Just got a GS550E with some issues...

[Nerobro]

I got my stator today.

How many ohms should each coil be? in this case they are 1.3, 1.3 and 1.2 ohms respectively. That seems reasonable.

However, the coils that are ON the bike read simmilarly. This worries me a little. Beucase the coils on my bike put out 58, 60 and 2 volts. Well it looks like I have a wednesday night project.

I suppose I should wire my turn signals at the same time so I don't have any excuse NOT to do it.

[Nerobro]

Well today is a new note. I think I've got the bike fixed. I ALSO think i know why I was getting funny readings when testing my old stator. I think my old stator is just fine now.... (so that means I've got a spare)

Tonight went like this. We took the old stator out, put the new one in. Hooked up my KZ440 rectifier/regulator, and started the bike. the bike is stable at 12.32volts@5000rpm. the bike drops down to 12.28 volts at 2200, which is the idle right now. However I believe the voltage to be a problem with rotted out contacts. (what's on the bike is butt ugly and ugly doesn't conduct well. So I will be taking care of that in the coming week)

Okey so back to the story. With the bike at 5000rpm, and the wires all hooked up, I was seeing 1.5ish volts. Now ready to laugh? I am not unplugging the wires for the alternator, just sticking the probes in under the insulation. I'll be checking THAT out tomorow. In theroy, if the bike is drawing enough current, the VOM would see such a low reading. This would ALSO explain why earlier when testing my original stator, the outpur voltage of my regulator would change from 2 volts to 10 volts when I turned off the headlight. (resistance of the bike would increse, making the vom see more voltage) But then again, this is AC so I could be totally wrong.

Right now, with the headlight on bright, and the bike at 5000rpm, the wires from the alternator become slightly warm. And the rectifier becomes warm as well. This shows both are flowing a lot of current. I went for a 22 mile ride tonight, the headlight did not dim, and I restarted the bike several times.

It would appear I have a functional bike.

When I first started the bike tonight it ran signifigantly rough. As if It were fouled in some way. As the bike ran for a while, it cleared up, and by the first 10 minutes of the ride had completely cleared it's throat and was riding like a champ.

Now, I need to settle that idle problem. It wants to idle at anywhere between 1800 and 2200rpm. It doesn't want to settle. So I may have an air leak. I'm REALLY not looking forward to removing and replacing my carbs again..... But I'll do whatever is suggested of me. (now I have a working charging system earlfor now I should be able to tackle the idle :-) )

On another note, I'd like to make the bike as easy to maintain as possiable. The stock airbox is a HUGE impedament to me getting to the carbs, or routing wires through and cables underneath the carbs. I think pod airfilters would make working on the bike a much more enjoyable task. I CAN afford new jets. Is there any reason I shouldn't do it?

[skreemer]

and we congratulated ourselves with a mediocre chinese food buffet and a small 20+ mile ride. not a bad evening. I can't wait to get my clutch plates in .

[robinjo]

I CAN afford new jets. Is there any reason I shouldn't do it?

Jetting nightmares, or a nice challenge, just a matter of perspective

[Nerobro]

I'm not intimidated by the carburators. I just dont like working on them because they're a PAIN IN THE BUTT to get to. If it weren't for the stinking airbox I could pop the carbs in and out in.. oh.. 10 minutes. Right now it's nearly an hour of frustration trying to shove a square peg through a round hole.

[skreemer]

I'm not intimidated by the carburators. I just dont like working on them because they're a PAIN IN THE BUTT to get to. If it weren't for the stinking airbox I could pop the carbs in and out in.. oh.. 10 minutes. Right now it's nearly an hour of frustration trying to shove a square peg through a round hole.

there is an answer to the square peg through round hole problem... get a bigger hammer...

[jonr]

Nerobro,

Until you've got 14V at the battery at 5000 RPM, I would not consider it fixed. I hate to say it, but after working on my charging system for almost 3 years with crappy instructions from Clymer (and finally being rescued by the stator papers) it'll never keep the battery up unless you are getting 14V+.

As for your carbs, I would hold off on the pods/jets conversion until you have the charging system fixed for sure. Working on carbs may be blissful, but the factory airbox will work just fine and pods/jets have the potential to be a nightmare in exchange for having quicker carb access. I guess it depends on how much time is on your hands. I'd hate to see you miss the upcoming rally....

-Jon

[Nerobro]

Well you're right. tonight I toasted the rectifier in the bike. all three circuts work to the positive lead, reversing the leads and going for the negative gives me only one working circut.

On another note, the resistance of my stator is within .2 ohm of skreemers bike. And the resistance of the coils in my old stator are identical to my current one.

This may sound stupid, but when testing the stator you're stupposed to leave it hooked up right? When checking skreemers bike, his stator registers voltages identical to mine.

the battery is back on the charger. I have a seccond rectifier coming in the mail. If it does not work, I'm going to break down and buy the electrex stuff.

