1982 GS400E running on 1 cylinder

[hansel]

Its been a long cold winter under the motorcycle cover for her. I'm now getting myself re-aquainted with the in's and out's of the charging system in hopes of having her up and running soon.

Duely noted on the assumption front, will try not to make that mistake multiple times again.

As for stators, any tips on a good place to buy one for a 1982 GS400E at a good price??

Happy Spring...

[tom203]

As Pete said way back when, do the tests to confirm what is no good! Across the pond, we are looking at new stators in the $80 to $120 range. Personally, I'd avoid Electrosports stators- too many problems seem to afflict them.

[pete]

I think the Ricks stators get good reports over there... for me I used an Electrex World one that I sourced locally and have a Kawasaki model Shindengen 532 R/R as well.

My charging system has been flawless ever since...

[hansel]

Stator Purchase

Has anyone ever bought a stator from Caltric? any good/bad reviews?

[hansel]

Hello,

One more question on Stators, if i have already replaced my reg/rect with an new electrosport RR, would it be recommended to keep the same brand and replace my stator with and Electrosport stator? or would switchign to an RM stator be better, as they seem to get better reviews.

Thanks,

Hans

[pete]

You don't need to match stator and R/R brands, just get whichever stator you prefer. As long as it's the right fit for your bike all should be good.

I have an Electrex World in mine as that's what was available locally without having to wait a couple of weeks.

[hansel]

for the record: Bike is now running on 2 cylinders (but still won't charge)

for the record: Bike is now running on 2 cylinders thanks to fixing corroded and exposed coil wire and coil relay mod.

so... I bought a new battery in hopes of doing the required tests from the gsresources to determine whether my stator, battery, reg rect, or wiring was messed up. (note: already put in new reg rect, and did a significant amount of fixing of messed up wiring, also the person before me had replaced the stator ((the wiring seemed suspect so i'm not sure of the quality of the job they did)) )
The bike started up great after a winter of sitting, and I took it for 2 short test rides all while keeping it on the trickle in between. Everything ran great until part way through the second ride when the signals stopped working (signs of a deadening battery?) I made it home just fine, and the bike was still idling perfectly at a stand still.
I then went to charge the battery back up, and my ''smart charger'' is showing that the battery is fried and it won't charge up to higher than 11.75V.
Any ideas what could fry a battery that fast? Wrong gauge positive and negative battery wires? bad ground? (all grounds are leading to the negative terminal of the battery currently)

Thanks for all of your help!

Hans

[pete]

My guess is overcharging.

If your R/R is putting out 17 or 18V then that will start boiling the battery and blowing light bulbs etc.

I'd be doing those charging system checks ASAP before more crucial electrical bits start dying...

[hansel]

Battery Replacement

When I got the bike, it has an Walmart ES9BS battery in it. When I sourced a battery from a dealer or battery shop, they never had a listing for the GS400E, so I went with the listing for the GS450E (as the bike was released as that in the US). The dimensions of this never fit in the battery compartment so i ended up going with a YTX9-BS. This battery runs the bike fine, but doesn't hold the charge (likely due to the stator at this point in the game).

My question is:
Is it a problem to switch to the YT12A-BS (which has the proper dimensions) but at a higher capacity (10 vs. 8 with the YTX9-BS) and more CCA (175 vs. 135) and a different charge current (1 vs. 0.9).

My thoughts are this can only be a better battery for this bike.

Thanks,

Hans

[pete]

The only difference will be that it will take a little longer to charge, that's it... so it definitely won't hurt to put it in

[hansel]

Finally charging

So, i replaced the stator the other weekend with a stator from RM Stator (in quebec who were very good to deal with) after pulling out the old fried stator and realizing that the magnet had been damaged (ie. a chunk was missing and there were shards of magnet all over the place in there which i was able to clean out and remove with some patience) I installed the perfectly fitting aftermarket part, routed the wires and connected everything, cleaned it all up and installed the gasket (from ricks motorsport electrics) i checked the voltage and she was finally charging again! (thanks to bikecliff's tutorial on how to install a stator with some minor differences as its a gs400)

This marks the first time in two years of ownership that the bike is actually running right and i have put many a km on it since then. so far so good.

Thanks for everyone's help and advice.

Greatly appreciated.

Hans

[pete]

Glad to hear it!