Add this to the list of "Dumb Stuff" one does over his lifetime. The older one gets the more "Dumb Stuff" he seems to do.
Being a Geezer, I'm not too happy anymore about crawling around on a hard garage floor, so when I want to put a good cleaning on the Magna I use the 'Ol Cherry picker and put it up on an old welding table, strap it down with some "new" hold down straps and clean away to my hearts content or until I feel the need to take a nap.
Last week, after bringing the bike back from Louisiana in the back of the truck, needless to say it needed a good cleaning. After it was finished and I put it back down on the floor with the side stand straight out, I released the cherry picker and watched the bike very slowly, move forward on the side stand, (cause I didnt't have it pushed forward where it locks in place), and fall gracefully to the floor. **** !! Geezers use that word too, just not in front of Grandkids and wimmen.
Seems the alternator cover fell against the foot of the cherry picker thus punching a hole through it. Didn't notice it 'til it was warming in the driveway and dropped a nice (Harley like) puddle of oil.
First thing on the agenda after cooling down by kicking the dog is to find out what a new cover cost and when I could get one. $282.38 and two weeks delivery at the local dealer. I will be looking for a used one, but in the meantime I got to call on my pre-retirement skills of fixing the thing. Following is a recap of it all with some pictures in case anyone else runs into the same situation, or similar, with another cover for that matter.
First thing I found out is that the alternator runs in engine oil. Cool huh? Anyhow, I removed the 5 bolts (8mm socket) holding the cover in place. For the bottom bolt, loosening the foot peg mounting at the bottom frame under the exhaust pipe makes it easier to get the bolt out. A little oil will run out so I just put down some throw away paper towels to catch it, maybe a couple tablespoons at the very most. Once the bolts are taken out you will find that the armature is bolted into the cover with 4 more screws (5mm allen). There is what appears to be a small vent hose at the top of the cover that turns out to be the wiring to the alternator. To hold it into the cover there is a small spring clip.
It just slides out with a tug releasing the wiring harness from the cover. Then you remove the Allen screws. I would suggest being careful not to dislodge the wiring from the armature, and just leave the armature to the side of the engine. Like this:
Unfortunately, I didn't think to do this note before I had repaired the cover or I would have taken a picture of the hole as it was.
So now we go to the cover. As the hole was a "punture wound" so to speak, I laid the cover on a pile of towels to protect what chrome is left and took a hunk of 1/2" steel rod with a hammer and gently, "a little at a time", from the inside, beat it 'til it was level with the outside once again, thus closing the hole but not punching the diecast material through.
The pencil is sitting on the diecast where it used to have chrome. There is also a scarf mark across the "H" that wasn't through but dented slightly so I hammered that back out too and repaired the back just in case.
Flipping the cover over I mixed up some really cool epoxy glue that I stole from work before I retired 4 years ago and proceded to mix it up like I did so many times before. This stuff doesn't seem to be affected by anything like oil or gas so I used it a lot in the past for this type of repair. It does, however have to dry overnight and remains in a kind of soft state when cured (ya know? not glass hard like a lot of epoxies). Good Shit Maynard !!
I just drizzeled (sounds like I'm decorating some kind of fancy cake) a little bit over each wound to a thickness about a 1/16" deep and let it set for the night. This morning I went out to make sure it cured and then took a razor blade to the mating surfaces to make sure they are super clean. All I need now is a gasket which I hope the dealer has tomorrow. Oh yeah, I need a used cover too. I'll be damned if I pay that kind of money for a diecast cover that you cant drop the weight of the bike on once in awhile.
I have used this website for the last couple years now and I hope this helps someone out the same as you guys have helped me in the past. This same thing can be used for any kind of cover damage like that, I even repaired a friends gas tank with the stuff years ago. With the gas tank you might be able to speed up the curing by putting a cutting torch to the inside of the tank to make it warm. (Geesh, don't do that !!! That's another story of "Dumb Stuff" Incidently the picture of the bike has the hole in it (member #1229), I had just rolled it out to make the picture and didn't start it at the time.
George Rousseau ("V45Geezer" on the website)