I"m using rectifiers from a CM400/KZ440.

As for pods and the like.... if the bike is running, I won't mess with it untill after the rally.

My drive home was lit by skreemers bike, about three miles from home I turned off my headlight because it was running rough. Pulling into my driveway I turned on the headlight, and that killed the engine. but as they say... a gs will always get you home.

We changed the oil tonight. The stuff that came out was... well it might have been gear lube. That worries me a little. But after the bike warmed up, the slight noise that showed after changing the oil, went away. The bike idles better now that it has the proper oil in it.

now that I'm properly frustrated for the evening. :-) (yes it's midnight here, and yes I've been working on the bike since I got home from work) I think I'm going to try to calm down and goto bed.

On the bright side, I've now put another 40 miles on my bike in the last two days.

[Joe Nardy]

Nerobro,

Earl wrote up a very nice, brief summary in another recent post. I'm copying and pasting it here. All credit goes to Earl.

Ok then, putting the stator papers aside, lets try the simple route.
The charging system is comprised of the stator and the regulator/rectifier.
The stator produces AC voltage. The bike runs on DC voltage. The regulator/rectifier changes the AC voltage to the DC the bike can use.

The stator produces a set amount of AC voltage for a set rpm of the engine.
There are three yellow output wires coming from the stator that carry the AC voltage to the regulator/rectifier. You will find either a plug used to connect the two, or three bullet connectors on the three wires. Disconnect the stator from the regulator rectifier. You will have three plain ends of the yellow stator output wires. Do not have them connected to anything. Set your multimeter to the AC scale 200 volts. The stator has three phases. Each phase should output 80 volts AC when the engine is running at 5000 rpm.
If we number the three yellow wires 1,2, and 3 then you want to connect the test leads of the multimeter between wires 1 and 2 to read that phase. then connect the meter leads between wires 2 and 3 to measure the voltage on that phase and then connect the meter leads between wires 1 and 3 to measure the last phase. All measurements should be taken with the engine running at 5000 rpm. All phases should read 80 volts on the AC scale AC SCALE

If all three phases show 80 volts or very close to that, then your stator is working normally.

Keeping things simple, if the stator works and there is not 14.8 volts being put into the battery, then the only possibility is that your battery does not have a good clean ground, your regulator rectifier is not connected tothe battery, or you regulator rectifier is faulty.

Assuming the R/R was hooked up and the battery was grounded, then the R/R is at fault and should be replaced.

If the stator voltages are not 80 volts on all three phases, then the stator is faulty. If the stator is faulty, the R/R cannot rectify voltage it is not receiving, so the R/R may or may not be faulty when measureing voltage with a running engine test.

As a rule, if the stator outputs 80 volts AC at 5K rpm, its a pretty safe bet you have a faulty R/R.

Earl

_________________

[Nerobro]

I'm going to be doing a different method to see the voltage coming from the stator tonight.

but I know I fried my rectifier. :-/ I think i'm just gonna buy an electrex one.

[skreemer]

I tested the stator when i got home, the stator seems to be just fine... between my shakey hands and all the noise of running the bike at 5K... I got a steady 80 volts if I let it sit at 5K for a few seconds...

it would plateu out at 77, 76, and 79 for a few seconds then climb right up to 80 volts and stay there.

any hints? Just a bad R/R... possibly a bad ground somewhere?

[Nerobro]

Well.. all I can say is this bike is getting completely rewired this winter. The wireing harness on this bike is a mess. Yet another FPO issue to deal with.

[Nerobro]

So, how does 14.2 volts sound? *grins* I've never had the bike start so quickly and surely before. The CX500 rectifier is HUGE. I went for a 50ish mile ride tonight. No glitches or anything. I even took the time to reset my idle. How does 1100rpm sound? *dances* I'm terriably happy at this point. Now I just need those superbike bars and I'll be totally set.

Oh yea. My low beam burnt out tonight the instant my rectifier kicked in :-) Looks like that was getting ready to go anyway. So I'll be picking up a H4 headlight this week. And finishing my turn signals.

[Joe Nardy]

COOL! You may now remove the 'Conehead' label!

[Nerobro]

And NOW the next issue. Tonight the bike stalled a few times. And was terriably difficult to restart.

the bike just wasn't getting gas.

I "think" the problem was a loose vacuum line, after pulling the tank, sucking on the line and seeing that the tank WOULD flow gas well, we reattached everything, and the bike started right up.

I"m going to buy new fuel line, and new vaccum hoses. And I've determined that I need to start carrying a tool kit ;-)

On another note. the bike gets mid 40's for fuel mileage. I'll bet those numbers get better when I actually drive it sanely. Though if I'm getting this mileage now ;-) I can't complain. It's a little like driving my festiva. Drive the heck out of it, and still get 33mpg. (A sanely driven festiva will return 45-50mpg)