Alternator fixed with cornflake box

[Barnsey]

Could anybody say how important the Mica rectangles on the alternator coils, C15 3 wire, are? 

A few are falling apart on mine.  Weirdly someone has replaced them with cardboard taken from a box of cornflakes by the look of it!
 
I briefly looked at getting a new alternator, but the correct ones are few and far between, and converting to a newer design could get expensive. 

  I'll see if I can get some photos. 

[Barnsey]

Here's a photo wot I took.

[iansoady]

To solve a rather similar problem on my Norton Electra, which had a partial short on one of the starter motor brush leads, I used a slice from a plastic pop bottle. As it's a superior Waitrose one it works well. ALDI may not be as successful.

[Barnsey]

Ahhh!  So they are primarily to stop shorting on the rotor.  Although I would have thought that mica would be more heat resistant than a pop bottle. 

  The last couple of pop bottles I have bought at ALDI, so a trip to Waitrose is in order 

  Ahhh... but which is a superior plastic, PET or poly-prop.....

[limeyrob]

The flat clear plastic they pack food in is very useful.  Its just the right harness / bendiness and very consistent. It makes great shims too.

[Barnsey]

Does anyone else remember the bit in 'Zen and the art of motorcycle mechanics'  where they are using drinks cans to make shims, to the annoyance of the bike owner?   It is coming back to haunt me. 

[V500]

I found "Zen" was a very useful book....that bench would still be rocking side-to-side if not for that copy of psycho-babble.

[limeyrob]

A friend of mine swore by it, but then I did once find him swing a pendulum over his car engine trying to divine why it wouldn't start.  And no, I don't think it worked.

[iansoady]

Does anyone else remember the bit in 'Zen and the art of motorcycle mechanics'  where they are using drinks cans to make shims, to the annoyance of the bike owner?   It is coming back to haunt me. 

I love the bike maintenance aspects of the book, especially that one. But some of the philosophy leaves me cold.

[Derek996]

Does anyone else remember the bit in 'Zen and the art of motorcycle mechanics'  where they are using drinks cans to make shims, to the annoyance of the bike owner?  It is coming back to haunt me. 

I made shims from drink cans to adjust the swinging arm side play on a Ducati Pantah that I restored a few years ago. I found that the metal from steel cans was 0.1mm thick (4 thou) and aluminium ones 0.15mm ( 6thou). Very useful.