Being poactive with the Stator & R/R

[bwringer]

After I read the stator papers I came away with the understanding that there is a cure for the infamous GS charging system. After checking my charging system it is still working correctly with the original stator and r/r. I thought that if I replaced the stock r/r with a new and improved r/r while I still have no problems that it would prevent any and all future problems with the charging system. Can your still smoke a stator or r/r even with good connections and a non-retarded r/r?

Also if I don't change any of the original charging system parts is it guaranteed to eventually fail?

I installed a Honda R/R at about 40,000 miles, and the original stator on my GS850G made it to 102,000 miles. The Honda R/R is still fine.

I think all stators will eventually succumb to age -- after many years and thousands of heat cycles, the insulation and epoxy surrounding the windings will eventually get brittle and fail.

Stators are made with copper wire that is covered with a tough, clear plastic insulation (magnet wire). This is wound onto a laminated steel core, and then the windings are coated with epoxy to lock the windings into place.

As the rotor magnets spin around the stator, there's a significant amount of magnetic force trying to move the copper windings. If there's no epoxy, or if the windings are at all loose, this will cause tiny movements within the windings which will eventually rub through the insulation (causing a short between windings or to the core) or even fatigue and break the wire.

[robertbarr]

I like to hard wire the four main R/R leads using solder and shrink.

Perhaps it's my age showing, but I trust solder over any other type of connector. There's almost a catch-22 in that it's not generally feasible to undo a soldered connection if further repair is necessary, but further repair is far less likely if those connections are properly soldered to begin with.

Solder isn't exactly as permanent as the Constitution, anyhow; there's enough slack to cut off the soldered connections and start over, if I needed to.

I practice what I preach; I just got done installing a brand new Rick's into the thousand, even though the original had only 9k miles and the P.O. did a really good job of installing spade connectors with a new R/R. 31 years of age and heat / cooling is enough to introduce a bit of worry, of uncertainty, that I don't need when I'm 300 miles from safe harbor.

So now I have a spare that I'll never need, and those really good spade connectors were lopped to provide bare wire to be soldered.

And we're done.

[The_Flash]

Thanks for the response bwringer. So with good connections/grounds and an upgraded r/r I should be problem free with the exception of normal stator wear or unpredictable problem somewhere in the charging system.

Is an Electrosport regulator/rectifier still THE gold standard or is there a more reliable/higher quality alternative?

My bike only has 8,990 miles on it so I suspect the stock charging system will last a little longer before it self destructs but I'd like to catch it before it does.

[bwringer]

Thanks for the response bwringer. So with good connections/grounds and an upgraded r/r I should be problem free with the exception of normal stator wear or unpredictable problem somewhere in the charging system.

Is an Electrosport regulator/rectifier still THE gold standard or is there a more reliable/higher quality alternative?

My bike only has 8,990 miles on it so I suspect the stock charging system will last a little longer before it self destructs but I'd like to catch it before it does.

The Electrosport is actually near the bottom of the heap.

The Honda R/Rs are made by Shindengen, and these are very high quality units. I've installed several and never seen a problem.

Next up the ladder would be a MOSFET type R/R. If you search the forum, you'll find a list of compatible models if you want to source a used one, along with better explanations of what MOSFET means. (I'm fuzzy on the difference myself...) You can also find new MOSFET R/Rs for about the same prices as the Electrosports.

At the top of the heap would be switching regulators -- these tend to be more expensive, but the thinking is that they stress the wiring and the stator far less than the other types of R/Rs.