Stator papers question

[Guest]

Ok, last Sunday the bike left my wife and I sitting at the movie theater. Hoomgar was there to save the day and give my wife a ride home to then come pick me up to get the truck there to retrieve the bike. (We were only about 3 miles from home).

Actually, let me start at the beginning.

Wife's birthday, so I wanted to treat her to a ride then catch a movie. So, after Church (which I rode the bike to and from) the sitter comes to watch our daughter, then we are off on a 45+- minute ride. Get to the theater, and pick out some primo parking (ie one of those spaces that isn't a space for a car but a bike fits wonderfully in). Go in, watch the movie.. Come out, and nothing (or so it appears) Check fuses.. seem to be ok..

Fast forward to bike home and in the garage. Turn the key.. What is that.. a dim light on the dash.. Check voltage of battery.. 9.8V. Ok, seems I may have some charging issues.

Fast forward to today (finally got time to diagnose).

Printed Stator papers the other day. Take them out today and start going through.. Right from the get-go, charging system checks out OK. Well, in the interest of being thorough I go through the entire Trouble shooting flow-chart anyway. Everything checks out.. (though on one of the legs of the stator I measured just under 60VAC at 58VAC, don't know how much of an issue that will be, as I also wasn't sure I hit 5k RPM's either for long enough for the meter to register correctly).

So, the questions... Is that 58VAC on one leg of the stator going to be an issue?

In the interest of simplifying I double checked the wiring for the "odd" leg of the stator that goes to the front then right back, and since it's an 82 with the lights on all the time, is it ok to just leave that extra trip back to front out, and hook up all 3 legs directly to the R/R?

I did go through the bullet connectors for the charging system and cleaned the connections and put dielectric grease on them as well, as well as cleaning the ground connection from the R/R.

Oh, and all my tests were done with the bike fresh out of the garage, should I do the tests after a bit of riding to see if maybe it is something that only makes itself evident after riding for a time?

Amos

[lucabond]

When you made your voltage check was it at the RR, in other words if you measured the voltage on the leg that travels to the plug under the seat and back to the RR the drop could be in the wiring it travels to get to the RR.
Alot of people myself included just bypass that leg and wire it directly into the RR so that all 3 leads from the stator go directly to the RR. And then connect the red lead from the RR direct to the + side of the battery and the black lead from the RR direct to the - side of the battery. Don't forget to clean the battery connections and check the water level in the battery,
by the way how old is the battery ? Maybe time for a new 1 if the ends have a bow to them its been over charged and should be replaced. Good luck

[TheBigRed]

When you made your voltage check was it at the RR, in other words if you measured the voltage on the leg that travels to the plug under the seat and back to the RR the drop could be in the wiring it travels to get to the RR.
Alot of people myself included just bypass that leg and wire it directly into the RR so that all 3 leads from the stator go directly to the RR. And then connect the red lead from the RR direct to the + side of the battery and the black lead from the RR direct to the - side of the battery. Don't forget to clean the battery connections and check the water level in the battery,
by the way how old is the battery ? Maybe time for a new 1 if the ends have a bow to them its been over charged and should be replaced. Good luck

I took my measurements at the closest location I could to the "devices." IE, for the r/r I measured at the ends of the leads that come off of it or the "pigtail" that comes out of the r/r.

For the stator, I took the measurements where the wires connect to the r/r, but did not measure the lead that goes to the front of the bike then back. IE, I measured right off of the stator wires at the closest location (short of pulling the stator out).

I did measure a loss of about .2V DC from the red lead of the r/r to the red terminal on the battery, thus why I cleaned the connections and put dielectric grease on them. (didn't measure anything after that).

Plan to eventually wire the outputs (red/black) of the r/r directly to the battery, however I didn't have the spare wire available today, so I made sure I cleaned all the connections well.

I have now bypassed that extra leg of the third leg from the stator to the front of the bike and back, so time will tell how things work I guess..

The battery is new this year, the acid level is within the lines, and it looks good.

I'm just thinking that most of my driving this year on the bike has been at most 20 minutes (commuting to and from work) so the wiring never had time to really heat up so I may not have seen any issues prior to our 45 min ride..

Anyway, that should answer your questions.

Amos

[Steve]

The battery is new this year, the acid level is within the lines, and it looks good.

You can't go by looks alone, you need a voltmeter.

When the battery appears to be fully charged, check the voltage, it should be well over 12.6, probably 12.8-13.0 volts. When you turn the key ON, it will drop a bit, but when you press the starter, you don't want it to go below 10.5 while the starter is cranking.

