My altanator/ stator/ generator...what do I have here?

[DewCatTea-Bob]

" They are multistrand wire.
They are 4 individual, insulated wires. "

____ I had understood that you were getting such wires in four different COLORS but, wasn't sure you were only getting just four separate lengths of wire, as well.
__ At-first, I assumed you were getting a length of prefabbed cabled-wire with four 14-gauge conductor-wires housed within,, and-so thought there was a possibility that it may be formed to be thin enough to fit-through everywhere that the stock alt.cable (with black molded-conduit) does. _ But if you'll have yet to fit all your 14ga.wires in-through a sleeve-jacketing/conduit-housing, then I believe the whole-affair will become too fat to work-out for the job.



" Yes, I want to make my own cable. "

____ That's fine, as you ought to feel some self-satisfaction from completing that mini-project.



" I dont have any conduit, do you have a suggestion? "

____ Yes, I-myself always preferred to use clear nylon-reinforced fuel-line, or in the case where I wished the constructed alt.cable to appear like stock, then instead employed black-rubber fuel-line.
However, it was always too difficult to get four lengths of 16-gauge wires all the way through, so I'd instead have to get-by with one pair of them being 18ga.



" I have some silver solder left over from a air conditioning project. Will that work? "

____ Since your wires are already "silver tinned", then silver-solder should be able to apply & meld well enough,, HOWEVER, I'm afraid that the extra-high heat needed to melt the silver (compared to lead), could quite possibly cause some heat-damage to the parts involved.
So instead you should probably use a solder-blend which doesn't have high lead content (which would melt TOO easily).



" I finally figured out how to multi quote!! "

____ Ahh-yes, I noticed that. _ (I believe most others give-up trying.)
__ If I-myself had learned-how so early-on, I may've adopted doing it that way all the time, (as that's pretty-much how our w.site's software-program intends). _ But since I had long-developed my very-own way of quoting excerpts of posted-wording, I decided to continue-on maintaining it, even after I figured-out how to accomplish what you now realize,, especially since the process of inserting: '[quote ] & [/ quote]' all the time, takes-up even more keyboard-time than I already take to post reply-responses ! _ So I only use that except highlighting-feature when it's extra-useful for particularly denoting parts of a post.


Stay-Tuned,
-Bob

[DewCatTea-Bob]

" I found this for conduit/loom/sheathing: "

___ That stuff looks to be what's useful for multi-wire looming for external-use along the frame-members, etc. _ In any case, it may not be suitable for your alt.cable project, since it requires something more like rubber than plastic.


Hopeful-Cheers,
-Bob

[basketcase]

Ok, so here is my shopping list:
(2) 16 gauge wires
(2) 18 gauge wires
( I will see if I can change my order with my buddy, if not I will check around for other sources.)

Clear nylon reinforced fuel line
Black rubber fuel line
(I'm gonna find both and see witch one works and looks best.)(6 or 7mm I suppose?)

Solder with low lead content
(I'm not sure what the ratio is of my rosin core solder is, Its not labeled. So I will buy some new solder.)

Shrink tubing

[DewCatTea-Bob]

" so here is my shopping list:
(2) 16 gauge wires
(2) 18 gauge wires "

____ If you shop at an auto.supply store, you should be able to select from a number of common solid-colors,, or at an electrical-supply store (only found in large cities), you could possibly also obtain primary-colors striped (such as yellow with black-stripe, or red with yellow-stripe, etc).
Any such combination of yellow, red, black, and green colors would be the most stockish/logical choices to choose for your four alt.wire-leads.
__ I really don't much like the idea of using red or black solid-colored wires for the alt.wire-leads but, it's fairly logical to remain loyal to the colors which Ducati had employed ! _ So that's why I've always preferred yellow-wires with black and red stripings. _ And Ducati used green-wire for ground-leads.
Whatever, you should have an array of colors so that the four wire-leads can be distinctly discerned from the outer-end of your alt.cable.



" Clear nylon reinforced fuel line
Black rubber fuel line "

____ The clear-tubing doesn't really NEED to be the reinforced type.



" (6 or 7mm I suppose?) "

____ That must be your expected ID.size, since I believe that the stock black/molded alt.cable OD is closer to 8 or 9mm thick.



" Solder with low lead content "

____ It doesn't need to be 'low-lead' type (like: 90/10-lead),, rather, just certainly not higher-lead than average, (for instance: 60/40 rather than 40/60-lead [as an example] ).


