Rewinding stator question

[Guest]

I saw the section in the stator papers on rewinding a stator, and I am still a bit confused. Could someone that has done it give me a bit more onsite?

[Steve]

Have not done it, but I do have a question to offer:

How much do you value your time (for work done for yourself)?

I have not priced the wire necessary, but I'm sure it's going to be at least $20, likely a bit more. It is going to take several hours and a lot of pain in the fingers to rewind a stator. You can get a new one from Caltric for $38. To me, it's a no-brainer.

.

[maddman]

Have not done it, but I do have a question to offer:

How much do you value your time (for work done for yourself)?

I have not priced the wire necessary, but I'm sure it's going to be at least $20, likely a bit more. It is going to take several hours and a lot of pain in the fingers to rewind a stator. You can get a new one from Caltric for $38. To me, it's a no-brainer.

.

$38?! I paid $75

[Redman]

Getting the specific right wire is one thing.
Winding it in the proper pattern/manner, is another thing.
Making the connections, is another thing.
If you can figure that all out ... ... ...

[Gorminrider]

I've done 4 of em now, 3 bikes and hey- a spare! but I'd agree with steve. I bought an entire roll of wire for about a $100 and it will be much more than a lifetime of stators, which is why I rewind em rather than just buy them....still it's satisfying....and no waiting for parcels .

Matchless's instructions were very helpful for me, but. the actual winding will make much of it clearer...especially as fitting the second and third legs' windings , because each leg should have approximately the same number of windings in total and the space you are filling is "Tapered". (Leg" means a complete winding of a single wire all around the core...there are three "legs in a three phase stator) It's easy to make the first "leg"'s winding but difficult to fit the next if you have made the first badly, which you only find out too late, if you weren't careful and you shouldn't re-use wire.

so, Get some extra wire and do some practise doing all three legs As practise, you needn't complete an entire leg all round before starting the next.The trick is getting each turn tight and close so that the next wind doesn't push into them and create lumps.Also, not putting too many turns on the first leg's windings so as to make it impossible to fit the next windings into the gap.. nowI'm repeating myself so it's time to stop!

IDEA: It might work to practise with very thick nylon fishing line to save $$$$

[Nessism]

I think rewinding a stator would be a fun project. There have been a number of different threads about the process here in the past so you may want to search out the info if you are serious.

Edit: Gorminrider posted while I was typing. Matchless's instructions shouldn't be hard to find. BTW, what kind of wire did you buy for $100 and how many stators could you do with that much wire?

[steve murdoch]

$38?! I paid $75

$39.00 and free shipping on E-Bay.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Stator-FITS-SUZUKI-GS850-GS850G-GS850GL-GS850GD-1980-1983-/270688590339?hash=item3f064c1a03:g:SosAAOSwyTZUWSrv&vxp=mtr

[Gorminrider]

Hi Nessism: gauge 18...as to how many, oh my...the reel is seemingly endless...but I may be halfway through it at 4 good stators including some botched windings and experiments...I pretty much figured you are buying it by the pound, in a reel, so a smaller gauge will give you more length of wire on a reel. That's what it looked like to me when I bought the reel (in coquitlam). The original stators seem to have 19 gauge. 18 is too thick to get the same number of turns as original but works ok for me..

add: the botched bits might be handy someday...! maybe I'll stretch a full lengthAMantenna or something!

[Nessism]

$39.00 and free shipping on E-Bay.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Stator-FITS-...ZUWSrv&vxp=mtr

Remarkable. Someone is losing money...

[Nessism]

Hi Nessism: gauge 18...as to how many, oh my...the reel is seemingly endless...but I may be halfway through it at 4 good stators including some botched windings and experiments...I pretty much figured you are buying it by the pound, in a reel, so a smaller gauge will give you more length of wire on a reel. That's what it looked like to me when I bought the reel (in coquitlam). The original stators seem to have 19 gauge. 18 is too thick to get the same number of turns as original but works ok for me..

add: the botched bits might be handy someday...! maybe I'll stretch a full lengthAMantenna or something!

Okay, cool!

Can't remember the rule...does using fatter wire increase current or decrease it?

[Gorminrider]

a larger gauge has less loss to the resistance of the leg's winding length...is how I figure it.....It's not really about "more current"

does using fatter wire increase current or decrease it?

That's actually trickier question per power generation than I can answer because you want POWER (watts) never just current. So,given the watts are the same for bigger or smaller windings, the larger gauge has more "current"....
Me, I am thinking I need less what with LEDS coming to market.

Thinking backwards, It logically(?) follows that if you put fewer windings of a smaller gauge wire, you could get the same effect, except you would have to even fewer windings than the larger gauge to exactly duplicate the resistance of larger gauge...

I don't like that idea much (above). Bigger gauge is better. Original 19 is probably best but I am toying with is to imagine a generator that never reaches a voltage that needs much regulation ( ie: voltage regulation saves blowing up components with "pressure") Maybe I get less heating at stator but less voltage at idle too.

[tom203]

The thinner wire lets you put more turns around each pole giving you more voltage generated. This gives you more voltage output at lower rpms- a desirable feature at 1200 rpms if you want a bit of charging. Thinner wire is also easier to wind . Yes, it has more resistance than a bigger gauge wire, but this is a tradeoff on the designed power output of the stator.
Caltric stators are machine wound, likely with cast off machinery from japan. if decent magnet wire is used, they are a good deal.

[Nessism]

One thing I've learned after rebuilding a Kawasaki KZ750E and hanging out on KZRider.com is that Kawasaki's of that era didn't have anywhere near the charging system issues that GS Suzuki's do. The reason I believe is because the stators are designed to be lower power output, so that means there is less surplus power that gets shunted back to the stator resulting in stator overheat damage. Kawasaki's charging system wiring is much simpler than Suzuki's too (no stator loop going through the headlamp switch(hand control) for example). At any rate, I'm of the belief that high power stators are BAD and cause more harm than good. Never buy a stator that claims to make extra power over the original unless you have a series R/R to protect the stator from damaging itself.

[Carter Turk]

Have not done it, but I do have a question to offer:

How much do you value your time (for work done for yourself)?

I have not priced the wire necessary, but I'm sure it's going to be at least $20, likely a bit more. It is going to take several hours and a lot of pain in the fingers to rewind a stator. You can get a new one from Caltric for $38. To me, it's a no-brainer.

.

Regarding Caltric, I ordered one, due to the favorable reviews here. Other stators seem to have a coating over the wires, this one did not.
Is that a problem? I installed it with loose/exposed copper wires on each pole. Was I supposed to coat the stator wires before installlation?
Thanks for any explanation.

[Gorminrider]

Thinner wire is also easier to wind

yes that's a good point for the OP.... It's hard to get wraps tight if you can't make the first ones conform to the core. the wire varnish adds to the diameter so 18 is actually a little bigger than just a single gauge would suggest.

also for Original Poster You can do without it but it's a good idea to also include some compatible varnish in an order. This glues the windings together a bit ... Spray cans are usually available (but I wish it were available in small tins!) Per directions, This should be baked on in a cast-off toaster oven or something, but if youre not in a hurry for the stator, air drying for a week in warm weather is ok...overnight is apparently not good enough. oil will attack it and it will come off.