W
Warchild
Guest
Well, it was a good run while it lasted.... about 3 1/2 years, and 60,000 miles, but sadly, it appears that my stator is now toast.
Background:
I noticed that my Datel voltmeter has been acting ape-shit since for a good couple weeks now... the voltage would be all over the place, changing every 2-3 seconds... a typical sequence would be: start the bike, Datel goes to 12.6v, then 14.1v, then jump to 12.3v, then 13.5v, 12.2v, 13.8v, 12.7v, 14.3v, 12.5v.... repeat, repeat, repeat. The voltage jumping around had no rhyme or reason, no discernable pattern. It occurred at all RPM speeds, from idle up to 6000RPM and beyond.
Did all the usual tricks, check all connections, even replaced the R/R with a new one that I had bought last year as a precaution. No change in the bizarre voltage readings.
The battery itself appears healthy enough... seems to be able to keep a good charge. Even after several weeks of inactivity sitting in a cold PacNorWest winter garage, I'll slap the Fluke multimeter leads on it, and it still reads a healthy 13+ volts. Bike starts up just fine. But obviously something is dicked up. I confirmed the Datel's readings with the Fluke, and the scattered voltage readings were identical to the Datel.
Now, when all this first starting happening, I could get the Datel to stabilize at around 13.9v - 14.1v, but only if both headlights were turned off (my low-beam is a HID unit that I can switch off). Obviously, this eliminated any night-time riding. After a couple weeks, even this wasn't enough to stop the wild voltage readings. Yeah, I was pretty much thinking that I was essentially fucked at this point.
Testing:
Sooooooo...... I break down and start the heavy-duty trouble-shooting using ElectrexUSA's excellent 4-page Fault-Find flowchart: Electrex Fault Finding Flowchart I slap the Battery Tender on the battery for 24 hours, and started all these test with a good 13.5v showing on the battery before starting the bike up and going through the fault-finding diagrams.
At first all the preliminary tests check out good, but sure enough, when I get to the point where I am measuring AC voltage between all three legs of the stator (bottom of pg 2 from above link), the tests fail. In this test, a good stator will have all three legs outputting the same voltage, and this voltage needs to be over 50 volts AC. These measurements are taken at 5000 RPM.
The readings confirmed the worst: none of the three legs measured the same voltage, and even if they did, the highest of the lot was a paltry 18 volts AC.
Fuuuuuuuuck.
All this pretty well points to a smoked stator. I am inclined to go with the ElectrexUSA stator for the XX, as it looks to be a pretty high-quality unit: http://www.electrexusa.com/electrex_stators.html
If anyone has any experience with ElectrexUSA stators, I'd sure like to hear it. If anyone can think of anything I've missed, I'm all ears.
Background:
I noticed that my Datel voltmeter has been acting ape-shit since for a good couple weeks now... the voltage would be all over the place, changing every 2-3 seconds... a typical sequence would be: start the bike, Datel goes to 12.6v, then 14.1v, then jump to 12.3v, then 13.5v, 12.2v, 13.8v, 12.7v, 14.3v, 12.5v.... repeat, repeat, repeat. The voltage jumping around had no rhyme or reason, no discernable pattern. It occurred at all RPM speeds, from idle up to 6000RPM and beyond.
Did all the usual tricks, check all connections, even replaced the R/R with a new one that I had bought last year as a precaution. No change in the bizarre voltage readings.
The battery itself appears healthy enough... seems to be able to keep a good charge. Even after several weeks of inactivity sitting in a cold PacNorWest winter garage, I'll slap the Fluke multimeter leads on it, and it still reads a healthy 13+ volts. Bike starts up just fine. But obviously something is dicked up. I confirmed the Datel's readings with the Fluke, and the scattered voltage readings were identical to the Datel.
Now, when all this first starting happening, I could get the Datel to stabilize at around 13.9v - 14.1v, but only if both headlights were turned off (my low-beam is a HID unit that I can switch off). Obviously, this eliminated any night-time riding. After a couple weeks, even this wasn't enough to stop the wild voltage readings. Yeah, I was pretty much thinking that I was essentially fucked at this point.
Testing:
Sooooooo...... I break down and start the heavy-duty trouble-shooting using ElectrexUSA's excellent 4-page Fault-Find flowchart: Electrex Fault Finding Flowchart I slap the Battery Tender on the battery for 24 hours, and started all these test with a good 13.5v showing on the battery before starting the bike up and going through the fault-finding diagrams.
At first all the preliminary tests check out good, but sure enough, when I get to the point where I am measuring AC voltage between all three legs of the stator (bottom of pg 2 from above link), the tests fail. In this test, a good stator will have all three legs outputting the same voltage, and this voltage needs to be over 50 volts AC. These measurements are taken at 5000 RPM.
The readings confirmed the worst: none of the three legs measured the same voltage, and even if they did, the highest of the lot was a paltry 18 volts AC.
Fuuuuuuuuck.
All this pretty well points to a smoked stator. I am inclined to go with the ElectrexUSA stator for the XX, as it looks to be a pretty high-quality unit: http://www.electrexusa.com/electrex_stators.html
If anyone has any experience with ElectrexUSA stators, I'd sure like to hear it. If anyone can think of anything I've missed, I'm all ears.
