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Stator papers.... I'm stuck

  • Thread starter Thread starter Pyrorocketeer
  • Start date Start date
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Pyrorocketeer

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On Friday my bike let me sit 40mi away from home at school, because it wasn't charging the battery. I bought a new battery to get me home (no way to charge the old one), and now I'm in my garage going over the stator papers and searching the forum and so on.

I get to the first part where you check the voltage while running. My meter (digital) is bouncing anywhere from 7volts, to 14 volts while at idle, and when i revv it up it goes from about 8 to 16 volts. It never holds steady on one number for more then a 1/4 of a second. I shut it down, and it rests right on 12.5 volts....

This can't be right, and I don't know which leg of the papers to follow, cause well.... i get both under 14.8 volts AND above that.

Any help would be appreciated, thanks
 
I would start with cleaning all the connectors. In fact, I might even replace all of them, just to assure good contact. It sounds like you have problems with an intermittant connection, so get a good connection for consistant results, then proceed from there.

.
 
Does your digital meter have a button or some other selection for AC or DC, and is it on DC; DC Volts ?

You scratching the meter leads into the conections? Or just lightly touching?
 
Loose connections seem most likely....and there aren't that many. As Steve says, clean them up and make sure they're tight and you may just solve the whole problem quickly.:)
 
I cleaned up a few, but they weren't too bad. I'm going to change out some of the connectors, and run a ground directly to the battery tomorrow after work form the r/r. I'm also going to borrow an analog multimeter to try that out....

Its on DC when i'm checking the voltage, and i'm scratching, holding, and trying everything, but it is still fluctuating badly... I also noticed that the 3 leads from my stator, are getting quite warm... is this normal? one would assume not....
 
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Change out those stator leads from bullet to spade connections.
Do you think your multimeter is any good?
 
Picking up the spade connectors after work, and my buddy's multimeter that he uses for all his electronics. Are the stator wires usually warm? Because mine definitely are. Could this indicate a problem in the R/R?

I'll go through with the tests then report back....
 
Mine get a warm to the touch but not hot. Too much resistance due to bad connections.
 
OK I went over everything with the analog multimeter last night, and everything seems to check out 100%, except for the part in the stator papers which contradicts itself.

In the flowchart it says when checking the diodes you should get 1.5 volts one way, then flip it and you get .5 volts.... well I get the .5 volts, and nothing the other way. If you read the stator papers, (not flowchart) it says you should only get a reading the one way, and none the other.... Diodes only let voltage go one way so which is it? One way says mine is toast, the other says its correct.....

I clipped the hot wire off the R/R and measured voltage there while running just to see if anything was happening in there....and what-do-ya-know.... 14.8volts at 5k rpm. So I touch this to my battery and take a reading..... why can't I see that 14.8 volts anymore? Is it just that my R/R isn't providing enough amps or what?
 
The stator output is in AC volts, so you would get fluctuation with the meter set to read DC. You test the output by first disconnecting ALL stator wires from the bike, and connecting the meter between two output wires from the stator.

The bike runs all its systems on DC voltage, and the Regulator/rectifier serves the purpose of first converting AC to DC voltage and then regulating it, as the voltage output from the stator is much higher than the system can handle, thus it must be brought down to system operating levels of a range of approximately 12.8 to 14.3 volts.

The input range is what keeps the battery operating properly, as the regulator should match the system load (the amount of electricity the bikes needs at any time) with the amount of current it permits to flow from the stator to the battery.

If the constant input to the battery is less than 12.8 then the battery will slowly discharge with use, even when the engine is running. The battery will tolerate higher voltage input but will tend to overheat and eventually the liquid electrolyte will boil dry and the battery will burn out.

You need a clean connection at every electrical junction, and the most important of them are between the R/R and the battery.
Fluctuating voltage can easily result from poor connections.

The most common failure is actually with the ground wires, as the connection corrodes or loosens, so it is recommended that you run a new, separate, wire between the battery negative terminal and the frame, and it will help if you clean the R/R mount point and then run a wire from the R/R mount to the negative battery terminal as well.
 
argonsagas said:
The most common failure is actually with the ground wires, as the connection corrodes or loosens, so it is recommended that you run a new, separate, wire between the battery negative terminal and the frame, and it will help if you clean the R/R mount point and then run a wire from the R/R mount to the negative battery terminal as well.
Click to expand...

