About 2 weeks ago, while cruising on the highway approaching the Port Mann bridge that connects Coquitlam to Surrey BC, my tach suddenly and I mean suddenly plunged from 5500 rpm as I approached the bridge deck. Wasting no time, I quickly pulled to the side as cars and trucks past me and my poor Brick. The bike had no power and my thoughts quickly led me to believe dead alternator. A few hours before, I noticed the voltmeter showed less than 10v and my over-confident self thought I had enough battery juice to get me home after my doctors appointment. Suspecting the bike would not start if I parked in the underground parkade, I wisely found the top of a steep hill a few blocks away to park so I could bump start the Brick after the appointment.
After dying on the highway and letting my family know I was ok but would be late getting home, I called for emergency road service. Kudo's for the Platinum emergency BMW road service as I got a free tow home. That's two tows in the last year so I want to say thanks to our BMWMOA association for providing great value for its members.
The intent of this post is that while I ordered a used alternator from eBay, it would be about 7-10 days before I would get the unit delivered and home for me to replace. Deciding a little research may not hurt, I stumbled on this YouTube link that tells and shows how to replace the brushes on Bosch alternators. Removing the regulator to access the brushes was dead easy and I found mine were well under the recommended minimum of 5mm. Mine were 3mm.
The hardest part for me was driving from one end of town to the other showing my used brushes and regulator trying to locate replacement brushes. I literally went to the final shop before finding the brushes and got a pair for ten bucks.
Here's the link
http://youtu.be/bTcMD5_EznI
After dying on the highway and letting my family know I was ok but would be late getting home, I called for emergency road service. Kudo's for the Platinum emergency BMW road service as I got a free tow home. That's two tows in the last year so I want to say thanks to our BMWMOA association for providing great value for its members.
The intent of this post is that while I ordered a used alternator from eBay, it would be about 7-10 days before I would get the unit delivered and home for me to replace. Deciding a little research may not hurt, I stumbled on this YouTube link that tells and shows how to replace the brushes on Bosch alternators. Removing the regulator to access the brushes was dead easy and I found mine were well under the recommended minimum of 5mm. Mine were 3mm.
The hardest part for me was driving from one end of town to the other showing my used brushes and regulator trying to locate replacement brushes. I literally went to the final shop before finding the brushes and got a pair for ten bucks.
Here's the link
http://youtu.be/bTcMD5_EznI
