Best Place To Have Stator Rewound?

Lets leave the but connectors out of the circuit at this stag. If it was working properly with the full amperage output, then personally I would like to see some solder and heat shrink for the main charging connections.
So this harness from where the stator windings connect, up to the plug in is all bugged and you need to replace this and connect it to this stator so you can perform more tests? Is that what I'm hearing/ reading?

:laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

loudhvx wrote:

I don't know about mechanic #2.

Oh, I do. Hence Mechanic #3

loudhvx wrote:

20 amps a 1 volt is not the same as 10 amps at 14v.

I couldn't agree with you more ... whatever that means.

loudhvx wrote:

Doesn't he owe you a stator?

Well, I'd have to say yes. I clearly have the moral high ground here.

There is, however, the question of collecting on that owed stator.

I could take him to small claims court, but then there's the slight challenge of convincing a non-motorhead judge that he owes me that stator.

I could punch him in the face (which I would enjoy thoroughly), but mechanic #2 has a serious heart condition, and concern over that has had me avoid even spirited discussions with him, much less feeding him the old knuckle shish-ka-bob. Last thing in the world I'd want to do is have to live with his keeling over after I put the old figure-four leglock on him.

All I can do is move on and try to avoid grinding my teeth in rage.

Motor Head wrote:

Lets leave the but connectors out of the circuit at this stag. If it was working properly with the full amperage output, then personally I would like to see some solder and heat shrink for the main charging connections.
So this harness from where the stator windings connect, up to the plug in is all bugged and you need to replace this and connect it to this stator so you can perform more tests? Is that what I'm hearing/ reading?

I'd prefer good, hard, brass crimp connections there. Solder has a way of letting go in there. It weakens the copper from the heat of soldering, and sometimes the flux leads to corrosion.

Sometimes solder can work and is the only viable fix, but don't let too much of the stranded wire get soaked with solder. It makes it rigid and then can snap from fibration, corrosion.

Motor Head wrote:

Lets leave the but connectors out of the circuit at this stag. If it was working properly with the full amperage output, then personally I would like to see some solder and heat shrink for the main charging connections.
So this harness from where the stator windings connect, up to the plug in is all bugged and you need to replace this and connect it to this stator so you can perform more tests? Is that what I'm hearing/ reading?

OK, you're going to have to help me here.

If you leave the butt connectors out, the stator is not connected to the sub harness.

The windings on the stator terminate into 4 wires. In the pic, they're the white wires coming out of the stator.

Those four wires are paired and connected into two butt connectors, which have a single wire coming out of each.

Those two single wires are shrink wrapped and run out of the case through a weatherproof connector, terminating in a snap connector which connects to a sub harness which connects to the regulator/rectifier.

It is those two single wires exiting the butt connectors which have been chewed up, and repaired. The tolerances behind the bracket which holds those wires away from the rotor are so thight that the repair we have affected has caused the bracket to rub against the rotor. Repairing the damage will not work, those wires must be replaced.

Additionally, the four whit wires running out of the stator were bound to it by this kind of waxy string stuff. I would assume it was some kind of non-cunductive material. I don't know what it was, or how exactly those wires should be bound.

No eBay APP ID and/or Cert ID defined in Kunena configurationNo eBay APP ID and/or Cert ID defined in Kunena configurationThe ebay alternators mentioned by Otakar each seem to have two yellow wires in the harness.

Were these the wrong style?





Good Fortune!

Yes those butT connectors, don't like them only crimped. Would prefer to see a soldered connection, you can do this over the crimp so that all is really solid. But for the most part, NO Butt connectors means those ones with the Insulation, plastic, that are so readily available. I can tell you that a factory supplied piece would not use a Plastic insulated crimp on connector anywhere. Don't even mention those "Scotch Lock's"
So back to looking at the stator you still have. This thing has been completely checked for correct OHM readings? With the crimps removed so each leg is checked? I would hate to see you put out even more $ for another 1 even used if it is the harness up from the stator that has the issue. This harness would be easy enough to build fresh, with the proper terminals that will fit your current plug for the R/R.

