Blowing headlights

[OldVet66]

Right, you use the closest scale to your voltage, preferably in the middle of the scale.

[Roostabunny]

OK, thanks OldVet66!

Hmm, think I got a pretty clear signal here from my readings at the battery...

Off = 12.9V
Idle (around 1k RPM) = 13.3V
4k RPM = 18V!

Dem's a lot of volts for my poor bulb.

So is this a smoking gun for the R/R?

If so, I've found this option - http://www.electrosport.com/street-b...tor-rectifiers

Any other reasonable (cheaper, used, etc.) options that any of you would recommend? I ride every day, so getting the right part faster is worth something to me.

Meantime, can I ride it during the day? I have a sealed gel battery - am I damaging it at 4-7K rpm for 20 minutes at a time of my daily commute?

[OldVet66]

Its probably a smoking stator. You need to replace the one if not both. I think you need to pull the cover and inspect your stator. 18V is a lot, 15V will fry your stator. If the insulation varnish has turned black from excess heat, it will fail eventually. I got almost a year out of mine . It failed yesterday. Once they overheat like that, the insulating varnish has been degraded and it is just a matter of time, no matter how good the voltage regulation. I think you can do way better on the R/R than that one. There is tons of information on the Honda R/R conversions, or the Shindengen MOSFET R/R, and the series R/R's, all better than what you are looking at. If you have to remove the stator, you will need a good impact driver and a 3lb short handled sledge hammer would be ideal, to remove the cover screws, and stator. They pore insulation varnish in the screw threads at the factory for thread locker for the stator. It's a bear to get loose without messing up the screw head, unless you use a good impact driver. They are not expensive. I put my cover on a rag on a sand bag for support so not to scratch the polished cover and get good impact on the stator screws. Clean the threads with carb or brake cleaner, and use thread locker when installing a new stator (blue will do). Let it dry before putting back together. If the small screw doesn't want to come loose, leave the small wire retainer in place and thread the wire under it, there is plenty of room. You will need a new gasket. An exacto knife is real handy to slide under the stuck portions of the gasket. If you are real careful, it will come right off. Smack down on the cover with the wooden end of the sledge handle a few times and the cover will start to come loose. you have to work it up and down and side to side a little, to loosen it, but it has to come off straight toward you. There is a large short guide on the left and an idler shaft for the starter motor reduction gearing to the right, so when you get it about a half inch off you need to pull straight away from the motor to keep from binding the shaft. If you do this, it is also an ideal time to get a stainless allen bolt set for your motor. I got mine here. The polishing is perfect and durable. I would contact them to see if they can make up a kit for your bike. http://www.stainlesscycle.com/catalog/

[Matchless]

Your regulator is not regulating the voltage from the alternator!
You are in danger of frying your ignitor and any other electronic parts.
You will also start cooking your battery dry soon!

Replace the R/R and make sure all the connections are good.

[Roostabunny]

Thanks Matchless and OldVet66!

OldVet's caution pretty much convinced me to leave the bike parked and borrow the neighbor's handy "spare car" for the week. A co-worker mentioned danger to electronic ignition, and now these other parts Matchless brought up... not worth the risk when this is my only vehicle!

OldVet, I hear you on those screws. I sprung a leak in that stator cover gasket a few months back. I was already well-practiced with the impact driver (ignition cover, carb boots, etc) and in the habit of replacing each pillips head I take off with a stainless hex-head. I used the stator gasket as an excuse to simply spring for the bolt kit at Z1, and the stator cover already has nice new shiny stainless jewelery. That WAS a job, though, getting that thing off and realigning all the parts to put it back on!

I’m going to get on the stick for replacing the R/R, any shortcuts you guys can give on the research (Honda?, Used?, Sources?) would be greatly appreciated. I’m trying to hook myself up with parts before the weekend!

I was going to have to break the seal on electrical work eventually. I guess it’s now.

Thanks again!

[Roostabunny]

Wow! Rick's is pretty awesome.

Bit the bullet. Bought an R/R, and since it's probably going to need replaced at some point anyway, sprung for the stator, too. I'm pleased to say that I must have anticipated this job, because now I remember why I have all these brand-spanking new connectors and wire and such sitting around the last year or so.

But regarding Rick's, I ordered the re-man stator, figuring to return mine eventually for the $50 core refund. I also paid $27 for two-day shipping to make sure I had it by the weekend, so when the customer service lady saw that, and noticed that they didn't have a re-man stator on the shelf (so it wouldn't ship till Friday) she called me. That was all within 30 minutes of my order processing online. She revised the order to a new stator and figured out an ever cheaper shipping method that arrived this afternoon. That's next DAY!

Three cheers for Rick's!

