burnt, frayed, toasted

[Call Me Ahab]

The title of my Autobiography, if written today.

Today on my ride home, the engine and all power suddenly quit. After checking my fuses, I determined that yes, my "MAIN" 15amp fuse had blown. So I pulled the 20 from my cover and plugged it in, no big deal, got back on the road. Not even a minute later the fuse blew again. So I pulled a 10 from my headlight, got moving again, burned out another 2 miles down the road. This continued until I only had ignition and main running on 2 10 amp fuses, just trying to limp home. So eventually they burned out too, leaving me stranded - I pushed the bike 3 miles until someone stopped to help, and happened to have a 20amp fuse that fit!!!! So I plugged it in, resisted my urge to french the large, jolly hispanic man, and limped my way home.

Upon arrival I see that my R/R has melted. Wires coming off it are completely bare, it has a powerful odor of burnt electronics, and I am quite certain that this is not operating as intended.

I recall seeing something along these lines in the stator papers, and I thought I had fixed the potential for this issue, though it seems I was mistaken. It appears that all I have done is cleaned up the wiring harness and spliced the R/R directly into the other wires as depicted in on of the guides..

So my question now, what happens when I plug in a new stator? Can I expect the same of a stator from CompuFire or ElectroSports? are they designed to dump that extra power without melting?

Furthermore, is this just a matter of burned out R/R and my system not being able to compensate, or is there something more nefarious at play here? I'm skimming various articles on R/R and I keep looking for atlernative r/r's and reviews, and so far the only ones that show up as being popular are the Compufire, Electrosports, and "Caltric". Caltric, I cannot find reviews on, though it appears to be a popular product on ebay and Amazon.

After fixing the few things I found in the Charging Health section and checking all voltages against the stator papers, is there anything else I need to address before I put a new R/R in? (I'd really like to have had one of POSPlayer's power supplies, but money and I have a love-hate relationship.) If theres something I've overlooked or if anyone requires more information from me, please let me know. I'm exhausted, and I'm gonna go shower.

Thank you all for your time and consideration!

 

[posplayr]

Sorry to hear it. A few words of advice:
read gs stator in m signature.

 

[Call Me Ahab]

Thank you!
(I had to read and reread and re-re-read until the bright red letters popped out at me)

ed:Holy hell, I wish this was a sticky post, one paragraph in and I've got three answers

 

[Guest]

The title of my Autobiography, if written today.

Today on my ride home, the engine and all power suddenly quit. After checking my fuses, I determined that yes, my "MAIN" 15amp fuse had blown. So I pulled the 20 from my cover and plugged it in, no big deal, got back on the road. Not even a minute later the fuse blew again. So I pulled a 10 from my headlight, got moving again, burned out another 2 miles down the road. This continued until I only had ignition and main running on 2 10 amp fuses, just trying to limp home. So eventually they burned out too, leaving me stranded - I pushed the bike 3 miles until someone stopped to help, and happened to have a 20amp fuse that fit!!!! So I plugged it in, resisted my urge to french the large, jolly hispanic man, and limped my way home.

Upon arrival I see that my R/R has melted. Wires coming off it are completely bare, it has a powerful odor of burnt electronics, and I am quite certain that this is not operating as intended.

I recall seeing something along these lines in the stator papers, and I thought I had fixed the potential for this issue, though it seems I was mistaken. It appears that all I have done is cleaned up the wiring harness and spliced the R/R directly into the other wires as depicted in on of the guides..

So my question now, what happens when I plug in a new stator? Can I expect the same of a stator from CompuFire or ElectroSports? are they designed to dump that extra power without melting?

Furthermore, is this just a matter of burned out R/R and my system not being able to compensate, or is there something more nefarious at play here? I'm skimming various articles on R/R and I keep looking for atlernative r/r's and reviews, and so far the only ones that show up as being popular are the Compufire, Electrosports, and "Caltric". Caltric, I cannot find reviews on, though it appears to be a popular product on ebay and Amazon.

After fixing the few things I found in the Charging Health section and checking all voltages against the stator papers, is there anything else I need to address before I put a new R/R in? (I'd really like to have had one of POSPlayer's power supplies, but money and I have a love-hate relationship.) If theres something I've overlooked or if anyone requires more information from me, please let me know. I'm exhausted, and I'm gonna go shower.

Thank you all for your time and consideration!

As Posplayr said, Read about Charging Quick Test GS Charging Health GS Stator

Remember you have to have a good battery at full charge to do some the tests.
Here is the usual procedure for the charging system, clean, replace any and all bad, corroded, burnt connections, look for some bare wires in your case (a couple might have rubbed the coating off and are grounded out) check your grounds, add a couple of grounds in the process ie. battery to engine or frame, RR to battery and to frame. As for new charging parts: New SERIES RR Compufire ($$), SH-775 ($) or one of the others listed in Posplayr's guide, NEW Stator, Ricks, Caltric, Electrosports (eh) or newly rewound one from Steve. Bet'cha anything it cooked your battery as well, probably need a new one, get an AGM type. Gonna need a new cover gasket as well. THOUGH read Posplayr's guide FIRST. When everything is working good together, your days of a melted RR are for ever gone.

Really wish Frank would dump the stator papers and install Posplayr's guide instead.

 

[Call Me Ahab]

Sorry to hear it. A few words of advice:
read gs stator in m signature.

Okay - so I'm convinced that the Powersports R/R is the wrong way to go.

Cheers!

