OK, I looked in there-notes on alternator brush life

Weather turned to snot yesterday, decided no time like the present to look in the alternator on the '81. Had a new gasket and also a set of brushes standing by in case they were needed. Bike has 19K miles on it. Book says "replace at 10K." NO evidence to suggest cover had ever been off. Surprise, surprise! Gollybobhowdyvern! Brushes look brand new. Cover full of enough general grunge to appear to have never been disturbed. So, IF the PO had replaced the brushes at 10K which I highly doubt, they should be worn out again, or nearly so, at 19K miles. Measured from "business end" to wear indicator line, they have MAYBE 1mm-1.5mm worn away, compared to new brushes. Conclusion? Look in there periodically, but MamaYama apparently WAY PESSIMISTIC about expected brush life. Side note: I always considered the dash-mounted volt gauge to be more of a yay-nay thing rather than any sort of accurate. However, after cleaning up the alternator internals, it is showing just a TAD more voltage at the meter. Just a bit, mind you, but a consistent bit nonetheless. A question for my fellow 550 owners: Does your volt meter show a momentary drop in time to the turn signal flasher, even at road speed? Both mine do, one moreso than the other. I wonder if that's an indication of battery condition...

 

19K is way too soon for them to go. Mine lasted past 60k.