1983 GS450L - Just died on the way work to work this morning.

[Guest]

I went to start my bike this morning and it took an abnormal amount of time to start, about 15 seconds of cranking. It finally started and I went about 3 or 4 miles and the bike just lost power, not electrical power, but power as far as propelling me down the road. I stopped in the median and went to turn around, and any time I have it gas it would get real bright on the display cluster and the motor would start to die. After trying to get home, in first gear, going no faster that 10mph, it finally died completely - no power, engine dead.

What could be the problem? Right now it is parked at a random place I was close to in town and I'll go by and check after work.

I remember back when I was having issues with starting it I was checking the voltage during operation and it was well outside of the normal voltage range.

Could it be the voltage regulator? If so, which should I buy to replace it?

Thanks

[tom203]

Well, did you ever test/fix your bike's charging system? or were you waiting for this day?

Get a well charged battery and do a quickee test

http://members.dslextreme.com/users/storagecliff/images/electrical_odd-n-ends.html#A20

[incarceration]

The charging was running great for awhile. But then when I had to put it in storage for 3 weeks, it was all downhill from there.

I planned to replace the voltage regulator very soon actually, when finding permitted.

Yeah those tests are what I was referring to that was way out of spec. Is that controlled by the voltage regulator?

[tom203]

The R/R (rectifier and voltage regulator) attempts to manage what the stator is sending it. If stator is no good , not much the R/R can do about it- that's why you need to find out what part is no good. If R/R fails to regulate the voltage, then the voltage being delivered is too high and bad things happen .
If the quickee test shows problem , you have to dig deeper to find culprit

[incarceration]

Does that website outline how to narrow down to the stator?

[tom203]

You'll have a good idea with Basscliff's tutorial in this link

http://members.dslextreme.com/users/storagecliff/images/stator_check.pdf

Note on his first page there's a reference to fault finding the charging system.

[incarceration]

Alright, thanks.

I've gotta get it home first, plan on doing that this weekend

[incarceration]

The R/R (rectifier and voltage regulator) attempts to manage what the stator is sending it. If stator is no good , not much the R/R can do about it- that's why you need to find out what part is no good. If R/R fails to regulate the voltage, then the voltage being delivered is too high and bad things happen .
If the quickee test shows problem , you have to dig deeper to find culprit

I have the bike at my place now.

How do I "dig deeper" to find the cuplrit if the quick test shows bad signs?

This?

http://www.thegsresources.com/garage/gs_statorfault.htm

[tom203]

You didn't say what the "bad signs" were during the quick test. That Basscliff test on stator is a good place to start. Your stator has three wires coming out of it- they snake thru the starter motor cover and likely connect to maybe a plug and bullet connector, so find them and disconnect them, so you can test the stator all by its lonesome. You need a meter that can read 100 AC voltage for the live tests, but also a meter that reads low ohms .
There is an update to the live AC test- with meter on AC voltage scale, stick one meter probe in any stator output wire and other probe to a good frame ground- with bike running at 4k rpm, you should get no reading on AC voltage here. Be careful switching the meter from ohms to voltage readings- as the ohm setting won't like live AC voltage.
report what you find.

[incarceration]

When I did the quick test awhile back it was reporting very high voltages - 14 to 19 volts when idle and up to 5k RPM

Also, now that I'm outside doing some tests on it. I found out why it lost power completely - I fixed that issue.
But now I'm running into the problem where it won't start, it just cranks and cranks and then backfires really loud, never starts up...?


EDIT:
just got back from Advance Auto Parts and had them check it. It needed to be replaced. It was reporting ~60CCA but proper voltage.

This is now the 2nd battery this motorcycle has eaten up. What is causing this? The stator? The VR\R? Should I just replace both?

I don't plan on putting this new battery in until I get either a new VR\R and\or stator. I bought new plugs while I was there as well.

Any suggestions if I can still check this thing out and narrow down what it is without using this new battery? I think I saw mentions of checking the stator with ohm readings?

Is this a good VR\R?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/370719788850?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

Is this a good stator?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/121159326354?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

[tom203]

In that quick test, recall these words
if "The voltage climbs above 15.0 V it is likely the R/R not regulating and is bad bad."
No start now? lets hope your ignitor didn't get fried with high voltage. you have to check for spark at plugs, head for this link

http://members.dslextreme.com/users/storagecliff/images/electrical_odd-n-ends.html#A17

What was the issue that caused the loss of power??

[incarceration]

In that quick test, recall these words
if "The voltage climbs above 15.0 V it is likely the R/R not regulating and is bad bad."
No start now? lets hope your ignitor didn't get fried with high voltage. you have to check for spark at plugs, head for this link

http://members.dslextreme.com/users/storagecliff/images/electrical_odd-n-ends.html#A17

What was the issue that caused the loss of power??

The positive terminal wasn't connected for some reason. Loose connection it seemed.

[incarceration]

Also, can you check out those 2 items I listed. Are they good? If so I'll buy them both.

[incarceration]

I just checked the impedance\ohm rating of the stator; all signs point to a bad stator. the ohm rating was from 3.5 - 4.8 ohms from Y-WB, Y-WG, WG-WB.

Can you tell me if the stator and VR\R in my previous post are good ones to purchase?

Thanks

[tom203]

The positive terminal wasn't connected for some reason. Loose connection it seemed.

You mean the positive connection to battery was loose? If so, this lets voltage from charging go even higher as the battery acts as sink .
You don't need a functioning charging system for bike to start and run, so don't rush to buy stator and R/R. Get the bike running.
If you can afford $70 for R/R, you can get a good one (and it ain't that ebay one). That ebay stator is ok, but you might not need one, so be patient- it will be there next week.

Edit; just saw next reply; those ohm readings are poor, BUT they don't explain high voltages that you saw.