Ensuring Good Oil Flow to Stator

[ekabil]

Good morning guys and ladies,

After only a couple days riding, my new Electrosport stator stopped working, and after some tests, I found it was shorted to ground on all three legs. I got the replacement, opened up the crank case (that's the right word?), and the old one was black. It looked pristine, maybe a couple spots where some physical roughness was present, but the whole thing was black. I might put up a picture later. The oil in there smelled a little burnt as well and was very black. My question is, how do I make sure the stator is getting proper oil flow? I'm thinking that it burnt up because there was no oil getting to it, and the oil I found in there was either residual from when I installed it or just a little bit that made it to the crank case. Where exactly does the oil come from in there? Is there a valve or canal I can inspect, to make sure it isn't clogged, and preventing plenty of oil to circulate?

Keep in mine, the engine runs perfectly, except that the battery isn't being charged (the cause being traced back to the stator which was shorted to ground on all three legs), and this oil was changed when the clutch springs were replaced about three months ago, or less than 1000 miles ago. This was done by the PO and therefore is up to speculation of course, I shouldn't have taken that for granted, and I will change the oil myself today when I redo the gasket I made a mess of last night.

[Nessism]

The only oil that gets up onto the stator is oil splash slung off the crank and such. There is nothing you can do to assure oil is getting onto the stator.

A Compufire R/R is a good way to make your stator live, only they are not cheap. Making sure the charging system wiring is optimized is also strongly advised since the stock Suzuki wiring was quite poor; wire the stator directly into the R/R, make sure the R/R is well grounded, and make sure your stator power output wires don't have resistance on the way to the battery. Find Jim (Posplyar's) revised Stator Paper instructions and go though all the various connections.

Good luck

[posplayr]

The only oil that gets up onto the stator is oil splash slung off the crank and such. There is nothing you can do to assure oil is getting onto the stator.

A Compufire R/R is a good way to make your stator live, only they are not cheap. Making sure the charging system wiring is optimized is also strongly advised since the stock Suzuki wiring was quite poor; wire the stator directly into the R/R, make sure the R/R is well grounded, and make sure your stator power output wires don't have resistance on the way to the battery. Find Jim (Posplyar's) revised Stator Paper instructions and go though all the various connections.

Good luck

There is another cheap way to better oil the stator; I routed a sprayer to my stator before I got the Compufire. See the brass fitting? It sprays oil (through a 0.090" hole) at the outside gap between rotor and stator.





more discussion here

http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum/showthread.php?t=160255&highlight=oil+sprayer&page=2

[ekabil]

from what I gather on that thread, if you add a sprayer it increases the flow rate of oil to the alternator case ( is that also called a crank case?) which drops oil pressure somewhat. Seems like a lot of work to get it right, so props to you posplayr.

Let me ask you this. If I found some kind of thermometer that I could stick on the side of the case (I am picturing an ECG lead stuck on the side of the motor like when they monitor someone's heart at a hospital), would that temperature be able to determine if it is getting too hot in there for the stator?

Although, I think that the nature of the heat that is created by the stator, which is mostly through electric resistance dissipating, would have a very small effect on the temperature of the outside surface of the case. I am just tired of taking that thing off and sealing it but I think the only way to tell if the stator is getting too hot would be to monitor the temperature INSIDE the case right next to the stator. Well, there is another way...if the stator stops working and burns up, the stator was not receiving adequate cooling :P

Where does oil enter in to that case? Could it possibly be clogged? When I opened it up there was a decent amount of oil that dribbled out over time, but maybe there should have been more.

[SqDancerLynn1]

Make sure the oil level is up to the full mark !!!

[tom203]

ekabil said...
"Let me ask you this. If I found some kind of thermometer that I could stick on the side of the case (I am picturing an ECG lead stuck on the side of the motor like when they monitor someone's heart at a hospital), would that temperature be able to determine if it is getting too hot in there for the stator? "

I have no clue why your stator is getting so hot, considering you've done all the recommended improvements. I'm skeptical of oil cooling theory, unless you got an oil cooler. On my 650, even with maximum oil level, the stator sits way above this level when running- sure it splashes around it
, but I don't see it being bathed in it. The aluminum case is drawing off lots of stator heat as you move. Do you spend lots of time stuck in traffic?

