManitoulinLad]

It has the Yamaha logo with 2 gold rings on it. It is the case from the midnight special on it.

[trbig]

Mine was the other way around. When I got my bike, it had a '78 motor in it with all XJ electricals.

As far as maintenance... I've never wore out a set of brushes yet.. and these were used when I put them on over 20k miles ago. To replace them is @ $10 and two screws. Seems pretty simple system to me to have a lot more juice than the XS has... but that's just my opinion.


Tod

[ManitoulinLad]

Yeah your lucky or maybe the XS1100 system had better quality control than the XS650. The problem with the 'old' units is that the rotor with the copper face can over time can get pitted & or rough & or have a grove in it from the brushes & this then wears out the brushes very quickly (sometimes just one brush & not the other due to the face on the rotor). With the tremendous heat that is generated from the motor and the sealed unit itself the wires etc "over time" become brittle etc. Also with the heat the insulation (glue around the rotor holding the coiled wire) can become brittle & a broken wire in this unit can result in a bad rotor. Its the rotor more often that lets go or some of the wired connections due to the heat. Glad to hear yours is trouble free. My expereince with this unit cost me a re-build of stator & rotor ($400) then I was fine with the same brushes even after 18,000 kms. I think that just due to 'age' this unit is more prone problems if any will occur. - Dan

[81xsproject]

That's funny. I am planning just the opposite. I could use the additional amperage of the XJ alternator for the new FI system. The plugs look the same but I am not sure it will be that straight forward. Anybody ever do this?

[ManitoulinLad]

The 'XJ' system does give more juice, I am just going with the LEDS & try to save more juice that way for the battery. For me, with my previous bad experience (down time of 2mths & $400 to re-build) I just want to stay away from it & was happy as hell to see that I could when I opened the case. Good luck with your transfer of systems. - Dan

[81xsproject]

Well I am pissed. I went to partsnmore and they are out of stock of the brushes (5 bucks ea.). I will have to watch and see they restock them. Bike bandit wants like $50 buck ea.

[ManitoulinLad]

Yeah before I pulled the case of of mine I checked out partsnmore & they were out then too. I checked my local Yamaha dealer & he also wanted around $50.00/ brush. - Dan

[81xsproject]

Yeah, I got an email that they would no longer be carrying them. I wonder if the ones from mikes would work they are a different part number, but it looks like a similar set up.

[trbig]

What's their email? I'm going to try to see if they can order the brushes one more time if we can get enough people together to make a bulk order of them.

[randy]

If you can get the dimensions of a new one, I'm sure we can find a replacement. Carbon brushes have been around a LOOOONG time!

[randy]

I found this at:

www.cyclewareables.com

Alternator Brush set

XJ650/XJ550/750/1100 79~ CWCRB1 $19 2-PIECE SET
CWCRB1
Qty: Price: $19.00