Take a Guess?

[[jh]]

Bump bump bump another stator bites the dust, bump bump bump another stator bites the dust, and another ones gone and another ones gone, another one bites the dust.  :(
It's been such a great riding year for me, and may come up short. Currently my bike is stuck at work because I have a half hour ride home and don't know if my battery will make it all the way.
I think it was about a 1.5 years ago that I changed my stator and R/R, and really only has a few thousand kilometers on it. My connector was melted a while back so I wired the two ends direct to each other(thought that would save me stator).

Stator questions:
How do you test to make sure it is the stator and not the R/R? I don't want to by both if I don't have to. I thought I read something about which stators or R/R's are the best to buy, does anyone know that info?
Tiger you make left side gaskets, correct?

Any help is appreciated.
Thanks

[Walt_M.]

If you have a battery charger or someone who will loan you one, just take your battery home and charge it. Use a trickle or slow rate charger. Then you can put the battery back in and ride it home. Once there, you can run the electrical tests for stator or R/R. Just make sure you have a good battery.

[Tiger]

Stator questions:
How do you test to make sure it is the stator and not the R/R? I don't want to by both if I don't have to. I thought I read something about which stators or R/R's are the best to buy, does anyone know that info?
Tiger you make left side gaskets, correct?

:) Go in to 'Technical' at the top of the page, (below 'Riders of Vision.net'), click on the last one on the list 'electrical test'...this will explain how to check the system. Note: You need a fully charged battery to run the test(s).

Yes, I can supply you with the left side engine cover gasket...Let me know your name/address via PM and I'll get one out to you.

As Walt suggested, fully charge your battery, (at your own risk you can disconnect the headlight bulb), make hand signals when you can and you and your Vision should make it to the comfort of your home... 8)

                    8).......TIGER....... 8)

[[jh]]

We'll I got my baby home safe and sound  :) Now I will start the electrical test and see what  happens. I don't have money to replace the R/R and stator so my season  may be at it's end  :( We'll see.

[[jh]]

Ok I did a bit of the electrical test. My battery is showing a good charge from the stator now ??? I thought it was weird when I got my bike home and the battery wasn't dead, at all. It wasn't charging when I checked a few days before at work. I checked the r/r wires and the read one was showing a bit high, so I'm gonna go further into it tomorrow. I checked the resistance on the stator wires and they checked out fine. I think. Is the way to check resistance to connect one lead to one wire and than the other lead to another wire, and thats your reading? It seemed to work. The one I had a problem with was connecting a lead to one stator wire and the other to the engine housing. I couldn't get a reading at all ??? Is that because something is wrong? Or is it most like likely a operator mistake? I'm pretty sure it's me. All help is greatly appreciated.
;)

[h2olawyer]

Your description is a bit hard for me to follow - probably my lack of sleep from the past 2 nights.  Anyway, have you used this?

http://www.ridersofvision.net/Technical/fault_finding.pdf

It gives you the best order to go through the charging system.  Go through it in order, slowly and figure out what each step is trying to test.  I'm terrible with electrics, but managed to figure this out eventually.

You don't want any continuity between the white wires & the engine casing.  That would mean your stator is shorting to ground (like all my failures).

Hope this helps.  I'll re-read what you've done when I'm more with it and see if things look wrong.  So far, it appears a sthough you may have an intermittent fault - but that's mostly speculation.

H₂O

[[jh]]

I am using the tech diagram from the forum. Everything checks out fine until I get to the stator and motor connection, at which point I don't get any readings at all, so I figure I isn't doing it right.

[Lucky]

you shouldn't have continuity between the stator wires & case (ground) and only a little between each of the 3 stator wires (white)

[[jh]]

Ok I just did the wire output for each of the stator wires in AC. One of them is giving 0 output, the other two are equal and above 50. As the chart says I need a new stator. I am assuming this is conclusive? There really couldn't be any other explanations for it?

This is will be my second stator since I owned thew bike, are there better stators than others out there for the vision?

[h2olawyer]

The fault finding chart has always worked for me.  Believe what it tells you is wrong.

When I was burning stators every 1000 miles, I found them all about equal.  I'm now a believer in the stators & R/Rs from RM Stator in Canada.  They sure look like Electrosport parts but they cured my bike's taste for stators.  Tim Parrott has the best pries but requires a core in return.  The OEM stators from Yamaha were beefed up in 83 or 82.  Those are likely the best ones, but @ around $500 each, they get expensive fast.

When my first stator died, I 'played it safe' and bought a brand new R/R (OEM type).  Turns out that "new" R/R had some type of intermittent internal fault that was causing my stators to die prematurely.  It always tested as OK.

How many miles did you get out of your last stator?  Was it new when you installed it?

H₂O

[[jh]]

It was brand new and I also changed the r/r. I got about 2000km out of it.

[h2olawyer]

I thought I slayed my gremlin, but maybe it just played dead long enough for me to ignore it and it moved over to you.  I don't wish this gremlin on anyone - especially a fellow Visionary!  Maybe the stator rewinders summoned up a new one since I haven't ordered a new one in two years.  Either that or replacing both the stator & R/R at the same time conjures one of those little b@$t@rd$ up.

However, your fault appears to be a little different than mine.  I would always get continuity with ground.  After the first two, that was always the first thing I'd check.

Who did you get it from & how long ago?  Maybe they have some sort of warranty?  Wouldn't hurt to check.  I don't put a lot of miles on my bike, so every one I fried was out of warranty - sometimes by as little as 2 weeks.

H₂O

[[jh]]

I bought the stator and alternator from a shop I like to use, I'm pretty sure the warranty is up.
I was thinking about my sweet visioness and am a little confused about the charging state of my stator. If some of the wires from the stator are not putting anything out, is it normal that I would still get a 14 or so on my battery? 

[Re-Vision]

I'm just guessing but I figure if one phase of a three phase system opens up you will still be rectifying 66% of AC to provide power to battery and electrics. Likely take a little  longer to charge and will put more of the load on the remaining two stator coils. Kind of like an accident looking for a time to happen.    BDC

[[jh]]

ya I was thinking it would probably be unnecessary stress on things, even if it was still charging. I might not need a R/R now, but I might later if I ride with a faulty stator.

[Rikugun]

I figure if one phase of a three phase system opens up you will still be rectifying 66% of AC

I think it's just the opposite. Losing one phase reduces output by 2/3 on a Vision "Y" wound stator. I doubt if the battery would stay charged under this scenario.