Patton wrote:

The ebay alternators mentioned by Otakar each seem to have two yellow wires in the harness.

Were these the wrong style?

Good Fortune!

No, they're the same as the one(s) I have.

Motor Head wrote:

Yes those butT connectors, don't like them only crimped. Would prefer to see a soldered connection, you can do this over the crimp so that all is really solid. But for the most part, NO Butt connectors means those ones with the Insulation, plastic, that are so readily available. I can tell you that a factory supplied piece would not use a Plastic insulated crimp on connector anywhere. Don't even mention those "Scotch Lock's"
So back to looking at the stator you still have. This thing has been completely checked for correct OHM readings? With the crimps removed so each leg is checked? I would hate to see you put out even more $ for another 1 even used if it is the harness up from the stator that has the issue. This harness would be easy enough to build fresh, with the proper terminals that will fit your current plug for the R/R.

The only ohm test I'm familiar with is the one outlined in the Clymer manual, and it is for the stator as a whole, which should be 4 ohms, or less. i don't know what the reading should be for each of he individual legs.

I assume each of the four wires coming out of the winding is a leg?

Yes sir that's what I was saying. If each or the 4 wires has continuity and the same OHM's and are not shorted, then how is the Stator it self the problem? That is what I'm suggesting. It seems as though you are on something like stator 4? Are all of these really defective? The underlying issue will rear it ugly head again if all of your stators are fried. I'm just trying to help you find out if you can Repair the Harness to this rewound stator and bolt it up to do some of the other tests. If you do need another stator, then I would buy the R/R from the Oregon fellow. I have not used his parts, but I have a friend in Bend who has.
Remember that the wire that is wound on to the stator is a coated wire, this is to keep it insulated when wound. So when doing the connection to your harness you need to scrub the connection area of the wire end with some sand paper to clean it before crimping/ soldering. I would put some die electric grease and then heat shrink over the connection.
Hope this makes sense.

OK boys, it's update time, and it's gonna be a doozey.

Before we head there, I thought you might like a peek at that @#$%^&!!! KZ650:



There she is boys, The Devil On Two Wheels, KZ Mephistopheles, Kawi-Christine, Wheeled Pestilence.

Here, gaze upon the face of the beast:



She looks so innocent, doesn't she, that crusher of dreams, that destroyer of souls, that annihilator of all that is good in my life.



There she sits, evily plotting another day of ruining my life as she occasionally drips oil onto the floor just to confound me further.

I'm guessing by now you've figured out this evening's troubleshooting didn't go well? Oh, how right you are! Before we go there, though, let's see one more parting shot of the ass of evil:

OK, so I went and picked up the 50.00 '81 LTD. It's actually a 60.00 '81 LTD, cause he's a nice guy and he's out of work and the bike is worth a lot more than that, so I slipped him a little extra. If I was in better shape, I would've slipped him a hundo.



That's Fitty (the 50.00 '81 LTD) on the back of my trusty Jeep Cherokee. I borrowed the hitch hauler from a friend of mine, and it is awesome. I'm going to get one as soon as possible. The tank, carbs, jugs, head, manual, etc are all in the jeep. That is my friend Reagan (officially known as Mechanic #3) preparing to pull the stator.



These are the stators #5 and 6. Stator #6 is on the left. It's the one off of Fitty (the 50.00 '81 LTD). Stator #5 is on the right, it is the used stator we picked up after stator #4 (the one rewound by Rick's with less than 600 miles on it since the rewind) was eaten by that @#$%^&!!! KZ650.

OK, we can settle a couple of things now:

#1: We measured the outside diameters on both the '79 stator and the '81 stator, and they were the exact same size.

#2: We measured the inside diameters of both the '79 rotor and the '81 rotor and they were exactly the same.

OK, back to the update:

You can't really see it, but stator #6 (off of Fitty) looked pretty sweet. It still has the factory covering, so it's never been rewound, and it's clean, with no gunk or dirt and very few scratches on the outside surface that faces the inside surface of the rotor. Rotor #3 (off of Fitty) looked really good, too. No scratches at all on the inside surfaces; much nicer than rotors #2 and #1. It looks like the cover's never been off. Fitty, however, has over 42,000 miles on her, so anything is possible.