Monitoring stator temp would probably give you chest pains!

[posplayr]

stators get hot because of SHUNT regulation which is what 95% of the R/R out there are except the SERIES one's Compufire and CE Electric.

The effects of a hot stator will vary depending upon your bikes other cooling performance, but for my biek that regularly ran at 270+ deg standard, putting a sprayer directly to the stator coils dramatically dropped the running temperature of my bike. As I recall it was similar to the drop I go from going to a SERIES Compufire R/R.

I am not going to debate the validity of a cooler stator in keeping a bike cooler. I you bike runs cool enough then apparently there will be enough stator heat flowing to the engine cases through conduction to keep the stator from burning up. Add more heat output (like an 1166 kit) and the ability of the bike to dissipate the heat puts additional stress on the stator.

The improvements in operating oil temperature of 1100's with SERIES regulation has been documented here. On my bike it was between 30-40 degrees F lower.


An yes if a stator turns out to look like it is an over-cooked steak, you can surmise it got TOO HOT.

The oiler is not too much trouble, but I already had an oil pressure gauge so I knew if there was any effect to my oil pressure. With high performance gears and wrapping out to 10K RPM I could peg my 15 psi oil pressure gauge so if anything I needed a little less oil pressure.

[posplayr]

=ekabil;1685574][

from what I gather on that thread, if you add a sprayer it increases the flow rate of oil to the alternator case ( is that also called a crank case?) which drops oil pressure somewhat. Seems like a lot of work to get it right, so props to you posplayr.

The only oil that normally gets to the stator is splashed up from the crank case. The sprayer "sprays" oil (from the gear galley ports) at the upper edge of the stator (between rotor /stator) right where the main heat marks are. It should be clear that the top of the stator is getting much hotter than the bottom becuase there us not near as much oil on th top as on the bottom.

After doing these installations and modification, the heat damage to my stator was unchanged from the first indications of heat damage so the bottom line is it worked to get more heat out.

[ekabil]

thanks everyone for your help. I didn't mean to debate the validity buddy I just meant that altering something like how flow oil flows in the engine is beyond my own understanding and ability - its way over my head and at this point I don't want to risk ruining the engine. I need this bike to get to my job.

The best thing I think I can do is monitor the voltage on the battery at all times while riding, because if it is in fact getting too hot then the output will fluctuate. It will probably intermittently fail or fail only at sustained high RPM or something. I am planning on installing a voltmeter to do that which should arrive this week. It could also just be a defective stator. I'm really hoping that it was just a defective stator.

[Graham]

I put a Rick’s stator in my 1100GL last year with the old stock regulator and still have no problems. Maybe it’s the brand of stator? This isn’t the first “new” burnt Electrosport stator to get posted on the GSR.

[ekabil]

It's not? That makes me feel better.

[Homie]

Jim, that oil-sprayer mod you did to the stator cover looks interesting. I can see the sprayer nozzle inside the cover, but what about the outside? Where did you tap into a source of oil - a T-fitting in your left side top-end-oiler line?

[posplayr]

Jim, that oil-sprayer mod you did to the stator cover looks interesting. I can see the sprayer nozzle inside the cover, but what about the outside? Where did you tap into a source of oil - a T-fitting in your left side top-end-oiler line?

here are the pics, there is an inline fitting between thedistribution block and the stator end fitting to restrict the flow down to 0.090".
The distribution block is an early version of GregB's tope end oiler kit. Maybe not for everybody but for high RPM riding with an electrosport stator (and SHUNT R/R) it works.

[Homie]

here are the pics, there is an inline fitting between thedistribution block and the stator end fitting to restrict the flow down to 0.090". The distribution block is an early version of GregB's tope end oiler kit. Maybe not for everybody but for high RPM riding with an electrosport stator (and SHUNT R/R) it works.

Looks interesting. I have a later version of the Greg B block on my beast, so tapping into an oil source shouldn't be a problem. What size line is that going to the spray nozzle??