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So you just installed a 6-speed tranny in your 1995 Ultra Classic, FLHTCUI. That, along with your new high-powered CD/stereo radio, are going to be the cat’s meow on your ride to Sturgis. Not being one to chance things, and since it is a nice spring day, you load up your better half and head out on a short shakedown ride. After negotiating the L.A. traffic, you stop for a fill-up and smoke before blasting down to Palm Springs. Once back on the bike, you hit the starter button only to be greeted by that terrible sound of the starter solenoid chattering and the motor’s crankshaft trying hard, but barely rotating.

Your bike suffers from the classic “dead battery syndrome,” or CD-BS. But how could this be? The battery was brand-new last summer; you kept it on a battery tender over SoCal’s short winter and it worked fine last week? Your battery is the victim of your own best intentions. The combination of the added electrical load from the new stereo and the lower engine rpm at highway speed due to the overdrive 6-speed transmission, has got your bike is running on its battery, not the alternator.

This shouldn’t happen; the bike came with a 45-amp charging system? Sad to say, but the story works out like this: The bike’s single-phase alternator doesn’t put out its rated 45 amps until about 3,200 rpm. At your in-traffic cruising speed of 60 mph, your motor is turning about 1,900 rpm and the alternator is putting out a lot less amperage, while the lights, ignition, EFI and radio are eating up over 20 amps. By the time you factor-in “line-loss,” the resistance caused by the bike’s wiring harnesses, your alternator is overdrawn. Well, just like a checking account, this can’t go on forever; after just a couple of hours of treatment like this, the battery is used up and the bike goes into tennis shoe mode.

There is a cure for CD-BS; it’s called a three-phase charging system, which Dennis Kirk has. In fact, Harley has been using 38-amp three-phase alternators on Dyna and Softail models since 2004 and the dressers got a three-phase 50-amp alternator for the 2006 models and so can your 1995 model. So what’s the difference between single phase and three-phase alternators?

The Compu-Fire 40-amp three-phase alternator kit. They have kits available for all bigtwins from 1984-up, Dennis Kirk part number 201366. The stator for a single-phase alternator (left) has 12 coils and the three-phase stator has 18 coils. The three-phase stator fits in the same space in the primary as the single-phase stator.

Alternators produce alternating current (referred to as AC current) its peak voltage and frequency go up and down with your engine’s rpm. The AC current’s polarity is continually changing back and forth, from positive to negative. But batteries use direct current, referred to as DC; the output of an alternator must be changed from AC to DC. This process is done in the bike’s voltage regulator. It inverts the negative part of the AC current, which flips it to the positive side. This results in pulses of DC power at a rate of twice the AC frequency, which still leaves gaps in the alternator’s output power. At lower engine rpm the usable portions of the charging current are small and more spread out. Since total usable power is the average, this results in a significant reduction in usable electric charging power at low engine rpm.

On a three-phase charging system there are three separate alternator windings on a single stator core; they are electrically offset one every 120 degrees. This results in an charging current that is more evenly spaced because of the overlapping AC current, thus eliminating the gaps in the usable power, which increases the charging system’s average power output. The biggest gains come at low rpm, which results in a smoother charge to the battery. Better low speed charging system output will help keep the battery fully charged which will improve battery and starter motor life.

Most 38-amp charging systems only deliver 7 amps at an idle. A stock dresser with a 60-watt headlight, taillight and two running lights in the front uses 9 amps. On a motorcycle that uses 9 amps and an alternator that puts out 7 amps at an idle, the battery would have a 2-amp draw when idling. This would go to 4 amps with the brake light on. This is not a heavy draw on a 16-amperhour battery. Now take that same bike and add a constant 9-amp draw for the fuel pump. This will bring the draw on the battery to 13 amps. This is really a significant draw on a 16-amperhour battery. This will lead to poor battery life and unreliable starting. In this situation, installing a Compu-Fire three phase charging system which delivers 20 amps at 1,000 rpm would eliminate the draw on the battery.

800-970-1318
Shop 100′s of alternator and charging system parts available from Dennis Kirk. Click here for more information.

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Unless you are riding a sport bike, there’s a 90% chance that your front end is a little on the mushy side. Most motorcycle manufacturers don’t set their bikes up for aggressive riding. In fact, because they have to design them to fit the riding style and weight of all types of riders, they can’t make everyone happy.

Although most riders think re-tuning their forks is something that requires a lot of special tools, it not only doesn’t require a machine shop, but you can do it in your garage without getting real dirty. The easiest and most cost-effective fork up-grade you can make is to install a set of high-performance fork springs. The springs can be adjusted for ride height and the weight of the rider by changing their “preload.” On most bikes, it isn’t necessary to remove the fork tubes or even drain the fork oil to install a set of springs.

