*SIGH* Back to the garage....(again!)

[Guest]

Well, my bike (82 650G) left me walking home on Saturday. Dead battery. Fortunately was only about 15 miles from home and some nice people stopped to give me a lift.

effing charging system!

What I've done:
Replaced Stator and R/R with crap from Electrosport.
Wires got really hot between R/R and Stator.
Ran stator papers tests and seemed R/R had failed again.
So repalced R/R again. (checked voltage at battery and all looked good)
Rode friggin 40 miles and left walking home.
Cussed up a storm.
Checked local Craigslist for new bike.
Drank 325ml of whiskey.

So I'm left thinking its the stator now.
Going to re-run stator papers again to verify.

Thinking my riding season is over now. Probably going to bite the bullet, replace that leaking gasket under where the spark plugs go. Do all the other $hit I was going to do over the winter.

How frustrating to say the least. Still, even though there are some mint GSes on craigslist not far away (some dreamy GS1000s but can't afford to upgrade at the moment), fixing what I have is going to cost less than buying something else. Bike runs great, just not for very long....dangit!

Was wondering if someone had a list I could check off while I'm doing all this to track my progress? I think there is a recommended gasket 'set' to buy. Does it include the oil pan gasket and the stator-cover gasket I'll need when I get in there?

I'll probably replace my battery and spark plugs too once its all back together again. Might even tackle replacing the fork seals too.

Now if I can only get the bulk of this done before it gets to be 30 degrees in the garage.....

In the meantime, I'll have to decide if its theraputic or mascochisit(sp?) to live vicariously thru those who's bikes actually work......hmmmm...

[nabrams]

Yeah, since Electrex became Electrosport the quality of their stuff has plummeted.
For my 1981 Honda CB750, I've been getting used electrical rotors that generate the rotating magnetic field inside the stator (Suzukis have permanent magnets instead) from eBay - the original design is notoriously unreliable. Each lasts somewhere between two months and a year. So I feel your pain. I tried getting a "professionally rebuilt" one and it also died after a few months - what a waste of money.
I do a lot of my riding with the headlight off to conserve battery power, and I re-charge the battery with a trickle-charger at least once a week.
Also, getting a quality "sealed, zero maintenance" battery (like the Big Crank) really makes life easier.
Even with these costs and headache it is WAY cheaper than buying a new bike, which generally has a much more beefed up charging system (more like a car's alternator).

[Nessism]

Did you do the ground wire upgrade - from the R/R directly to the battery? The knowledgable people here state this is critical to long component life on these GS bikes.

As an asside, you can wire the stator direct to the R/R and then to the battery (with a fuse in-line with the + cable). Use good fat wires and bypass your existing wires which may have excessive resistance. Don't give up.

As another asside, I just bought a late model Honda CRB R/R and it's HUGE compared to the stock GS piece. Going to wire that bad boy up just as soon as I figure where to mount it.

[chef1366]

I think you have a short, bad connection or a bad gound somewhere.

[jbs80106]

Thanks guys!

After simmering down a few days I think I'll go thru all the wiring again, pull the starter cover and check my connects there (had to solder together the wires from the new Stator to the old wires as they weren't long enough to reach where the need to go). Could be an easy fix. Save the gasket replacement until it gets colder.

I won't give up on her. She runs and looks great, just the annoying charging problem.

Thanks again!