Well this sucks

[wymple]

GS850. Ran the last 4 years with 13.4-13.8 volts max with good grounds and the wiring cleaned up. Finally quit on me. I put on a genuine SH775 and a new stator, double grounds and all new wires. All I get so far is 13.2 with a spike all the way to 13.4 when I rev it up. To top it off, I can hear a light ticking because the stator and rotor are touching a tiny bit. That Silverwing scoot is starting to look good to this old fart. I'm hard to convince because the old beater runs like a top.

[Redman]

G............. I can hear a light ticking because the stator and rotor are touching a tiny bit. ...............

That is odd. I have no comment about what could cause that, nor what to do about it.

If concerened about the health of the stator; one big thing can do is disconnect from the R/R and measure the voltage (at 4k rpm) between each pair of wires, total of 3 readings. SHould be about 70 volts AC.

Repeat problem with charging sytem on 850 & 1100,even if the stator is good and the R/R is good, is the connections between the stator and R/R. Feel if they are warm, if so, that not good.

[Redman]

Oh, what year 850 ?

............

[tom203]

remove the stator cover and inspect the metal clamp that secures the wires to the housing....make sure the stator wires have not been nicked in this area - this would cause them to ground out and lower output voltage.

[wymple]

My motorcycle guru is Ron from R&K cycles in Illinois. He pretty much knows everything. His advise is to solder all connections involved as crimping is often just not good enough. Also, I used a gasket maker as a new gasket was 60 miles away, and it's a possibility that there is not enough thickness so the rotor is touching on the cover. A friend of mine had a brand new Honda with similar problems back in the 80's so I'm putting in a proper gasket as well. I will look for signs of rubbing when I pull it apart.

[wymple]

Well, I pulled it apart again, found the wire hold down was bent up a touch and the rotor was making light contact. Fixed that & still no voltage help. . Checked all three stator wires and they all had the same good voltage to the regulator. Saw good voltage from the hot wire on the stator, but not at the battery. I had run that hot wire to the fusebox, and that was apparently the wrong thing to do. I rerouted it straight to the battery and immediately jumped up over 14 volts at idle. Problem solved, I guess.

[BigD_83]

Without having a wiring diagram open in front of me, I fail to understand why that wouldn't the correct way to wire it up, but even so, that says a lot about what is happening in the fusebox.

Might be worthwhile to go through cleaning it up, as all of the connections running through there are probably seeing some extra resistance.

[hannibal]

Without having a wiring diagram open in front of me, I fail to understand why that wouldn't the correct way to wire it up, but even so, that says a lot about what is happening in the fusebox.

Might be worthwhile to go through cleaning it up, as all of the connections running through there are probably seeing some extra resistance.

I agree...

[tom203]

"I rerouted it straight to the battery and immediately jumped up over 14 volts at idle. Problem solved, I guess."

If you're going to leave like this , please add a 20 amp fuse in this line.

[wymple]

Nothing got even slightly warm in the fusebox, which I don't understand. My dealer had warned me to look for anything getting warm. I figured it out with the thought that the GM alternators I have played with go straight to the battery. No fuse, either, but I can easily add a fuse holder to that line. It still has the old glass fuses, and I'm going to upgrade that to a new blade fuse box. That 14+ volt idle doesn't even figure in that I haven't even soldered anything yet.

[wymple]

Well, I finished the wiring. I sent the R/R hotwire to the battery side of the solenoid, soldered the ends nicely. Got 14.4 at a couple thousand RPMs, and I'll take that all day long.