When you got the battery, did you initialize it properly? Most people don't. Click this link to see a paper that was aimed at BMW riders, but the principle applies to all wet-cell batteries. Lack of proper initialization will affect the ultimate capacity of a battery, and you can't go back to do it right, it has to be done first thing.

.

[Clone]

When you get a new r/r all three wires should go through it. That would mean adding a wire to the r/r for the leg that goes forward and cutting that loop out of the system.
you should print off the stator pages test procedures, and do them on all three legs and look not just at the voltage but the ohm readings, it could be the stator is ok. Also do the diode test on your rectifier. I also discovered that all the grounds from electrical devices on the bike come back to the battery via 1 20 guage wire.
To aid your electrical system health, add a new ground to:
headlight
signals
cluster
taillight
rear signals
r/r
fusebox.
I took the ones at the front to the frame and added a new wire from the frame to the battery. Then the fusebox and r/r plus the one from the rear to the bike directly to the battery.
Hopefully your system will be ok and mine will be ok too.

[TheBigRed]

You can't go by looks alone, you need a voltmeter.

When the battery appears to be fully charged, check the voltage, it should be well over 12.6, probably 12.8-13.0 volts. When you turn the key ON, it will drop a bit, but when you press the starter, you don't want it to go below 10.5 while the starter is cranking.

When you got the battery, did you initialize it properly? Most people don't. Click this link to see a paper that was aimed at BMW riders, but the principle applies to all wet-cell batteries. Lack of proper initialization will affect the ultimate capacity of a battery, and you can't go back to do it right, it has to be done first thing.

.

Steve, Thanks for the link, though the page is "temporarily unavailable" I have been using a meter (or else I wouldn't have even gotten to start on the stator troubleshooting flowchart). The battery (once I charged it back up on my charger) was sitting right around the 12.6VDC you mention (otherwise my measurements on the stator troubleshooting would have been totally off). Once that page comes back up I will take a look at it to see if I "correctly" initialized the battery, though I followed the instructions that came with it, then charged it fully on the charger before using.

you should print off the stator pages test procedures, and do them on all three legs and look not just at the voltage but the ohm readings, it could be the stator is ok. Also do the diode test on your rectifier. I also discovered that all the grounds from electrical devices on the bike come back to the battery via 1 20 guage wire.
To aid your electrical system health, add a new ground to:
headlight
signals
cluster
taillight
rear signals
r/r
fusebox.
I took the ones at the front to the frame and added a new wire from the frame to the battery. Then the fusebox and r/r plus the one from the rear to the bike directly to the battery.
Hopefully your system will be ok and mine will be ok too.

Clone, I already printed the procedure off and followed it, and all my measurements come within those allowed, everything checked out ok when. I should go get them and bring them down, as I wrote all my measurements down (or at least fairly closely anyway). I did measure the resistance of the stator legs, and they all came within spec, and with no short to ground.

I did notice when I was testing that a couple of the wires were getting a little warm (not unbearably, or even to the point of melting insulation) so I went ahead and cleaned the connections (as stated above) for the charging system while I was working on it and put dielectric grease on the connections as well.

As I get time I'll probably start tackling the other connections on the bike, and adding the grounds as you stated in your quote. However, I'd really rather dedicate my time to my 550 project (which progress on is nearly non-existent as it is) to get that up and running, then I can give the 650 a break and figure out what I want to do with it (since it really isn't a looker to begin with I've tossed the idea of a street legal racer/cafe etc though cafe is way down on the list).


If I get a chance I may also print out my readings that I noted when I went through the stator pages for everyone to see. I'm still curious if it was just something that won't manifest itself on the short rides, but will on longer rides which would stink as that means being further from home when the battery isn't charging correctly. But for now, the charging system checks out so I'll keep riding..

Amos

[simon kuether]

If you can,go through your bike and replace ALL the bullet connectors with insulated spade type connectors.The bullet ones are made of brass and when you plug them together,the female part spreads and can lead to loose connections The spade type are made of tinned copper and give a much more reliable long term connection.If you decide to replace the bullets,spend the extra few cents and get good quality ones.If you don't want to replace all the bullets,at least do the ones from your stator to your regulator.A little grease on the spades won't hurt either.Cheers,Simon.

[Steve]

Steve, Thanks for the link, though the page is "temporarily unavailable"

Sorry, but I did not verify the link before posting it.

Here is a link to a VFR site that has a condensed version of it.

.

[TheBigRed]

Sorry, but I did not verify the link before posting it.

Here is a link to a VFR site that has a condensed version of it.

.

Steve, that is pretty much what I did when I set up this battery.

Amos