Eletric System Upgrade Part 2

The weekend after the last post I started working on the conversion. I thought I had all the parts I needed. I guess not. But we’ll get to that in a minute.

Disassembly

Since the stator is bathed in oil, the first job is to drain the oil. Ghost has been lowered in the back end by about a half-inch, just enough to make it near impossible to get a pain under the drain bolt and still get in there to loosen the bolt. So, I use the handy ATV lift to raise the bike to a good work height. You can use a variety of containers as catch pans. I like using this old kitty litter jug; some use 1 gallon oil containers or anti-freeze container with the side cut out. The idea is to use something with a pour spout to ease in draining later.

Next, I removed the left side floorboard and mounts, shifter arms, and outer cover. To remove the left side inner cover, the motor must be loosened in its mounts so the motor can tip to the “right”. The motor sets lower than the frame rails, so lower the bike off the ATV jack, position a small jack under the motor, remove the bolts from the left side motor mounts, loosen the right side mounts and jack up the motor until all screws can be removed from the left side cover. That bottom one was the tightest one of the bunch, too!

To loosen the right side mounts, I had to remove the right side floorboard mount and remove the right side frame section. I used a bungee to support the board and rear brake master cylinder otherwise the whole thing would hang by the rear brake switch wires. Not that they work anymore anyway….

This is the inside of the inner cover with the stator mounted in position.

The pictures don’t show it well, but the D-1 inner cover is smaller in diameter than the E-2 cover. The E-2 rotor and stators are larger in diameter. This contributes to the overall improved charging capability.

Using a penny wedged in the front counter balancer gears and an electric impact wrench, I removed the screw holding the rotor on the crankshaft. I then removed the spacer, ratchet and rotor.

El Crappo!

Here’s where I first discovered I may have a problem. The rotor on the D1 has the front counter balancer drive gear pressed on. The E-2 has a separate drive gear. I did not get this separate gear. A quick check of http://www.buykawasaki.com/ diagram of the crankshaft showed that the gear is a separate item with a spacer welded on to keep the distance from the rotor. Crap! A quick call to Wes (where I got my parts) and said gear is on it’s way.

El Crappo Dos!

Next I see that the ratchet for the D-1 is smaller in diameter than the E-2. Another call to Wes and the right size ratchet and spacer are also on the way.

Since I’m now waiting for parts, I decide to test fit the new stuff to see how well this goes.

El Crappo Tres!

Notice anything missing in this picture? Can you say “Inner Stator Mounting Points”? Yep, the left side engine casting was changed and four little mounting points were added for the inner stator to mount to. Shit. I’ve decided that I can drill and tap four holes in the casing if I build a template that fits right over the crankshaft spines. I’ll have to space the stator out from the drive gear using washers and I’ll need to red loctite all the screws to prevent a catastrophic engine failure.

One last thing I noticed was the top mounting hole on the E-2 inner cover does not line up with the engine case. This shouldn’t be a big deal as other screws are close enough to hold everything in place, but I could have an oil seep from this place.

Other foreseen modifications:
First, I’ll need to test fit the front shift shaft on the E-2 inner case. On the D-1, the shaft is clipped in place through the inner case. On the E-2, the shaft is pinned through the outer most inner case. It’s also about an inch or so toward the front of the bike. This may pose some difficulties mounting the shifter arms as they, too, are different between the D and E. But, I figure I can either chop the E-2 outer cover or modify the D-1 cover to work. If the latter, I’ll re-sell the E-2 cover on Ebay. Also, the front to rear shift shaft arm will need to be longer. I believe this is just readirod, but I need to check the thread first. If metric, I’ll probably cut and weld a section of rod into the stock shaft. If SAE (doubtful), I can replace with longer redirod.

Then there’s the whole splicing into the wiring harness for the additional rectifier and finding a place to mount it. Assuming I can mount the inner stator. If I can’t, then I’ll just go with the outer E-2 stator and rotor and cut bait on the rest.

Ride Safe!
Bierkan