Stator or what?

[Grey Ghost]

Quick recap. I ride a 2006 Tour Deluxe with 41,000 plus miles on it.

 

Last September while in Virginia I pulled in to a restaurant, shut the engine off and noticed the neutral light was dim. Bike wouldn't start so to make a longer story short, I replaced the battery and everything was fine. I had my phone and GPS running and just assumed that I had been pulling more than the stator was putting out and had drained the battery. No problems since.

Fast forward to this past Friday.

 

Had ridden from west Alabama to North Carolina, put 4-500 miles on in and around the mountains and pulled over for a stop. The engine went dead as I was stopping. No juice, very dim lights. Replaced the 9 month old battery, fired it up and ran fine for 50-60 miles. Was coming back across 74 to Robbinsville when it began cutting out some and the o/d light would flicker from bright to dim. Just west of Whittier, NC on level road it completely shut off and would do nothing. The battery was still charged so that I was able to keep my phone usuable, but my wife had to drive 6-7 hours to trailer my bike and my bruised ego home.

 

Now I'm no electrical genius. I can wire lights and change batteries but I'm no meter man. I've spent the morning reading about stators and regulator/rectifiers and such but need some practical advice and insight.

 

Can anybody offer any.

 

Thanks,

Jeff

[Marcarl]

Could be the stator, or the regulator,, or a battery connection.

Start by charging the battery to a full charge.

Check the voltage on the battery post as well as the wire, they should be the same, more than 12.5 volts.

Start the bike, rev it up to about 1500rpm, The voltage should now read about 14v, both the posts and the wires should read the same.

If you don't have around 14v there now, most likely you have a stator issue. Could be the regulator as well but that is not common.

[Condor]

I had a similar situation while riding to Cody for the International in 2011. Before leaving on the ride I did check the charge voltage and it was putting out 17vdc. I didn't have time to get into it before leaving, and the AGM battery finally quit on the third day about 80 miles south of Cody in the town of Thermopolis. Every thing flickered and then just croaked. Had to buy a wet cell from an auto supply across the street from where I landed and made it the rest of the way to Cody. I did toss a new Rectifier in the bag before leaving just because. The wet sell lasted about a day and then it died. We got the bike back to the motel and replaced the rectifier and road it all the way back home without incident. I think what was going on is the stator was putting out 17 vdc, but only a few amps. So my best guess on you problem is it's the rectifier....

[Marcarl]

I had a similar situation while riding to Cody for the International in 2011. Before leaving on the ride I did check the charge voltage and it was putting out 17vdc. I didn't have time to get into it before leaving, and the AGM battery finally quit on the third day about 80 miles south of Cody in the town of Thermopolis. Every thing flickered and then just croaked. Had to buy a wet cell from an auto supply across the street from where I landed and made it the rest of the way to Cody. I did toss a new Rectifier in the bag before leaving just because. The wet sell lasted about a day and then it died. We got the bike back to the motel and replaced the rectifier and road it all the way back home without incident. I think what was going on is the stator was putting out 17 vdc, but only a few amps. So my best guess on you problem is it's the rectifier....

 

The stator will put out lot more than 17v, but at 17v you would fry the battery. The RR (regulator, rectifier) job is to change AC to DC and then to limit the voltage and govern the amperage. So if it goes, it can be lots of fun.... too much voltage plays havoc with light bulbs and anything else electrical. Our systems can handles about 15 v max, more than that real and possibly expensive problems can crop up.

[Condor]

Actually it puts out around 115vdc. The AGM only read 8.9vdc when it died. I thought it was a goner, but put it on my smart charger in the motel room and by the next morning it it had taken a full charge. I didn't bother swapping it out at the time because I expected the wet cell to last through the days ride. Not so. It died in the afternoon about 16 miles from town. So I swapped back to the AGM and R&R'd the rectifier the next morning. I'm still running that AGM in the '99 today. As far as 17vdc frying a battery, it's not the volts, it's the amps that'll do a batt in. I ran that AGM for almost 3 days with the head lights and CB on, and I think I probably would have made it to Cody except for running the passing lights for about 70 miles on a two lane road with 75+mph oncoming traffic in Wyoming. That killed it.

[Grey Ghost]

Thanks for the info, guys. I've never done anything but ride this bike so I guess that I need to buy some meters to check voltage and etc. Any suggestions on what and where to buy them?

 

Also, where do I find the detailed "how to" instructions that have been posted over the years?

 

I'm having a little trouble navigating the forum. It's been quite a while since I've been on here and I may have just "unthanked" someone. If so, sorry.

[djh3]

Here is a Harbor Freight page with meters. The $6 meter will probably do anything you need to. The one thats $25 is sort of what I have in a Craftsman. I think for most of what you would do, Volts AC/DC, OHMS, your probably good with that. I dont think I have ever used anything more than that on my fancy meter.

[Grey Ghost]

Thanks, I'll try to pick up one tomorrow. May have to get back to you for some help, though.

[Monty]

Maybe this will help a little. My stator came with very good instructions with pictures.

 

http://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?80109-Possible-bad-stator

[Grey Ghost]

Thanks for the link, Monty, but I'm still in the dark here.

 

As I said earlier, I had nothing happening. No lights, nothing.

 

My meter showed 5 volts on the new battery so I took it out and had the auto parts store check it. It showed the same so they put a full charge on it and it was showing 12.83 volts. I replaced it in the bike and everything lit up immediately. It almost cranked once but then would do nothing but turn over. It's turning plenty fast enough to crank, but no dice.

 

Obviously not getting fire. Any suggestions where to go from here?

[Patch]

I've never work on your model, all I can offer is some general direction, you need to check for spark at the plugs, you can do this with a timing light, a spark tester, or by removing the plug and grounding it to the engine or bike frame. You should see a crisp, blue spark that we say (crushes) if its not blue report what color you see. NEVER hold the plug or wire while testing, its high voltage.

 

Of course we assume there is fuel in the tank, after spark we check to see if the fuel is making it's way over.

 

Maybe someone can chime in as to potential of over-voltage to the black box on this model?

 

Patch

[Grey Ghost]

Hey Taz, I pulled the relay under the battery box and checked it today. Everything is clean and bright, no corrosion anywhere. The fuse looked good and checked good with the meter. The battery still checks at 12.45 volts and the engine still turns over but won't start.

 

It was a good idea to check this. I had to take the small black cover off where the passenger boards bolt on and the big bolt that helps to hold the saddlebag to the frame had backed out completely and was only being held in by the cover. The other bolts were tight and the frame wasn't loose, but sure was surprising to find that.

 

For those who have never checked these bolts, it might be a good idea.

 

Jeff