Stator Coating

[Guest]

So when I pulled my engine covers off. I managed to drop my stator on the ground and chip a tiny piece of the gel coating off. First off.......did I mess up my stator? Secondly.......is it going to work with that chip off of it and what does that coating do? I'm guessing it serves a purpose or it wouldn't be on there. Thanks.

[GateKeeper]

I am guessing here, and not really knowing, but from experience on other items of the same sort...

the small chip should not have any effect on the stator and how it functions, and the coating on there is to I believe hold the windings in place and not allow it to all come undone.

I am sure this is correct, but do wait for those that have the real expertise to answer....

[musicman]

Might help if you posted a picture too

[thkbaron]

That actually makes sense as I've been looking at pictures of aftermarket stators I don't think they have the coating on them. Thanks. I'm going to put it back together and see what happens.

[bwringer]

The wires in the stator windings have a very thin, tough, clear coating that serves as the insulation, and the layer of epoxy is mostly there to make sure the wires don't move around and rub against one another.

When the rotor magnets spin around the stator, this actually causes some force to be applied to the wires. The epoxy keeps everything in place. However, some have successfully re-wound stators without adding the epoxy -- if the windings are tight and flat enough, they shouldn't be able to move anyway.

In your case, your likely just chipped off a bit of this external epoxy coating, so you should be fine.

[Gregory]

If it were me I think I would research covering the chip with with epoxy

[Maddevill]

Coating

As long as the stator winding themselves aren't touching metal to metal it is ok. If the windings make contact with each other it acts as a short and can cause the stator to overheat and fry.

[argonsagas]

As long as the stator winding themselves aren't touching metal to metal it is ok. If the windings make contact with each other it acts as a short and can cause the stator to overheat and fry.

True. You have to CLOSELY examine the windings to see if there is any depression that pushed the wires together and could result in coating damage/electrical contact. The insulator between the wires is only a very thin coating and it can be damaged easily by any abrasion....and abrasion was likely there when the chipping occurred.

There are products available for coating the wires, often epoxy-based, but not always.. You spray them on.

[koolaid_kid]

You are all mostly correct. The wires themselves are coated with a very thin layer, as bwringer stated. And one member is running a stator he rewound without the special outer coating of epoxy. Nerobro?
What you need to do is examine the place where the epoxy broke off. As long as you do not see shiny copper you are fine.
You cannot use any old epoxy, it is a very special (read expensive) epoxy.
I have rewound and coated several stators, and the special epoxy must be baked on for several hours in order to cure properly.

[koolaid_kid]

Here is Nerobro's thread.
As noted, he never put the external epoxy on.
BTW, it is a 2 part epoxy, with a catalyst. Gets extremely hot when it finally interacts, I melted a plastic bowl the first time I went to coat a stator.
argonsagas, you may be correct on the spray on coating, but I have never seen the product. I googled it, and found one discussion where someone suggested using fingernail polish to cover a nick. Interesting.