Now, we get to see if I can do my own electrical work. I got Basscliff's tut and the stator papers, so really it'll kinda be like you're all in the parking lot helping me. Like always.

[OldVet66]

I got my over-wound stator from ElectroSport This afternoon. Basscliff had me worried about the wire size on the stator as apposed to Ricks. He is right about the lousy sheathing and no grommet, but I was able to use the old stock sheathing and grommet, they were in excellent shape. As for the smaller wire size on the windings, Ricks may use larger winding wire, but the ElectroSport seems to have the same size as the stock stator winding wire or larger and the poles are obviously over-wound. You can see between the poles all the way to the hub on the stock stator, it looks like a radial aircraft engine. The ElectroSport is obviously wound fatter with barely any space between the poles, and most of that space is bridged by the final protective coating until near the top of the poles where there is a little space. I think this stator will do everything I hoped it would. https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/phot...eat=directlink

[tom203]

OldVet66 said..."I think this stator will do everything I hoped it would. "

Let's hope that it will do what it was designed to do!

[Roostabunny]

OK, armed with parts from Rick's, the stator papers, and Basscliff's R/R replacement tut, I've actually made fairly short work of the job. Just wanna run the results by you guys before I button it up and install a new $20 headlight bulb.

Had a brief moment of panic when I saw that my old R/R was attached with phillips-head screws, but fortunately (probably owing to the non-engine-heated location) they loosened right up. And since the thickness at the screw slots on the Rick's unit was at least twice that of the OEM unit, I grabbed the parts and headed to the local hardware store that supplies me with stainless hex cap-head pretties every time I tear into something new. M6 x 1.00 x 20mm replaced the OEM 10mm-long originals quite nicely. A little blue Locktite should keep them from shaking loose.

I also lucked out with my bike that spent its first 28 years in Arizona. The bullet connectors were in shockingly good shape with regard to corrosion. So good, that I doused 'em with DeOxit #5 a couple of times, dried 'em with some canned air, and used 'em as-is

Rick's wins a serious prize for their product. Three things made life easy.
1.) The wire colors were an exact match to the original
2.) Bullet connectors properly pre-installed
3.) The ground wire was extra long - enough to reach the Neg terminal on the battery right out of the box.

Wahoo!

I left the original stator in place so far. See the data below and let me know if you agree.

The final scores...

Stator:

VAC at 4500RPM = about 80 on all three legs
Resistance = about 1.2 Ohms on all three legs

R/R:
New R/R Charging Voltage
14.3V at Idle
13.9V at 4k RPM

So I figure I can leave the stator be for now? I have the new one that I'm willing to keep as a spare on the assumption that I'll eventually need it.

The one test I didn't understand from the stator papers was the Stator lead to engine case. I couldn't get a reading on that, but it didn't really make sense to me to be trying to connect the stator lead to the aluminum engine.

Thanks again for all the help, and please let me know how those numbers sit with ya!

[Steve]

Numbers look good.

.

[Roostabunny]

Numbers look good.

Thanks, Steve, awesome! OK, she's button'd up, test rode, feels good. Best of all, my new $20 Silverstar survived the whole ride. Woot! Even better, it's no longer getting brighter at higher RPM's.

Side note - I don't recall disconnecting the R/R ground wire when I removed it, but it came right out with the unit. Is it possible that the wire was simply clamped into one of the mounting bolts between the R/R and the battery box? Or could it have been disconnected and hanging loose?

Only asking on the off chance that the R/R ground wire coming loose could have caused the whole problem?

[Steve]

I don't recall disconnecting the R/R ground wire when I removed it, but it came right out with the unit. Is it possible that the wire was simply clamped into one of the mounting bolts between the R/R and the battery box? ...

Only asking on the off chance that the R/R ground wire coming loose could have caused the whole problem?

Both of those are good possibilities, but I guess we'll never know.

.

[OldVet66]

I got the same types of readings when I installed my Compu-Fire sometime last winter. I just had to replace the stator. I'm betting with the voltages you have been running that you also have heat damaged insulation varnish on the stator that will eventually cascade into failure sometime in the near future. It's worth a gasket and a little time to look at the old stator. If it's more black than brown in color, it's just a matter of time. I was just bragging on mine the other day when someone else posted up a picture of a black looking stator, and I said to use it because it looked just like mine did. Mine failed the next day. My new stator reads 14.25v exactly at 4,000-7,000rpm. Didn't feel comfortable taking it up that far without a load.

[Roostabunny]

Yeah, and I might be able to make that inspection happen without a new gasket, what with the current one only being a couple of months old. Next oil change. And I'm due for one.

Almost dropped the cover today before I remembered that it's wet in there. Had all the screws loosened.