Good-Luck,
-Bob

[basketcase]

Ok, here's what i have:
14 gauge chemical resistant wire. (Thats the size my buddy gave me). Red, Black, white, yellow.

"Able to take the heat—all the way to 392° F. Also known as hook-up wire, it's abrasion, solder-iron, and oil resistant. Has a silver-plated, stranded copper conductor with PTFE insulation. Temperature range is -67° to +392° F. Meets MIL-W-16878/4 and passes UL VW-1 vertical flame test."

I bought some 1/4 clear nylon reinforced fuel line. It seems a little stiff and too fat to fish thru the crank case. And since I have 14 gauge wires they dont fit thru it easy.
So i came up with some fuel resistant, high flex, shrink tubing. 3/8 and 1/8.

" Shrink Ratio: 2 to 1
Shrink Temperature: 347° F
Temperature Range: -103° to +302° F
AMS-DTL-23053/16 (formerly MIL-DTL-23053/16)
Ideal for vehicles and machines subject to harsh environments, this elastomer tubing resists aviation and diesel fuels, hydraulic fluids, and lubricating oils. The thick walls also provide good abrasion resistance while remaining flexible. Color is black."

This should make fishing thru the crank case easier, and give plenty of room for my 14 gauge wire cable.

I also have some 60/40 solder.

[DewCatTea-Bob]

" here's what i have: "

____ Your wire seems to be top-quality stuff !



" I bought some 1/4 clear nylon reinforced fuel line. It seems a little stiff and too fat to fish thru the crank case. "

____ In the past, I've come across two distinctly different types of such fuel-line... one was foggy-clear and rather stiff & too tough to work with, (and I figured that when it would get old, it may then tend to crack & split-open when bent),, while the other (which was chosen for the job), was very clearly see-through and quite flexible (although not as flexible as the same without the nylon-threading) !
Once the lengths of wire were run-through it, the completed cable did become a bit stiffened to work-through the motor-casing pathway,, so to get it into a more flexible state, it was rolled into a coil and placed under a heat-lamp for about an hour prior to being installed. _ That then made it pretty flexible for getting routed & installed in place,, and if any need for readjustment (to remove any excess slack) arose, then a hairdrier was used to soften-up just the problem areas of it's length.



" And since I have 14 gauge wires they dont fit thru it easy. "

____ I am a bit concerned that four lengths of wire that thick may be too hard to deal with (and that heavy of a gauge is actually a bit of overkill for their expected job),, but if that wire has EXTRA-fine copper-strands within a rather SOFT insulation-coating, then it ought to leave your intended alt.cable to be flexible enough, (although possibly still too fat to fit-through everywhere).



" So i came up with some fuel resistant, high flex, shrink tubing. 3/8 and 1/8. "

____ I've no experience with using such for the intended job, so you'll have to trust your-own judgement on it's suitability. _ Although it's specs do seem to be of suitable quality however.
__ Have you attempted to run your selected wires through that particular tubing yet ?
I'm left unsure of it's dia.dimensions, but if it's ID is only 1/8th", then I'd expect that you'd be lucky just to get two lengths of your intended wire routed-through it.



" This should make fishing thru the crank case easier, and give plenty of room for my 14 gauge wire cable. "

____ If you say so.
Perhaps you should make-sure, by first trying-it-out empty (by itself, before stuffing it with the 4 wires [which you think it can accept] ).



" I also have some 60/40 solder. "

____ That's 40% lead ?
__ Perhaps you should try practicing, by trying to solder a short-length of your wire to one of the terminal-post/eyes on your alt.stator (to make-sure that all goes well with doing such).


Tillater,
-Bob

[basketcase]

____ I am a bit concerned that four lengths of wire that thick may be too hard to deal with (and that heavy of a gauge is actually a bit of overkill for their expected job),, but if that wire has EXTRA-fine copper-strands within a rather SOFT insulation-coating, then it ought to leave your intended alt.cable to be flexible enough, (although possibly still too fat to fit-through everywhere)

The PTFE (teflon) jacket is nice and soft and the wires do bend nicely. The wire with the jacket measures .090 . So mathematically they should fit thru a .217 ID tube. With the shrink tubing added in (.040 wall) the total diameter of the cable is .297 diameter.

I ordered 3/8 ID tubing (before shrinking), and 1/8 ID tubing (before shrinking). Shrink rate is 1/2.

That's 40% lead ?
__ Perhaps you should try practicing, by trying to solder a short-length of your wire to one of the terminal-post/eyes on your alt.stator (to make-sure that all goes well with doing such).

