XJ650 Starting issues

If your petcock leaks on prime, time for a rebuild! I should never leak.

 

Yet another thing to buy

I tried cleaning the alternator off with a crocus cloth, unfortunately, the brush plate, I'm only able to get one of the two screws off. One of them absolutely refuses to come off. I tried the vice trick i used on the carbs, I don't have a good enough angle or grip.

I hesitate to use a impact Hammer, because of the plastic, though now I suppose I could use like a flathead and a hammer, to do the same thing. If it destroys the screw, I don't care because I have a replacement.

It seems I can take the stator out, but the cable isn't quite long enough to maneuver it out of the housing.

It looks to me like the order of operations to replace an alternator gasket is to first remove the starter motor.

Looking at it though, are you able to remove the starter motor slightly without needing to remove the air box? There is not a lot of clearance

 

Well I wasn't able to get the other screw off so I just put the new Allen key bolt on the other screw that I could get off.
I charged the battery back up. The voltmeter is apparently reading it at 13.3v, I go to turn the bike on, and the main fuse blows.

Is the bolt too long and it touched the alternator? Is the rotor rotated slightly that it touched a case bolt? I don't know.

The main fuse blew immediately as I turned the key on. I didn't even get the chance to start the bike

 

Glurk.
Well you know it didn't do that before your excursion.
You have a short somewhere that's for sure.
Let's not fry the regulator or TCI, that would be bad.

Pull it all apart and inspect before moving forward.

 

Yeah I'm not sure. I only touched the alternator and the battery. The only thing I can think of is that the stator got rotated slightly and is touching a case bolt, or maybe the allen bolt on the brush plate is too "tall" and is touching the rotor? Maybe one of the cables that goes to the alternator/rotor got frayed? the edge of the alternator cover does seem a bit sharp and I tried not having the cable rub against it while I was fighting the bolt.

I really wanted to get the cover off so I could polish it but now ugh.

I couldn't get the stator off, because the cable isn't long enough and the stator is too "deep", without removing the starter motor, and I was hesitant to touch that, since the clearance to remove the bolts is already quite shallow, I wasn't sure how long the bolts are, and whether you'd need to take the airbox off in order to have enough space, or if you could just unscrew the bolts halfway to lift up the pressure off the cable. Too many unknowns.

One of the two screws on the brush plate WOULD NOT come off, debated going out and buying one of those like, tools you use to extract broken bolts (it's not broken but some edges are slightly rounded but it's still savable, but I figure those might have extra "grip"). I tried my JIS screwdrivers but these ones are "shallow". I found a Philips that fit it well, but it was feeling like it was practically welded in there. The other one came off, without too much effort, and I couldn't find any loctite in the hole. This one must have something, I assume.

Anyways, I left it where it was and just replaced the one I could remove with the allen screw so it would be easier in the future to deal with.

There is a voltmeter/usb-c charger connected to the battery, which has it's own 10A inline vacuum fuse, and there's nothing there touching the battery or other components, and that is working fine.

Looking at the circuit diagram, main fuse deals with ignition, R/R, AC, and rear light. I really doubt it has something to do with the rear brake lights (keep in mind everything there was working fine before, and are now using considerably less watts and amps). I suppose the R/R could be going bad, or the TCI (unlikely), but checking over the bike I didn't see anything melted or frayed, so I don't know what else it could be. The fact that the main amp is 20a, something had to push 20~ amps when I turned the key on to trip the fuse.

Could the battery be "overcharged" and that caused it? 13.3 seems a bit high, but I was using my slow charger that is designed for AGM batteries, it's an agm battery, and it was set to AGM. It was 13.4 technically after I blew the fuse, I turned on the voltmeter (it has an on-off switch and was set to off when trying to start the bike) and it said 13.4. I notice when I'm riding the bike that the voltmeter reads around 14.5-14.8 or so when I am going like...idk...40-50mph. So I think the charging system has been working, and I think the voltmeter is accurate.

Google is (as useful as far as you can throw it) suggesting pulling the R/R and the TCI and putting in a new fuse and trying to turn it on again and see if it still pops. Good idea/bad idea?

 

Step back.
It has happened since the generator so.
Disconnect it completely, check and go from there.

The fastener thing... Heat make things expand at different rates.
Especially steel vs alloy.
Alloy conducts heat faster than steel.
Applying heat to alloy helps removing stubborn steel bolts and also loosens up any Loctite applied.
Maps gas torch is handy for these jobs, although melting stuff could be an issue obviously.

 

Especially since the brush plate is just plastic.

I plan on towing it to the tech when I get paid Wednesday and have them look at it, but it will probably be a few weeks at least before they get the chance to even look at it.