 

[Call Me Ahab]

As Posplayr said, Read about Charging Quick Test GS Charging Health GS Stator

Remember you have to have a good battery at full charge to do some the tests.
Here is the usual procedure for the charging system, clean, replace any and all bad, corroded, burnt connections, look for some bare wires in your case (a couple might have rubbed the coating off and are grounded out) check your grounds, add a couple of grounds in the process ie. battery to engine or frame, RR to battery and to frame. As for new charging parts: New SERIES RR Compufire ($$), SH-775 ($) or one of the others listed in Posplayr's guide, NEW Stator, Ricks, Caltric, Electrosports (eh) or newly rewound one from Steve. Bet'cha anything it cooked your battery as well, probably need a new one, get an AGM type. Gonna need a new cover gasket as well. THOUGH read Posplayr's guide FIRST. When everything is working good together, your days of a melted RR are for ever gone.

Really wish Frank would dump the stator papers and install Posplayr's guide instead.

Agreed - but the stator papers do have a lot of valuable info still.
The connections have all been combed through, I've been over the papers and the charging health before - but the one thing I didn't deal with was the R/R.(yes, I did add at that time a multitude of additional ground wires; as well as replaced the wires coming off my stator - also replaced that gasket with a real-gaskets silicone part)
As far as the**R/R- I assumed it would be healthy to leave it as is, yet this burnout seems to prove otherwise. I've already looked into the sh775/4012941, seems like a good way to go. Problem I'm facing now is where to find the connectors for it. There's a kit that includes the R/R + a full set of connectors and wires for double the price of the R/R alone.

Still searching.

**Also, battery is fine. Already use an AGM, it was a replacement for my last one which apparently lasted nearly 10 years

 

[Redman]

In addition to other aspects of this:

If blowing main fuse, you can disconnect the R/R (which also disconnects the stator), replace the main fuse (15 amp please) and see if everything else is okay. Actaully you can run that way - - just need to get back to a charger before battery goes flat. Can go longer/further if don't use the starter motor.


You pushed bike 3 miles ... in Texas ... in August.


.

 

[Guest]

Agreed - but the stator papers do have a lot of valuable info still.
The connections have all been combed through, I've been over the papers and the charging health before - but the one thing I didn't deal with was the R/R.(yes, I did add at that time a multitude of additional ground wires; as well as replaced the wires coming off my stator - also replaced that gasket with a real-gaskets silicone part)
As far as the**R/R- I assumed it would be healthy to leave it as is, yet this burnout seems to prove otherwise. I've already looked into the sh775/4012941, seems like a good way to go. Problem I'm facing now is where to find the connectors for it. There's a kit that includes the R/R + a full set of connectors and wires for double the price of the R/R alone.

Still searching.

**Also, battery is fine. Already use an AGM, it was a replacement for my last one which apparently lasted nearly 10 years

The Stator papers are old and have never been updated that I can recall, that and there are a couple mistakes in them which IMO makes them somewhat worthless now. How do you know the battery is fine? When the charging system goes south, it can screw up the battery in a heart beat. I know this for a fact (6 times do I know this). Never assume, get it tested. Not sure about the silicone gasket you used, seems like we have better luck using the OEM gaskets for these bikes. There is a connector kit from Triumph I believe for the SH-775 some of the guys have used.

 

[Call Me Ahab]

In addition to other aspects of this:

If blowing main fuse, you can disconnect the R/R (which also disconnects the stator), replace the main fuse (15 amp please) and see if everything else is okay. Actaully you can run that way - - just need to get back to a charger before battery goes flat. Can go longer/further if don't use the starter motor.


You pushed bike 3 miles ... in Texas ... in August.


.

Yessir... down I35 heading to town from Angleton - just past the bridge that's under construction is where my last fuse blew... it was only about 95~98 max out, took me nearly two hours to get as far as I did. As I said in the initial post, I was completely exhausted. Push for a minute, rest for three


I cannot believe that guy's fuse worked tho, I didn't think I could ever be that happy.

And actually, when I saw that the R/R was melting the wires, I tried to disconnect it, but remembered I soldered the wires together... yup... then tried to cut them, gave up when I realized my keys weren't gettin the job done

I was kinda hoping that was the case (in regards to running w/o the r/r and stator) but wasn't able to confirm that at the time. What I ended up doing was running with only ignition and main fuses, in 4th gear travelling about 30-50 mph, letting it coast as much as possible before revving it back up to speed... I was assuming that the influx of power that usually dumped into the r/r was burning everything up, so I just tried to limit the amount of juice it could pump into the system... Limped home with my headlight hanging off, no lights, no turn signals - nada... passed a state trooper who didn't even give me a second glance!

(headlight... whole other story)

 

[Call Me Ahab]

The Stator papers are old and have never been updated that I can recall, that and there are a couple mistakes in them which IMO makes them somewhat worthless now. How do you know the battery is fine? When the charging system goes south, it can screw up the battery in a heart beat. I know this for a fact (6 times do I know this). Never assume, get it tested. Not sure about the silicone gasket you used, seems like we have better luck using the OEM gaskets for these bikes. There is a connector kit from Triumph I believe for the SH-775 some of the guys have used.

Ahh... specifically, what mistakes?? Anything that could cause me trouble later down the line?

Used the battery to fire up the gs1000 that sits idle at the back; it seemed to turn over just fine, but I'll go ahead and borrow a voltmeter to be sure, thanks for the heads up!

Silicone gasket, so far has given me no grief... I was using OEM but they'd tear every damn time I pulled a cover off... I did find that connector kit too, it was in another post regarding the R/R unit I'm saving up for now.

Oh, before I forget, I did actually have a lot of trouble with the cam-cover gasket; it was Real Gasket silicone one just like the rest of my gaskets, but it split, tore, and leaked like crazy. Gave up on it and went back to what I assume is asbestos... sturdy as hell, kinda off-white, and when i scratched it with a razor to clean it, flaked off white? Maybe just gasket paper, it struck me as odd, however.