Ok- now I'm really down - electrical hell!

[Anonymous]

Finally!

Got a used stator for $75 from the place Earl referred me to. Great place by the way. very knowledgeable. and helpful too - yes, i'm serious.
So, taking off the cover I had to demolish one of the screws and the gasket broke. So, ordered the parts and one week later got them in. Put it all together today with the OLD battery and the OLD RR. Bike had to be compression started because the battery was down to 12. 2 volts from sitting. But, got it going and checked across the battery as I held my breath. 13.5 volts at around 5k!!! And I couldn't get more than 12 volts before. So it was the stator all along. Thanks to all for the help. I'm back on the road tomorrow for the first time in weeks - I don't care how hot it is in Philly!
Now, what to do with the two Honda RRs I bought on ebay......

[earlfor]

Ahhhh Haaa! Finally. :-) :-) It good to know you're back out and enjoying thw wind blowing hot sand and road debris in your face. :-)

I would expect with the battery in that discharged state, as it charges, system voltage will increase. Once charged, You should have something in the 14.2 to 14.8 range showing at the terminals (in charging mode at 5K rpm, not static battery voltage).

Earl

[snakebite]

Re: Finally!

Got a used stator for $75 from the place Earl referred me to. Great place by the way. very knowledgeable. and helpful too - yes, i'm serious.
So, taking off the cover I had to demolish one of the screws and the gasket broke. So, ordered the parts and one week later got them in. Put it all together today with the OLD battery and the OLD RR. Bike had to be compression started because the battery was down to 12. 2 volts from sitting. But, got it going and checked across the battery as I held my breath. 13.5 volts at around 5k!!! And I couldn't get more than 12 volts before. So it was the stator all along. Thanks to all for the help. I'm back on the road tomorrow for the first time in weeks - I don't care how hot it is in Philly!
Now, what to do with the two Honda RRs I bought on ebay......

keep them handy.
if you play with these 20+ year old bikes much odds are good you will need them.
i stashed one i made up with proper plugs in the fairing pocket on my 82 gs1100gl.its an insurance policy.since i have a spare the one on the bike will never fail

[duaneage]

Re: Finally!

Now, what to do with the two Honda RRs I bought on ebay......

I am down in Wilmongotn Delaware, If you want to rewire them as spares for your GS le me know and we can get together. I have a Honda Reg and I get 13.8 @ 2000 rpm

[Anonymous]

Electrex R/R

I have an 84 GS1100GKE and I blew the stator last week and want to replace both the stator and the regulator/rectifier. I've been in contact with both Electex UK and Electex US (now ElectroSport) and neither of them can tell me it they have a rectifier to fit my bike. The closest listing they have is for a GS1100G 16 valve.

Has anyone out there ever replaced a rectifier on a GS1100GKE and if so, do you recall what the Electex part number was??

After reading the stator papers in the "Garage" I really wanted to use the highly recommended Electrex unit but since nobody seems able to tell me if it will work I've ordered a Rick's unit out of the US.

New parts are still available from Suzuki Canada but at a cost of $851.60 Cdn. The Electrex stator and Rick's rectifier together come to less than $300.00 Cdn including shipping!

[Anonymous]

Stator

earlfor, I've just been reading all the previous info on this string and I think you answered a question for me that I had't even been smart enough to ask!

Last winter I installed an illegal high power off-road headlite bulb and was concerned about overloading the switches and circuit so I put in a 12 volt relay in the fairing behind the headlite and fed the headlight directly from the battery. From what you are saying above that is probably why I fried the stator. The relay was only using a part of a ampere instead of the several amps the bulb should have been using, so it overheated that stage of the stator and cooked it. Does that sound right?? Anyway, the whole experiment was a total bust because my illegal bulb only lasted a couple of weeks and burned out, so I put the stock bulb back in. Now to balance the output I'm going to have to remove the relay and hook the bulb up in the stock circuit, right??

[earlfor]

Re: Stator

Installing a headlight relay would be a good thing. It takes the load off the headlight switch. The headlight still draws the same amperage from the battery, so nothing changes unless you install a more powerful headlight which draws more current. You could reach a point of consuming more than the stator produces and ultimately, that would result in a dead battery. It would not over heat the R/R or cause the stator to burn out.
The stator produces the same voltage for any given engine rpm regardless of what is being used. Your modification is no change to stator operation.
The R/R rectifies the Stator AC to DC to charge the battery. The charge rate minus what the bike needss to operate is the amount left going into the battery. When the regulated DC output voltage level of the R/R is the same as the voltage level in the battery, electrical pressure is in equilibrium and the batter accepts no further charge. Any excess charging current at this stage is shunted to ground and converted to heat. Using a higher wattage headlight bulb would result in less excess current being shunted to ground and a cooler running R/R. I would keep the headlight relay you have already installed. That is beneficial modification and improvement. If you want more light, I am pleased with the Sylvania Silverstar H-4 I am using. Its a 55/65w power consumption bulb, but it produces approximately the same amount of light as a standard 90/100 halogen.

