No I beg to differ on that one.
I have seen a lot of globes blow from high voltage, they break the filament.
Only a current surge blows the filament clean of both post mounts in every globe, with out exception.
That feed circuit to all the globes surged the moment the Rect/reg which is connected to the same circuit and back to earth failed and open circuited . Thereby allowing the full unrectified and unregulated now AC output of the Alternator to surge straight through every globe that was closed circut.
There are two highly accredited light aircraft constructors who agree with me too, but more on that later if you like.
But yes add that to yet another piss pooor cheaped out Kawasaki inadequate design by not having a capacitor in the system to smooth out the spikes.
Electrical Engineer Mick - maybe a quick read of basic AC theory would help. Anyway have it your own way the imaginary demon of a current surge. Possibly consider
I(current) =
E (voltage RMS for an AC circuit)
/ (Z(R for resistance in this case)
x Cos 'Phi")(in this case a value of 1 as it is a resistor circuit).
The variable that changes in an uncontrolled manor once the reg fails is the voltage which changes in both magnitude and frequency and is the root cause of the problem. Yes it
results in a high current flow that has also, naturally, becomes an AC current in phase with the voltage but this is a consequence of the voltage problem not a cause.
Any electrical component such as a globe or any connection for that matter when exposed to rapid voltage transients as experienced when AC (remember that the AC frequency of a magneto is directly related to RPM) is supplied to a circuit designed for DC even if crude DC are severely stressed. They invariably fail at a high stress point such as at a connection (post in a globe) as the voltage peaks and transients far exceed design. High current tends to over heat the component causing breakdown of the material not a clean fracture.
The funny flip side to this is that DC currents are much harder to switch than AC current.
Having said all that I am sure you are right that current surges just happen spontaneously, much the same as spontaneous human combustion. Anyway I am not really interested in debating it further but feel free to rebuke my points.
I will give you $200 for the KDX which is double that offered by Nathan. It is obviously a POS all round anyway so maybe I can use it as an example of Japanese folly
