Just got a GS550E with some issues...

[Joe Nardy]

First off. Drop the nastiness. It's not apreciated. If you want to get good results explain why what I'm saying is wrong. Don't scream, you will not get good results.

Nerobro,

As someone already pointed out that's just Earl's way of communicating, no nastiness intended. Although it sounds like you have a good working knowledge of charging and electrical systems, I'd be willing to bet Earl could teach you a thing or two hundred. Just my opinion here, but the best path might be to thankfully accept the help and keep the peace. You may need help further down the line on something you aren't so familiar with and Earl is one great source!

Joe

[bybowtie]

OH and rant over

Save your self some trouble. get a trickle charger and disconnect that new battery..It will make life a whole lot easier.
As from my experience you have a rather serious charging issue,If it were me I would try to find a few electrex parts(ebay, is good, bike bandit etc) Get you anew stator AND r/r make sure terminations of both are clean and true.(dialectric grease does help) and go from there..For the terminations you may well need to make you own connections with butt connectors(factory ones tend to corrode BADLY and often break when messed with). If you make them use hig quality terminations and good crimps/solder, this is the one area you dont want to skimp.As for the rotor I HIGHLY doubt its even a remote issue unless the magnet plain broke of...High quality componant thats a paint to work with I know(right Earl )
After all that it will seem pricey but I would almost (98 %) feel that your charging issues will be resolved.
Then youll want to check all your connections on your bike as you stated make sure you check inside your headlight bucket (thats where your main terminations go you may well have a short in there if you have no signals..Make sure there are NO rubs near the steering stem,Make sure none of your cables get hung up on the bars(i.e gas,clutch,brake)
Check all brakes make sure there in order.
Get a nice inline filter,your carbs will love you. drain your float bowls(if sitting for more than a week or two) replace your plugs, hook up the battery and give her hell....
After that the diagnosis of whats left will be a breeze...
Good luck and enjoy the challenge

Keith

[Nerobro]

I'd be willing to bet Earl could teach you a thing or two hundred. Just my opinion here, but the best path might be to thankfully accept the help and keep the peace. You may need help further down the line on something you aren't so familiar with and Earl is one great source!

I'm sure he can teach me many things about these bikes. As it stands I don't understand how the charging system sinks excess energy. This is however something I'm trying to teach myself.

Earl, I didn't take any shots at you. I apreciate your help. I wasn't ignoring you. And I'm sorry if I frustrated you. Like I said, I'm beyond trying to figure out what needs to be replaced. And i'm just messing with things so I can figure out how things died and why. (at the moment I'm betting a coil shorted on the stator and that led to the rest of the failures)

ByBowTie, I'm hunting down a trickle charger tonight. (I get paid today, that helps) I also have made peace with myself knowing that I'll probally need to get the electrix gear. That doens't bother me much. But I'd like to try rewinding my stator, and using a honda or larger GS regulator first. If only for the "I did it" factor.

Along those lines, it seems like there's a dozen different regulators used on the GS's. The ones I've seen for the 850 on ebay look 50% larger than the one that came on my bike. It at least had 50% more fin aera.

I have a fuel filter sitting on the dining room table awaiting instalation.

As for those electrcial conenctions. I've ALWAYS hated bullet connectors. Closely followed by the tamiya style connectors. (r/c car experience showing through here...) We'll see what my budget allows but I have a real love of what were "lightspeed" and now "deans" connectors. (they have less resistance than 10guage wire.. and are extrordinarily secure)

Do any of you have suggestions on replacement connectors?

[bybowtie]

youll want something you can take apart,I know a possible corrosion and source of addition resistance issue ( remember every splice adds to the resistance of current so make sure they are good ones)
I say something you can remove because you never know when youll need to test these items again,anything to make it easier on the next guy I say....Youll want a low resistance high crimp( I always add a drop of solder to the bond where the wire terminates) connecter

[Detman101]

Interested in these "Deans" connectors.
Any photos?

Dm of mD

[Nerobro]

I got the name wrong. Lightspeed used to distrubute the ones I use(d). Duratrax seems to have bought them out. The connectors themselves are lexan. the plugs themselves are tinned copper.
Check them out http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...&I=LXD176&P=ML

To give you some idea of how well those connectors work, using bullet connectors I was able to weld the connectors togother. (yes melted the metal, with a grand total of 7.2 volts... but that's another story) the Lightspeed/duratrax connectors never even got warm.

Deans makes lots of connectors too... but they aren't nearly as well suited for our application. Most imporatnly the deans connectors don't "lock" they are jusut friction fit.

http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0091p?&C=CGB&V=WSD

I wish I had a good supply of "limp noodle" wire. Stuff with like 40 strands in it and sillicone instead of viynal coating. that stuff made working with bundles of wire a joy.

[earlfor]

There was no nastiness intended. We have a tech problem. There are two steps and four tests required to verify the correct operation of the charging system. I avoid working in circles. My perspective is we start at point 1 and complete the troubleshooting at point 4 with the answers we need to correct the problem. Any other path, although possibly interesting, is superfluous.
My "yelling" was nothing more than a clap and a comment that I felt we were straying from focus on the problem. I guess my final comment about getting attention and the following smiley face was misunderstood or unnoticed. :-) :-)

I promise not to yell at you anymore. However, whenever the conversation seems to be straying, I may start referring to you as
Mr. Conehead. :-)

Earl



[quote="Nerobro"]
First off. Drop the nastiness. It's not apreciated. If you want to get good results explain why what I'm saying is wrong. Don't scream, you will not get good results.

[Nerobro]

You make me wanna break out a baby picture of myself..... I'm QUITE LITTERALLY a conehead in that picture.

So why conehead? I know the charecters on SNL, but I don't get the refrence.

Though back on topic. I should have replacement charging system parts by the end of the week. *grins*

I'm going with a honda voltage regulator and a stock GS stator.

[earlfor]

In the skits, I never knew where the dialog was headed.

Earl :-) LOL

[quote="Nerobro"]So why conehead? I know the charecters on SNL, but I don't get the refrence.

[jonr]

Neobro,

I had the stator rewound and the put in the electrex r/r on my 78 gs750. Before I sent off my stator, I had 50/50/30 VAC when testing it out. After having the stator rewound by electrex and put in their r/r combo, I have had nothing but pure charging bliss (as they put it) - no problems with magnets. I would highly recommnend that you don't go with any suzuki stock electrics since they have a pretty bad track record.

I hope you get it fixed! I want you to make it to the Galena ride!

-Jon

[Nerobro]

Well I have a stator coming in the mail. today I picked up a KX440/CX500 rectifier. It's twice the size as the stock one.

worst case scenario, I have room in my budget to go the all electrix route.

[Nerobro]

And today at work, I shall sit here and solder the wires from my stock reg onto this replacement one. you can tell I'm really busy at work ;-)

[Anonymous]

<you can tell I'm really busy at work >

The other day our internet went down at work for half a day. I never saw so much work get done in a half day before. Even the boses had to come out of their offices to do somthing.

Now that the internet is working again, its back to browsing the GS Resources

[Nerobro]

Oh yes. for documentation purposes.

the regulator/rectifier on a 1980 GS550ET is a RS21

The other markings are

RS21 4712
60 3C29

and on that note, I'm throwing it out. After testing it.. Only three of the diodes are working. Scary :-)

[Nerobro]

So, I bought a battery charger on friday. My battery is charged. I wired up my new rectifier. Hopefully my new stator will get here... I don't like the idea of toasting my new reg with my dead stator. And I REALLY want to ride my bike.