I did the ground directly to the battery last night too, forgot to mention that.

So the R/R is putting out the 14.XX volts, why when I touch it directly to the positive terminal, why doesn't it carry through? or is it trying to charge the battery up to 12volts first, then it can add the extra two or so?
It was a new, fully charged battery when I started, but after 2 nights of tinkering, it might have drained down a bit, and is trying to recharge.

these are just W.A.G.'s as to whats going on haha

electricity is not my forte.
 
Pyrorocketeer said:
I get to the first part where you check the voltage while running. My meter (digital) is bouncing anywhere from 7volts, to 14 volts while at idle, and when i revv it up it goes from about 8 to 16 volts. It never holds steady on one number for more then a 1/4 of a second. I shut it down, and it rests right on 12.5 volts....

Any help would be appreciated, thanks
Click to expand...
Try your voltmeter on another vehicle, and then, if the meter reads correctly, I suspect, the regulator portion of your R/R is unable, to regulate the voltage properly.
a digital voltmeter is a sampling device, and it may be showing the result, of those voltage swings.
 
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I just solved that issue, by using an analog one instead of the digital one.
 
here is a bit of an update....

Went through stator papers with a good analog multimeter, and found that my R/R didn't pass the test. Found a good one off a kawasaki ninja for 15. Hooked that up 2 nights ago, cleaned every connection i could find, fired it up, and nothing over 12 volts. I went back and checked my stator to make sure its working 100%, and it is. I removed the stator wire that goes to the handlebars, and wired it directly into the R/R , and still no go. Remove headlight, and the needle moves up a little, but nothing major.

what gives? I'm really gettin frustrated trying to solve this problem. Is is possible that my stator isn't putting out enough amps to run everything? I just don't konw where else to look for problems....
 
Hi,

What is your stator ouput, on each leg? Are they all around 70v AC? Are they equal? What do the resistance tests show?



Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff
 
Is the battery good?
Don't know about the Ninja R/R. Sure you have it wired correctly?
 
All legs of the stator are right at 70volts ac, and have a resistance of around .5 ohms. All basically identical.

I read another topic on here, where someone used the same R/R with success.... 3 yellow from the stator, Red/white to the hot, black to ground, and the brown to the brake light hot as a refrence.

I did notice that I wasn't getting a full 12v at that "+" brake wire... but I figured that was because the lights were drawing amps, and the bike not charging at all.

**EDIT**
My battery is brand new and fully charged so that shouldn't be the problem.
I hooked up a completly dead (<6v) battery, got the bike started with a charger, and it was charging the battery at 12.xx volts... I'm stumped, and frustrated.
 
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another night of tinkering down the tubes....

Disconnected everything besides the coils, hooked the R/R straight to the battery, and still nothing. I went over the stator papers again everything checks out 100%. I soldered the stator wires directly to the wires on my R/R to get rid of ANY connections and still nothing.

I'm taking the bike to the shop on Thursday.
 
Pyrorocketeer said:
All legs of the stator are right at 70volts ac, and have a resistance of around .5 ohms. All basically identical.
Click to expand...

I don't know what model bike your working with, but my manual for GS750s (1977-1980) No-Load Alternator test wants 75 volts AC or MORE on each leg, and 80 volts AC or MORE for TSCC models, at 5k rpm.

FWIW, my 1980 GS750E charges at a lazy 13.48 volts DC @ 5k rpm and the no-load alternator test puts out AC voltage of between 73.2 to 73.7 on the three legs, so it is definetly below the 80 or MORE volts AC specified.

(BTW, does anyone know anything about the RMS AC voltage measurement? I think I remember reading something about RMS (Root Mean Square) as another way of measuring AC voltage on a digital multimeter. Just wondering if the two methods of measurement give different results . . . .)
 
in a pure sinusoidal waveform the rms voltage is approx .707 of the peak voltage.
your voltmeter should read close to it, unless it it a "true" rms voltmeter. (doubtful you have one)
 
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