Back in high school (in the early eighty's) I took a electronics class and the teacher told us solder is always measured with tin being the first number and lead being the second number. " And you better remember this cause its on the test!" So i remembered it by relating it to a motorcycle that I liked.... A Honda TL250. A cool trials bike from back in the day. I've never forgotten it.
My solder is 60% tin and 40% lead rosin core.
I will do a test solder joint with the silver tinned wire.

[DewCatTea-Bob]

" The wire with the jacket measures .090 . So mathematically they should fit thru a .217 ID tube. "

____ It's competent of you to have made considerations such as this (which indeed ought to be figured ahead of time),, but still, when the time comes, it can turn-out that the prefiguring doesn't directly correlate with the actual-circumstances as had been expected, (and then leave ya in a perplexed state of affairs). ...
I can envision (at least) THREE of your wires fitting-in/through your chosen cable-conduit/tubing fairly well enough, but a 4th wire may be tough to include, if that tubing isn't very stretchable.
__ An insertion-method which helps with getting all the wires inserted & pulled-through the conduit-tubing (with improved ease !), is to first send-through a single wire (that's intended merely for just this very purpose - as a tool only), and then with one end of it stripped of near 5-inches of it's insulation-coating,, then (assuming it contains 16 individual strands of copper), it's contained strands are separated into 4 separate batches of 4 strands each, and then each of the 4 separately created bundles (of 4 strands) are stagger-cut/trimmed-down about an inch's length apart, so-then that way, you then have your single-wire with four different/varied lengths of bundled-strands. _ And then-next, you (lightly) solder your four intended alt.wire-leads (each individually) to the four created strand-bundles - (that's ONE wire separately by itself, attached to it's very-own strand-bundle, [x 4]).
That way, when your four wires are pulled-through (with the use of your tool-wire), each of the first three wires to be pulled-in, will leave about an inch of staggered length-space leading ahead of the next-following wire (which next has to be squeezed-in/through) - (for virtually emulating a tapered-wedge/funnel-effect).
__ Now I realize that all of this overly detailed prep.work seems rather extravagant for this seemingly simple task, but I've done this particular work enough times to know that more often than not, if ya try to pull all four wires through together all at once (held abreast, rather than staggered), ya can then usually get that bundled-set in/through near-about half-way (into the conduit-hosing) within a relatively reasonable amount of time,, but then-after about half-`way through, the feeding-process begins to slow-down to a craw and becomes a great waste of time & effort to attempt proceeding much further,, and-so ya then have to pull them back-out and try again (with at-LEAST the 4th-wire held staggered somewhat further behind the others [thus only providing just a slight funnel-effect] ).
Most every time I've attempted this job, I'd assume that I could just simply go-ahead & do it the straight-forward way, but then most-always end-up having to start-over. _ So it's actually time-saving overall, to just go-ahead & start-off from the onset with the maxed staggered-attachment arrangement, (even-though the maxed-out [funnel-like wedging-technique] arrangement may-not actually need to be FULLY required for the particular job instance).
(However even with this 'heads-up warning', I expect that most-anyone will STILL choose to go-ahead & try the straight-forward simple-method [first],, and-so likely thus-then learn the lesson for their-self [and waste some of their time anyhow].)
__ Another helpful (and rather more common) trick for assisting with getting all the wires squeezed-through the conduit-hosing, is to first squirt-in a good-deal of silicone-lubricant, (and also spray-coat the wires' insulation with same), so that they'll then slide-through easier.



" With the shrink tubing added in (.040 wall) the total diameter of the cable is .297 diameter. "

____ That's quite impressively thin - (just 7.5mm thick), but by the time a 4th-wire is squeezed-through, it's OD will then likely be nearer to 9mm (and pretty-close to stock).
Still impressively thin for a home-made alt.cable with FOUR 14-gauge individually-insulated wire-leads stuffed-within.
I could expect such a stuffed cable to be 'manufactured' that compacted,, but I-myself always felt rather lucky whenever I managed to somehow just fit four mere 16-gauge wires (within my chosen conduit-hosing).



" I ordered 3/8 ID tubing (before shrinking), and 1/8 ID tubing (before shrinking). "

____ Oh, I-see now. _ I had thought that you were intending to obtain a bundled-selection of various sizes. _ I was hoping that you'd have a size-range of shrink-tubing which could cover every instance of my upcoming instruction-suggestions.



" Back in high school (in the early eighty's) I took a electronics class and the teacher told us solder is always measured with tin being the first number and lead being the second number. "

____ That's right, but these-days I've found that ya can't count on everyone on-line to correctly apply the rules which they should've learned in school. _ So it's become a matter-of-course to double-check that a post-writer actually indeed really means exactly that which they've stated.



