Bike died on me today (electrical problem)

**mark** · 05-13-2006, 07:56 PM

http://www.thegsresources.com/gs_watchout.htm

Read through the various sections on the Stator pages. It will show you how to test your charging system.

**Poot** · 05-13-2006, 10:16 PM

yeah, i could also be not just the r/r but the stator as well. i had to replace both my r/r and stator because of a very similar problem *minus the fuel reading*. ricks makes a good brand. electrex has according to sources here, gone downhill..

**ddaum** · 05-13-2006, 10:27 PM

How familiar!

Wow, your story sounds freakishly familiar to what happened to me when I first got my '80 550L. My bike is exactly the same as yours except for my new paint job. I bought the bike on eBay and knew nothing about motorcycles before I bought it, so I failed to check the charging system when I picked it up. Anyway, I got her home, cleaned her up, and went for a ride, and experienced the exact same thing you did. Ten miles from home, called a friend who purchased a battery and brought it out to me. That got me about three miles from home, then had to push it back. I researched here on the GSR and followed the "Stator Papers" only to find that my stator was dead. I went ahead and purchased a new Electrex stator and Rick's R&R from www.denniskirk.com and inspected, cleaned, and preserved all my electrical grounds and connectors. After installing the new components the bike has been running and charging great.
Here's my advice:
1. Go to the "GSR Garage" and print out the "Stator Papers"... all of them.
2. Go buy a quality multimeter at an auto parts store and read the instructions on how to take electrical measurements.
3. Inspect and clean every electrical ground and connection on the bike.
4. Test your charging system using the stator papers.
5. If a faulty component is found, order it along with a Clymers maintenance manual.
6. DO THE WORK YOURSELF!; save yourself some money, learn something new, rest assured the job was done right, and enjoy the sense of accomplishment!

I started with absolutely no experience on motorcycles and now I feel like I could be a friggin' engineer for the '80 550L. It is so easy to work on this bike, just take your time and do it right, don't go to a shop. You'll have your bike back on the road in no time, and when you're enjoying a leisurely ride out on the GS, you will have double the satisfaction by knowing that you were the one that got her running so good!
Let me know if you need any help.
-Dean

**jester** · 05-13-2006, 10:55 PM

Thanks for the replies!

Thanks, everyone, for the helpful responses. I will do a thorough test of the system and investigate a new stator.

Considering a new regulator was just installed, do you think it's OK to just get the stator?

How idiot-proof is this? I'm not afraid to learn something new, but if paying someone $100 to fix it saves me the potential of wrecking something, maybe I'd better do that! :-)

Here's hoping it's just a bad connection somewhere...

Thanks again from the great advice,

Peace,

Jesse

**Basket Case** · 05-13-2006, 10:59 PM

Your regulator may be OK, but it could also have been effected if your stator went bad. It's best to check 'em all using the Stator Pages. (Awesome stuff in there, many thanks to all who put the work into that.)

It's pretty much impossible to mess something up following the checking procedure. There's very little disassembling involved, and the instructions are very good.

**bwringer** · 05-13-2006, 11:23 PM

Whatever you do, don't take it back to the shop that screwed this up in the first place.

A motivated and attentive motorcycle owner will do better work than the average part time crackhead motorcycle shop mechanic approximately 100% of the time. (Wrenching motorcycles is part-time seasonal work in most of the country -- do you think they're going to get the finest quality mechanical geniuses?)

You don't need to be an expert -- just be able to think clearly and pay attention.

**KEITH KRAUSE** · 05-14-2006, 01:30 AM

Try a few things yourself such as: recharging the battery, check water level, then check all grounds for clean/tight, ADD a new ground wire from the regulator to the battery or frame. Test.

**yogib** · 05-14-2006, 02:44 PM

Definately DO NOT take it back to the shop that replaced the regulator.They're guessing!Any mechanic that's worth a ____ would have diagnosed the problem instead of just replacing parts. There is alot of sound advice in this forum to get you back on the road!

**Poot** · 05-14-2006, 04:03 PM

if you have to get a new stator, order it and put it in yourself. it will save you a lot on labour, and its really quite easy.

make sure you get a stator gasket though.

**jester** · 05-14-2006, 04:47 PM

Is the stator gasket something that will come with it, or something I'll need to find elsewhere? Is that what it's called..."stator gasket"?

Thanks again, everyone! This is totally bumming me out. Today is the first sunny, warm day here in western MN in a long time, and I'm spending it mowing. Sheesh!

