Recently I stalled my bike in central london and couldnt start it again, flat battery (only year old). The trusty AA man got me going but testing said "alternator has gone mate". So with several visits to the web and this forum got myself organised for a day of spanners and grease.

after some mucking about got the stator cover off. The windings inside a beautiful copper colour, if not charging would be burnt/black. So put it all back together and i am now waiting for a pattern part from the ever reliable David silver spares (honda parts specialist). Did all of this on one of the best days weather wise we have had for a long while and an ideal day for riding rather than taking bits off my beloved CBR.

Despite this its the most fun i have had in years !! The moral of the story, buy a test meter !!!!!

 

Are you sure it's your alternator and not your regulator/rectifier that's gone bad? You won't charge if either goes, but it seems that r/r problems are more common on our bikes.

 

Having already email you about this Kev, you must keep us updated as to what has actually gone wrong.
Good info for everyone.
I still find it hard to believe the stator windings have burnt out.

 

+2 ........bad R/R and a wonky old battery , also check for burned / corroded harness
connectors in the harness going to the R/R

 

Could be the stator windings - if you run the bike with a bad rec/reg the current can't get to the battery and the coils in the stator can and do burn (ask me how I know this) I fitted 3 reg/recs which will run for a while but then burn out due to the problem. Once I replaced the stator cover and the reg/rec and checked the battery, no more problem. The only way to check is with a megger tester, best left to the pro's.