Next, we took stators #4, 5, and 6 over to the bench for a little testing. Clymer says a good stator should have "around .04 ohms' resistance".

Stator #5, which was outputting a maximum of 68 VAC @ 4000 RPM when Clymer says it should be 75 VAC @ 4000 RPM, showed .07-.08 ohms' resistance. The same as it showed when we tested it on the bike last week.

Stator #6 (off of Fitty) showed .09-.10 ohms' resistance.

Stator #4 (the one with under 600 miles on the rewind) showed .10 ohms' resistance. FRACK!!! It's the worst of the three!

Something is just not right here. Stator #5 has been on the bike less than 200 miles. Stator #6 hasn't been on the bike at all, and stator #4 has less than 600 miles since being rewound.

So, mechanic #3 put stator #6 on the bike (with rotor #2). We left the stator disconnected from the rest of the harness, revved it up to 4000 rpm, and held it there. It quickly came up to 63 VAC (should be 75 VAC), and would go no higher. Stator #5 got to 68 VAC, so swapping to the 3-phase stator cost us 5 VAC. FRACK!

The ever-patient, unflappable Reagan (Mechanic #3) next removed the front axle from that @#$%^&!!! KZ650 and used it to remove rotor #3 from Fitty and swapped it onto that @#$%^&!!! KZ650. He then put stator #6 back on, so we now had the rotor and the stator from Fitty on that @#$%^&!!! KZ650. We again left it disconnected from the rest of the electrical system, revved it up to 4000 rpm, held it there, and waited.

63 VAC.

FRACK!

Well, I think we've eliminated the rotor from possible causation. That's sort of like hearing everything burned up in your housefire except your mother-in-law and your wife's gel-filled sleep mask.

So, we're standing around discussing whether to use 20% ethanol, or ethanol-free gas to light that @#$%^&!!! KZ650 on fire. I was about to put low-sulphur diesel out there when Mechanic #3 said:

"What if the tach is off?"

Hmmmmmmmm.

I had the tach rebuilt 2 years ago (less than 600 miles ago) by that dude in Georgia. Since I got it back, it has jumped all over the place at anything over 3000 rpm. The speedo has jumped around a lot, too. Over time, the tach has settled down until it now only jumps around over 6000 rpm. The speedometer has settled down, too, it now only jumps around at over 90.

I'd always wondered about that tach. I idle the bike at 1000 rpm, but it has always seemed lower to me. Without my saying anything, Mechanic #3 said the same thing.

I got the idea of revving it up till we got 75 VAC, and seeing where it was at. 4750 rpm.

Now, Fitty came with gauges, too, making me feel even smarter about buying her. I went to the jeep to get them. FRACK! There's one thing I forgot to put in the Jeep when I picked Fitty up. Guess what it is?

FRACK!

I'll go by tomorrow and get the gauges.

Now, even if the tach is off, it still doesn't explain the high ohms' resistance readings, and while stator #5 made 68 VAC at what we thought was 4000 rpm, and went all the way up to 90 VAC when revved (much) higher, the output from the regulator rectifier never went above 13.6 VDC, no matter how high it was revved.

Note to loudvhx: Regarding the bike slowly getting up to 13.6 VDC, dropping to 13.3 VDC, slowling climbing back to 13.6 VDC, then dropping again? Mechanic #3 says it was regular as clockwork. Does that mean it was the regulator/rectifier cycling, and if so, why would it do so at 13.6 VDC when that's not supposed to happen till 15+ VDC?

So, we stopped for the night. Tomorrow, I will get the gauges and we will see if Fitty's tach reads any differently. Mechanic #3 is going to install Fitty's regulator/rectifier (that would be regulator/rectifier # 5) so we will have a complete three-phase charging system on the bike.

For the moment, I want to focus on the stator(s). I just don't see how it can be a coincidence that all three show too much resistance, and are all so close to each other in resistance. Sure, something could be killing the stators, but remember that stator #6 had never been anywhere near that @#$%^&!!! KZ650.