FH - dishonourable discharge

 So after a few weeks on the bench, dealing with the wet-sumping and the fact that I seem to have forgotten how to start the Huntmaster, it now seems to run ok. Only problem is that it won't charge.

First suspicion was some wiring problem, or a failed regulator - crazy really, as in all the years I have used these regulators and wired my own bikes I have never had a problem. With the bike idling I had a look at the dynamo to see if there was anything coming out of it. I saw nothing. Zero volts. Nada.

I had a bit more of a poke around with the multimeter and eventually realised that the problem was a bit more fundamental than even the wiring of the dynamo - it wasn't actually turning! If I turned the armature by hand from the commutator end it was clear that there was actually no resistance - mechanical resistance I mean.

Next step is to turn to the other side and have a look at the drive chain. Normally this is suspended between two sprockets, one on the idler spindle and one on the dynamo - it's not supposed to be lying in a heap at the bottom of the timing case.

I poked around in the grease and pulled out a chain which still had the broken link on the end. Fortunately a bit more poking around found the side plate so I could be satisfied that I had all the broken bits and nothing was going to disappear into the engine and cause some monumental failure.

I bought this chain from Draganfly - and of course I mailed them to say that it had broken after 250 miles. They were excellent and had a new one in the post the same day.

The expert opinion from the AOMCC FB pages is that the chain was probably too tight. There is a recommendation in the Owner's Guide that it should have an 1/8" to 3/16" play - I've always had a bit of a problem with determining chain play and thinking about it I am undecided as to whether the measured play is stretch, with the links tight, or play with the links loose. I am going to try and fix this with that play being given by looseness in the links rather than by forcing the chain to deflect by the given amount. 

The little puller makes short work of removing the idle pinion dynamo sprocket, and attempting to replace the chain without moving the dynamo suggests the chain was way too tight.

It's charging merrily again now and we'll see what happens - if it fails again I might buy a belt drive kit from SRM.