Iron Barrel Alternators

There are basically three alternators that were used in the Iron Barrels. From 1995 until mid 1999 they were affectionalty known as the “3 wire” alternator. It ran the entire bike from headlight to taillight. It had a two piece rectifier and regulator. It was also marginal in terms of being able to keep up with the needs of the bike. This was because all US bikes are wired with the headlight on all the time. This alternator was never intended for this type of load. It had a smaller 7 amp hour battery. The three wires of the alternator were reduced to two wires as they went to the regulator/rectifier. Alternators produced AC current and the rectifier turns it into DC. Two wires in, two wires out. The regulator’s job is to regulate the voltage so that it only charges when needed and does not overcharge the battery. These early units were plagued by weak rectifiers.

In mid 1999 the AC/DC system was introduced. This was a four wire alternator which produced more power. The alternator was split in half electrically with two of the wires providing power only to the headlight and the other two powering the bike through the regulator/rectifier. It has plenty of power to keep the lights and the bike running full time.The headlight could care less if you are pushing AC or DC through it. The headlight circuit has it’s own small voltage regulator under the seat – it looks like a flasher).  The regulator/rectifier units were upgraded from the earlier ones and rarely fail.

When the Electric starter was introduced in 2002 an even more powerful unit was required. Enter the third and final 4 wire alternator. This alternator was used with a 14 amp hour battery right up until the final production of the Iron Barrel. This unit is the “hot” setup for all Bullets. You can use them with any Bullet even the three wire units. The trick is to make sure you also get the upgraded regulator/rectifier that is matched to this alternator.

Changing an alternator and regulator/rectifier units is an easy and straightforward job. The only thing to remember is to make sure that when you tighten the stator coils up that you make sure there is at least 0.006 thousands of an inch between the rotor and stator all of the way around. It is also good practice to change the rotor with the stator as they do lose their magnetism over time.

Lean Burn Alternator

The Lean Burn uses a more powerful alternator of a different design than the old Lucas types that are found in the iron barrels. It also carries the ignition triggering unit as part of the assembly. There isn’t much to know about them and they rarely fail.

UCE Alternator

The UCE alternator is similar to the Lean-Burn with some important exceptions. It has a series of magnets around it’s circumference that tell the EFI system where the crankshaft is, what it’s rpm is and whether or not it is accelerating or decelerating. The EFI system then adjusts the timing, fuel flow etc to meet those conditions.

This is a cool older ad made for Royal Enfield. Notice that they use the name Enfield and not Royal Enfield. This puts the ad in at least pre 1999.

For the UCE engines I am starting a series covering some of the design aspects. We are starting with the lubrication system for no particular reason other than the fact that we got a really cool video and slide presentation from the factory today (shown below).

Royal Enfield was the first motorcycle with a dry sump oiling system. In short this meant that the crankcase was empty and the oil is stored in a tank (internal to the engine). Pressurized oil is fed to the critical components and drops into the crank crankcase where it is picked up by a second oil pump and sent to the head. In a wet sump system like the new UCE engines the crankcase is full of oil. When the engine starts a pump picks up the oil, pumps it through a filter and then directs it to different areas under pressure. Because the clutch and transmission are all part of the engine case they all run in the same oil. The real advantage is that in the UCE we can move a lot more oil under a higher pressure than we could in the oil machines.

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Note: this is a Tech Corner: Classic Edition article pertaining to the traditional Iron-Barrel Bullet 500 engine design (based on the 1955 model Bullet). It was originally published in our Bullet-In newsletter in December 2003. These articles are being re-published for the new audience of used Royal Enfield owners.

Earlier this week, the boys (actually young men) in our shop were converting my bike from the “Twingle” back to a single-exhaust 535 and couldn’t get it started. When they turned on the fuel, it would pour out of the overflow hoses. They assumed (as did I) that the float was stuck in the open position. This can often be resolved by a swift tap to the carburetor bowl. However, when no amount of “tapping” slowed the fuel down, I had them remove the carburetor and replace the needle and seat. These do need to be replaced occasionally and this is why it’s a good idea to get in the habit of turning off your fuel tap when the bike is not in use…

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Bright and early this morning we got a call from Bill (Slam) Dunkis the owner of Interstate Motorcycles in Rolla MO.  Somehow the trucking company got  his C5  to him overnight  from our warehouse. His customer for the bike Dannie Mullins called last night and asked if he could sleep in Bills parking lot so he could pick up his bike bright and early this morning. Sure enough, by the time Bill got to work, there was Dannie waiting.

In the words of Bill – “I handed it to it’s new owner and asked him to take it out for a 20 mile ride on our Missouri Ozark mountain two lane roads and tell us what he thought. He was glad to oblige.

When he came back, and after he extracted the massive smile from his face, the first words out of his mouth was “This may be the best handling motorcycle I’ve ever ridden ! Crisp handling in the corners and rock solid on the straights.”This coming unsolicited from a rider with 30+ years experience”.

Congratulations Dannie – we hope you love your new bike. His was the first warranty registration we received so I guess that makes him the first owner of a C5 in the USA.

Dannie Mullins, the first C5 owner in the USA

One of our  REunion attendees “PorkChop” from the community forum, put together a wonderful video of the event.

Here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNgGhTiFInE

“PorkChop” (Dan) does this for a living and can be found here: http://www.raleighproductions.com/

Red Royal Enfield C5 with UCE engine

James Parchman wrote a great article about the Royal Enfield company and our new products for the New York Times . Here is the online version of the article. James is a freelance writer/photographer who contacted us while he was in Pakistan doing another article. he went to the factory in Chennai and came back with this great article.  As someone who has taken a lot of photos around the factory over the years I am in awe of his photographic abilities as well. Guess this is what the phrase “trained professional” is all about.  James did a great job and we certainly appreciate it. We are told that he has an upcoming piece in Rider magazine about the C5 as well.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/17/automobiles/17ROYAL.html

Got to India late last night. The trip was horribly long especially from Frankfurt to Chennai. The first 4 hours from Phoenix was OK, the 8 hour flight from Philadelphia to Frankfurt was OK, waiting in Frankfurt for 5 hours got a bit tedious, but the almost 9 hour leg from Germany to India makes you want to claw your eyes out. Unfortunately the trip was not quite as long for my luggage as it missed the flight. Should be here tomorrow and I have what I need in my carry on.

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I see a lot of modified Royal Enfields all over the world, but this one is by a long shot the coolest one I have EVER seen. Aniket Vardhan’s  stunning project is a V-Twin Royal Enfield engine in a Royal Enfield frame. He married two 350cc Royal Enfield top ends in the neatest, cleanest project I have ever seen.There is another V-Twin based on a similar concept from Australia (The Carberry V-Twin) which has been around for a long time.  The Carberry however uses a non Royal Enfield custom frame.

I cannot praise Anjit enough for his work with this project. The size and sophistication of this project is a bit overwhelming. Should he ever want to produce this engine… I will let Anjit tell his story in his own words.

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The new Unit Construction Royal Enfields with Electronic Fuel injection are here and available at most of our dealers.

We have spent a good deal of time this winter traveling around the country putting on training seminars for our dealers so that they are fully informed and trained to sell and service this new motorcycle. The Classic version of the new bike is available in Black and Velvet Green (British Racing Green) while the Chrome model Deluxe is available in Red and Black. While the look of the bikes are very similar to the Classic bikes we have always sold, there are a few key differences.

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