Jesse

**Poot** · 05-14-2006, 04:55 PM

its actually the stator cover gasket, sorry. Its available at teh dealerships, and is pretty cheap. just a paper gasket for inbetween the cover and the engine since theres oil inside.

**jester** · 05-14-2006, 09:58 PM

OK, guys, with the help of an electronics-minded friend, we used the ElectroSport fault-finding flowchart to test my electrical system.

First test: meter to battery terminals, rev to 2500 RPM, showed around 11.9 volts.

Then let engine idle, and connected black from meter to battery +, and red meter lead to red out from regulator. Hoping to see MORE than 0.2 V, but actually saw NEGATIVE volts.

Similar test: connected red from meter to battery -, black meter lead to black/white from regulator. Again, negative voltage. Make sense??

Stopped the engine. Did ohm test on 3 yellows coming from stator. resistance was around 1.0 ohms on all of those, which is what the flowchart seems to expect!

Switched meter to AC voltage, tested the 3 yellow wires from stator, revving engine to 5000 RPM. All 3 tested at about 90 volts.

Going to part C! This is fun! ;-)

In part C we were to test in diode-test mode. On the first part of the test, meter read OL, so we moved on to next part.

Here we connected meter black lead to red output of regulator, and red lead to one of the yellow wires from the stator. Flowchart says we should get a 0.50 V reading on all 3 yellows from the stator, but we still got OL.

That's where the testing ended, as the flowchart didn't really indicate what to do in that circumstance!

We did find a couple of connections that looke suspect, fixed them, bottled it all back up, started it, and still found about 11.8 V at the battery when cycle was running.

So, if you're familiar with the flowchart, what would your guess be? We seemed to make it past part B (the stator section) OK! The part where our readings went whacky was the regulator, which was replaced just days ago.

If you have any comments or suggestions, I thank you in advance for them!

Jesse

**ddaum** · 05-14-2006, 11:33 PM

Originally posted by jester

Going to part C! This is fun! ;-)

In part C we were to test in diode-test mode. On the first part of the test, meter read OL, so we moved on to next part.

Here we connected meter black lead to red output of regulator, and red lead to one of the yellow wires from the stator. Flowchart says we should get a 0.50 V reading on all 3 yellows from the stator, but we still got OL.

That's where the testing ended, as the flowchart didn't really indicate what to do in that circumstance!

We did find a couple of connections that looked suspect, fixed them, bottled it all back up, started it, and still found about 11.8 V at the battery when cycle was running.

So, if you're familiar with the flowchart, what would your guess be? We seemed to make it past part B (the stator section) OK! The part where our readings went wacky was the regulator, which was replaced just days ago.

If you have any comments or suggestions, I thank you in advance for them!

Jesse

It sounds like everything went well in the flow chart until you got to Part C. One reason you may be getting the OL (Over Limit) reading on the multimeter is because the multimeter dial is set too sensitive. Make sure you have the dial set to read the tenths scale of DC voltage and not millivolts. Millivolts are identified by the small "m" on most multimeters like this one:

In this example you should have it switched two notches up to 20 VDC.

I will assume that you had this all set up correctly anyway.

Here we connected meter black lead to red output of regulator, and red lead to one of the yellow wires from the stator. Flowchart says we should get a 0.50 V reading on all 3 yellows from the stator, but we still got OL.

That's where the testing ended, as the flowchart didn't really indicate what to do in that circumstance!

At this point is sounds like you have a bad regulator/rectifier. The stator papers state during this step that "if you have a reading below 0.2 V or above 1.0 V on one of the three tests" then you have a bad R&R. The R&R is further suspect because the stator is putting out good voltage at all three leads, but the battery isn't charging. I'd go with replacing the R&R and not running the bike anymore until the new R&R is installed with a fully charged, known good, battery installed also. Ground the new R&R to the negative terminal on the battery and run through the stator papers flow chart again. let us know your readings...

**jester** · 05-15-2006, 08:13 PM

I just ordered another R/R from DennisKirk.com. I'll replace that first, test, and report back!

Anyone have an idea of what could cause a week-old R/R go bad? (Assuming the shop guys did the work right...) I'd hate to spend $100 on another one only to wreck that, too.

Thanks again for all the encouragement and advice!

Jesse

Bike died on me today (electrical problem)

Bike died on me today (electrical problem)

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