You guessed it, another Noob...

[Rube]

Hello all,

First and foremost I would like to say THANK YOU to everyone on this forum. I have been lurking for quite a while now and I have never encountered the kind of respect and courtesy between forum members, that I have seen on this forum. You guys are Awesome!

Okay here is my story. I finally (after 10 years of waiting) purchased my first bike a few weeks ago for $350 bucks. Its an 82' Vision with about 17,000 miles on her. She is as old as I am and of course needs a little TLC. I have never ridden before and I don't know squat about bikes, so I figured why not start with something older and cheap and rebuild it for the learning experience. So far its been fun.

She seems to have all the symptoms of a bike that's been sitting for a while. Rust in the tank, dent in the tank, front master cylinder is shot, clutch is not fully engaging, fuse box is toast, god only knows what condition the stator and carbs are in, faded plastics and paint, the list goes on. She is in a bit better shape then some of the bikes I have seen brought back to life so I am very hopeful.

I plan on repainting her from the ground up. I'm thinking Ducati red (although the WRX blue tweaked my interest a bit  :o) with white decals and wheels and trimming in black, a round headlight, or a small fairing of sorts, sport bike clip on handlebars, and new gauges. I was gonna cafe her but I like the factory lines so I tossed that idea.

First thing I'm gonna do is POR-15 the tank, pull and dip the carbs, change the oil and plugs, and then MAYBE, just MAYBE get her fired up and running good before I start the paint process. I did manage to get her running with a red gas can strapped to the side and she idled beautifully with no hunting or smoking. I couldn't get any revs though because of my bajiggity gas tank set up I was pulling air into the fuel lines and she would just die. The way she was idling though was enough to make me smile. :) Its gonna be a long summer though. I hope to have her on the road by next spring.

Now that I have rambled for way to long I do have a question. Is there any easy ways to test the stator to know if it is good or bad or gonna be bad. From what I have been reading, this seems to be a very common issue. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks again.

Here is a pic of my new best friend.

[QBS]

Rube, Welcome.  I knew you were out there.  Re: stator good testing-Disconnect stator plug and do continuity testing between its three leads.  No continuity is good.  Any continuity is bad.  Further testing: test for continuity between each of the three leads and the left engine cover.  Again, any continuity is bad and indicates stator replacement.

I've often thought that a faired V would look really good in red.  There is a BMW car red that is my favorite.  Of the three reds that BMW uses, I can't remember its name.  They have pretty strange German names.  Before you go the clip on route check out the '83 risers.  They are much more humane.

At 17000 miles, there is a high probability that none of the necessary upgrades have been done.  Study the archives and you'll know what I'm talking about.  Buy Luckys' CD or at least get the Haynes manual.  Attempting anything on the V without one or both of those resources is folly.

For a life changing, wonderfull experiance attend the annual Vintage Motorcycle event at Mid Ohio as soon as possible.

Your journey is our journey.  That why we are all here.  Cheers.

[Rikugun]

WooHoo! Someone newer than me, and a STATOR question to boot! The pressure is now off of me!  :laugh:

Welcome aboard Rube!

[Rikugun]

do continuity testing between its three leads.  No continuity is good

Shouldn't there be continuity (low resistance) between the stator wires? And none (infinite resistance) from any to ground?

[Rube]

Thank you very much QBS. I have to be honest with you though, I really only have about a half of a clue what your talking about but I'm sure Google does and I am a self teacher. It definitely points me in the right direction though. I just don't wanna be 20 or 30 miles away from home and find out I have a bad stator  :-\

[Walt_M.]

All it takes is a running engine and a voltmeter to detect a bad stator or R/R problem. If your engine is running at all, the voltmeter should show a steady DC voltage above 12.5 measured across the battery terminals. If it isn't over 12.5 or fluctuates you have a problem. See Rik, you taught me not to be snotty when answering stator questions. Do I pass?

[Rikugun]

Walt, I'm proud of you man!   ;D   I would also add to your comment that if you don't get >12.5 vdc, you don't know if its the stator or reg/rect. You can then check the stator using a VOM and in addition, I like to check the AC output. The manual (surprising) doesn't cover this test but I've read elsewhere you can expect aprox. 50 vac in the Vision. I can't verify this yet but will check soon. Pushing a few miliamps with a 1.5vdc AA battery from a VOM isn't always accurate especially if the wires' insulation is marginal. If it tests good with the ohm check and has robust AC output I then start looking at the Reg/Rec unit.

QBS, I may be misunderstanding you or we may have to agree to disagree, at least with test 1. Unless the Y wound stator in this bike is different from others I encountered, continuity should exist between the 3 output leads regardless of the stator being in or out of the bike. In the case of the '82, it should have (per the manual) 32 ohms resistance +/- 10% at 68 degrees F. I agree none of the three wires should be grounded. The 3 coils are not independent but rather interconnected as illustrated in the wiring diagram. Checking resistance between 2 wires is actually measuring the combined resistance of 2 of those loops or "coils". I hope this doesn't come across as "preachy", this has simply been my experience and I welcome others opinion on the matter.

[Lucky]

Actually, QBS, your wrong.. sorry.

here is what you should have: (charging system testing in a nutshell)

Known good battery

13.7-14.5 V @ the battery @ 2-2.5K

if not, test the stator:

--0.5 - 2.0 Ohms between any 2 stator wires, stator disconnected.
--NO continuity between any wire & the case.
--50V AC or higher between any 2 stator wires with the bike running @ 5K

if the stator passes, test the R/R:
http://www.xz550.com/RRTESTS.jpg

if the R/R passes, you have a bad battery, BUT as stated at the begining, you MUST have a good battery to trust the test results...

Because the stator windings are tied together at one end, you should have slight resistance between the stator wires (0.5 - 2.0 Ohms) any readings higher or lower than this are a FAIL.

if you had 3 independent coils, you'd have 6 white wires exiting the case (plus the pick-ups) not 3..

--Lucky

[Lucky]

hey I used to be perfect, then i got married!   ;D ;D :o :o

[Rikugun]

I was never perfect and have been losing ground steadily.  :(

[Rube]

WOW Lucky, thank you very much. That definitely makes more sense to me and the diagram is gonna save me a lot of time. I wish i could shake your hand. I'm hoping I'm in good shape though because the bike was only used as a commuter and only has 17000 miles on it. I checked the connector behind the battery and it shows no signs of over heating. Once I test the stator and find out whether or not its still got life, I'm gonna eliminate the connector.

QBS, I didn't know there was a difference in the risers from the 82 to 83 models. I will check that out because the 82 risers look like dang ape hangers. I love my sport bikes and cafe racers so I really want that low handle bar look. Thanks again.