Earl

earlfor, I've just been reading all the previous info on this string and I think you answered a question for me that I had't even been smart enough to ask!

Last winter I installed an illegal high power off-road headlite bulb and was concerned about overloading the switches and circuit so I put in a 12 volt relay in the fairing behind the headlite and fed the headlight directly from the battery. From what you are saying above that is probably why I fried the stator. The relay was only using a part of a ampere instead of the several amps the bulb should have been using, so it overheated that stage of the stator and cooked it. Does that sound right?? Anyway, the whole experiment was a total bust because my illegal bulb only lasted a couple of weeks and burned out, so I put the stock bulb back in. Now to balance the output I'm going to have to remove the relay and hook the bulb up in the stock circuit, right??

[Anonymous]

Electrex R/R

Has anyone out there ever replaced a rectifier on a GS1100GKE and if so, do you recall what the Electex part number was??

In case anyone cares, I just heard back from Electrex UK and they say their RR13 rectifier is the right one. I just thought I'd pass that on in case it helps someone else! Bob.

[Anonymous]

Remember me? I'm back. Back to electrical hell, that is. Drove 350 miles this week with no problems. Downshifted on the way home tonight to turn into my street and wam, just like that, the bike went dead. Couldn't start it. No electric power. Pushed it the rest of the way home. Checked the battery - 11.4 volts. Here we go again.....
Everything was right with the world two weeks ago. Put in the second hand stator and got 13.something volts. Bike started like never before until today. Battery is charging now. Checked resistance on the stator each lead to ground. Seems infinite in all three. checked continuity, seems between 0 and 1 ohm in all three pairs (hard to tell, have two multimeters a digital and an anologue and both don't read very well here).
So, I will check the output under running load tomorrow with a charged battery. But doesn't it seem strange that I can ride for two weeks and be fine and then poof - back into the soup?

[Anonymous]

Oh Crap eh?

Sorry your repair didn't last. Thats one of the hazards of using used electrical parts! I got mine back on the road night before last and everything is working perfectly so far. New stator from ElectroSport.
Did you try to check the open circuit voltage on the three leads from the stator? Once you get the battery charged and the bike running again, unplug the three wire that come from the stator and and check the AC voltage across the leads. Be sure your voltmeter is set on AC volts and you should a reading of 70 to 90 volts between all three pairs at 5000 rpm. If you get less than 70 your stator died again. If its over 70 its likely the rectifier of a poor connection somewhere. In all my research over the past few weeks looking for parts for mine I found that Electrex UK is cheaper than ElectroSport which used to be Electrex US. Check out their website at:
http://www.electrexworld.co.uk or if you want to order from the US go to:

https://www.electrosport.com

Best of luck to you!
Bob
GS1100GKE

[Anonymous]

By the way Eric, what year is your GS550? Not that it matters because the cost is the same either way ($139.95 from ElectroSport for the stator and $112.50 for the rectifier.) Also where do you live. If you are in the US it only makes sense to order from the US but if you don't live in the US I recommend you order parts from the UK. Much cheaper, at least for me in Canada it would be.

Bob
GS1100GKE

[Anonymous]

Mine is a 1980. I live near Philly.
I checked and the battery is back up to full charge. I'll be checking the AC voltage around noon today. I find it hard to believe that the stator went that quickly unless the RR was bad all along and it affected the stator. maybe I did have a bad connection somewhere. I might try to connect the wires with wire nuts for the time being to ensure a good connnection all around. I will try the outputs of the stator but I might check all the connections and start at the top of the chart again. Look for 13+ volts across that battery.

[Anonymous]

Weird.
It is either a bad ground or the battery can't accept a higher charge.
Battery was at 12.8 volts when I hooked everything together. The ground wire on the battery connecting it to the frame looked a little suspect as did the ground of the RR to the frame. So after reconnecting everything, the three wires from the stator are connected directly to the RR, the hot from the RR is connected directly to the battery + and the ground of the RR is connected directly to the - on the battery (which is then connected to the frame). Started it up and I went right up to 13.5 then 14+ volts. It jumped around a bit on the digital meter depending on rmps but it was almost always over 12.8 volts so current was definitely getting to the battery at a higher potential. I might just splurge for a new battery. Even though the one on the bike is only a year old it has been charged and discharged a number of times and it might not be able to take full advantage of the voltage from the RR. After that I will connect one of the two honda RRs I bought on ebay and see what happens. Maybe I'll try one of them anyway to see if the voltage going to the battery is more consistent than the smaller suzuki one now on the bike.

[Anonymous]

Eric, I don't have the specs for a 550 but I do have the Suzuki shop manual for my GS1100GKE and the spec for voltage across the battery at 5000 rpm is 13.5 to 15.5 volts with a fully charged battery. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Thanks. tried to get a battery at sears tonight. Will try a different store tomorrow. If I don't get the voltage range you noted I'm going to proceed with changing RRs.