I'm hoping that you guys will be able to help me out. I have a Sanyo generator that goes in front of the rear wheel and it hasn't been used in a few years. I put it on the bike and noticed that it worked great for about 100ft then a high pitched screeching noise almost like a metal on metal grinding started. When that noise came on the light would shut off. Im guessing something in there is sticking but I'm wondering if I can possibly put some grease or some sort of lubrication in there to fix it?

The part in question

I had exactly that same generator, that I got in about 1982 and used intermittently. I installed it on a bike about five years ago and id did exactly what you described; worked for a half mile or so, then started screaming bloody murder and not generating any power. I was not able to diagnose and fix the problem, and took the dynamo off.

Just yesterday, however, I had an almost similar problem with a newish Shimano dynamo hub. It was fine when I left the house, but a half mile later it started making a crazy vibration, and a fairly loud noise that went sort of like bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb. I ignored it until I got to the train station. I took the wheel off, found nothing wrong, and put it back together, and the problem had gone away. This leads me to wonder if the problem might have been electrical in nature; perhaps some kind of a short circuit was putting undue strain on the dynamo.

Have you posted your question in the electronics forum? The real dynamo geeks hang out there.

Probably a magnet or coil came unglued inside. If it is sealed unit you are out of luck.

Thanks for the tips guys, I did post in the electrical part but I figured it was more era specific to the C&V I figured it was probably just in need of some lube so I had some electrical cleaner and lubricant and figured that would be safest to try. So I sprayed some in there and rolled it a bit sprayed some more and then tested it. WORKS LIKE IT IS BRAND NEW!!! So we will see how long that lasts and I hope it is a long time. Thanks for the help and if anyone has similar problems in the future hope this thread will help.

Nice ending. I recall those Sanyo's being pretty expensive, in 1984-ish. I remember some era road testers wiring resistors to keep from blowing bulbs? Sorry I can't remember every bike event over my life. Chris

No shi.... uh... no kidding!

Next time I see mine I'm going to grab it out of the parts bin and see if that works for me.

Where do you get this (or something similar)? Radio Shack?

I have an old bottle generator which could use some attention.

You can get CRC brand cleaner from Ace hardware. There're two types, cleaner with lubricant, and contact cleaner. Radio Shack is OK, but the cans are fairly small.

Thanks for the tip. The owner of the local ACE always loves seeing me come through the door!