Topic: CB650 custom: Please identify this (alternator?) part

[fmctm1sw]

Circled in photo.  What is it?

[TwoTired]

That's the field coil.  In the 650's case, it's the rotor, connected by slip rings.

The field coil and rotor is an electromagnet.

[fmctm1sw]

Thanks.  In this picture, that coil is represented (eventually) by the brushes pictured in this photo?

[TwoTired]

No.
In your picture, it is the part at the extreme upper left.

The brushes you circled just enable electrical connectivity to the spinning device (rotor).

[fmctm1sw]

Thanks.  I really got to brush up on charging systems.  The more I try to think about how they operate, the more I confuse myself on how the different types work.  I sure don't remember seeing any brushes in my 350/400Fs...

[Bodi]

No brushes in most SOHC4 altrnators. They use a rotor that directs the field coil magnetic field to alternating pole faces on the outer diameter. This is lighter and easier to make (the field coil is a simple coil of wire on a steel bobbin where the 650 one is a complex winding through the rotor) and doesn't have the sometimes-troublesome brushes. It is considerably less efficient magnetically: the 650 alternator makes a stronger magnetic field where it counts with the same current as the other system.

[Danno]

correct they only have a pickup for the stator which is not where the electricity is generated it is where the magnetic field is created to generate the electricity in the outside coil which does not move
 that way it is brushless and can generate more amps then it could if it had brushes although the output is still rather puny on a SOHC four