" My solder is 60% tin and 40% lead rosin core. "

____ I guess that blend will be sufficiently low enough on lead (to prevent it from being too soft).



" I will do a test solder joint with the silver tinned wire. "

____ Good, as it's best to make-sure that you're going to actually end-up with the expected-results you've planned for, AHEAD-of-time.


____ At this point, you ought-to go-ahead & see-about completing the fitment-task of constructing your intended alternator-cable.
It ought to be constructed for at-least a 2.5-Ft.length, with it's wire-lead pigtails furthermore extended-out 6-inches (temporarily) at both ends, (for an overall-length of at-least 3-feet /[near 1-meter]).
__ I'm fairly interested in how well your particular set of chosen materials end-up working-out.
So long as you don't run-into any fitment-issues, I expect that you'll end-up with a pretty-nice example of a superior-quality replacement-alt.cable. _ (With the only real concern being, how well it works-out AFTER it's conduit-covering has possibly become entirely heat-shrunk.)


Hopeful-Cheers,
-Bob

[basketcase]

At this point, you ought-to go-ahead & see-about completing the fitment-task of constructing your intended alternator-cable.
It ought to be constructed for at-least a 2.5-Ft.length, with it's wire-lead pigtails furthermore extended-out 6-inches (temporarily) at both ends, (for an overall-length of at-least 3-feet /[near 1-meter]).
__ I'm fairly interested in how well your particular set of chosen materials end-up working-out.
So long as you don't run-into any fitment-issues, I expect that you'll end-up with a pretty-nice example of a superior-quality replacement-alt.cable. _ (With the only real concern being, how well it works-out AFTER it's conduit-covering has possibly become entirely heat-shrunk.)

Sorry for the delay, Sometimes life just dosent allow for motorcycles as much as it should.
My (4) 14 gauge wires fit thru my heat shrink tubing with ease. (white, black, red, yellow).
Everything is cut.
I did a test solder with the 60/40 and the silver tinned wire to the alternator ring that had a old wire soldered to it. The 14g fits thru the ring hole and held fast.

[DewCatTea-Bob]

" My (4) 14 gauge wires fit thru my heat shrink tubing with ease. "

____ I had expected that would likely be the case, but only with just THREE wires,, so I've been assuming that the reason you've not reported-back (before now), is because you've been stalled with trying to successfully-attempt to get all-FOUR wires in-through your chosen tubing-conduit.
Thus I'm surprised, as it turns-out that you had such an easy-time of it.
Have you checked to make-sure that it's still thin & narrow enough (with it's four 14ga wires) to fit-through everywhere it has to ?
Also, is your resulted custom-made alt.cable very pliant & flexible, or has it ended-up rather on the stiffer side ?



" I did a test solder with the 60/40 and the silver tinned wire to the alternator ring that had a old wire soldered to it. The 14g fits thru the ring hole and held fast. "

____ There was little-doubt of such success, just considered that you may possibly benefit from such a trial-run before you go-ahead & complete your permanent solder-connections.
__ Next you can go-ahead & cut-down your red-wire & black-wire to the most suitable pigtail-length for connection to the pair of stator-post ring-holes. _ Then solder the red-wire to the upper positioned ring-hole, and the black-wire to the lower-position.
__ Later, before proceeding-on with connecting your white & yellow wire-leads, you'll need to unsolder the two stator-winding lead-ends from the stator-plate & separate, and then determine which lead-end is circuited to your black wire-lead.
But before unsoldering those lead-ends from the plate,, since they are pretty-important to not mishandle (and possibly break-off), you may care to secure them down at their base (right where they exit-out from their coil-winding). _ Perhaps with a gob-dab of silicone (likely temporarily), to help them be held-secure while being soldered to your alt.cable wire-leads. - (Just a precautionary thought, which you may deem unnecessary.)
Also concerning that pair of stator-winding lead-ends,, care should also be taken to not allow any of their remaining thin insulation-coating to possibly fail to continue isolating that pair of lead-ends from one another, (since their tip-ends will no-longer be connected-together).
Also before soldering those two (now to be isolated) lead-ends to your remaining pair of alt.wire-leads, you should first slip-on some short-lengths of shrink-tubing.
Do you happen to have such tubing in a size which will suitably-fit your 14ga.wire-leads, as well as a suitable size that'll fit-over the extended-pair of those wire-leads ?


Hopeful-Cheers,
-Bob