Dennis Kirk carries the Progressive Suspension kits, they have been making just such springs for decades. Dennis Kirk stocks fork spring kits to fit almost every 1990 to 1999 Harley. They have kits for 35, 39 and 41mm forks. Their spring kits come with their custom wound fork springs, preload bushings, hardware and complete instructions. The instructions list the dimensions to cut the pre-load bushings. Depending on the bike model and if it is for stock ride height, or if you want to lower the bike, the kits retail for about $90 to $170. For our 1991 Softail we ordered Dennis Kirk part number H58672, $112.99.

Our 1991 Softail was typical of most stock forks. With its 41mm tubes, the stock ride felt quite rigid, but for our weight and riding style, bumps, tar strips and potholes sometimes overpowered its compression ability. Getting a grip on the situation only required installing one of Progressive’s stock ride height spring kits. On our Softail, all that was needed was to raise the bike up so that the front wheel was off the ground, remove the handlebar top clamp and then unscrew the fork tube top cap. We removed the stock pre-load bushing and fork spring and replaced them with the spring, washer and pre-load bushing from the kit. The total work time was about two hours. There are two things to be careful of: don’t try to do this with the wheel on the ground, and be careful when unscrewing the fork tube top cap. The pre-load tension is going to be released as the threads disengage; they could fly out of your hands.

Once the new springs were in place, we found the spring kit made for a quick and easy way to a much better ride.

800-970-1318
Shop fork springs available from Dennis Kirk. Click here for more information.

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Are your handlebars sagging? Would you like your bike to have a tighter feeling in the curves? Replacing the handlebar riser bushings in your top triple tree just might be the answer. The factory uses rubber bushings at the handlebar riser mounting points in the top triple trees on their bikes. Those rubber bushings do a good job of isolating motor and road surface vibrations from the rider’s hands. But, even when new, these bushings are not the most rigid mounts for handlebars. Over time, the rubber bushings can deteriorate to the point where there is noticeable slop between the handlebars and the fork.

Our friendly parts man at Bruce Rossmeyer’s Daytona Harley-Davidson gave us the lowdown on Harley’s polyurethane riser bushings kit. These bushings offer a much firmer mount between the fork and handlebars. Because the compound that they are made from is a lot stiffer, they give the rider more road feedback through the bars. They are still compliant enough to isolate most of the high-frequency vibration that can cause some discomfort on longer rides.

Installing the bushings only requires unscrewing the two riser mounting bolts, pulling out the four rubber bushings, (one upper and one lower bushing are used on each mounting bolt) and replacing them with the four polyurethane bushings. The fly in the ointment is that on some bikes, bseveral parts must be removed to get access to the riser mounting bolts. We installed bushing kit P. N. 56298-03 on a 1999 Road King. This bike required that we remove the headlight assembly and ignition lock cover to get to the risers and/or their mounting bolts. All in all, the job took about one hour. The end result was well worth the effort; gone were the sagging bars and milk toast feeling in the grips. At $35 in parts, there is no better bargain for your bike.

Daytona Harley-Davidson
866-642-3463
www.brucerossmeyer.com

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Using Juice To Get A Grip On Things

For riders that don’t have big hands or “arms by Arnold,” getting through heavy traffic can literally be a pain in the left arm. The Harley factory uses a multidisc clutch assembly that is actuated by a hand lever, cable and ball-ramp release mechanism. Spending an hour or so working the clutch lever, as you inch your way through traffic is an unwelcome workout.

As a sidelight, the clutch system isn’t one of those devices that gets easier to use as it is broken in. No, if anything it requires more effort as the cable wears a path inside the cable housing.

There is a better way: Let a little juice do the work for you, as in a hydraulic clutch. There are several ways to convert your Harley to a hydraulic clutch, which up until now, have not only involved replacing the hand control but also the complete clutch release cover on your transmission. Well, the people at Drag Specialties and Magura have changed that.

They have introduced a new hydraulic clutch conversion kit that, as usual, features a hand control/master cylinder but, on the other end, it only replaces the clutch release actuator inside of the clutch cover on the transmission. The kit’s slave cylinder fits in the same location as the ball-ramp mechanism. The kit is very well engineered; installing the kit takes a couple of hours and takes just hand tools.

With the hydraulic conversion installed, riding the bike is a whole new experience. The clutch control is now a two-finger operation. This is a definite improvement. The Magura hydraulic clutch, Drag P. N. 0612-0038 is available at your Drag Specialties retailer.

Note: they also have a kit available for Sportsters.