Charging System woes continue

[endwrench]

I'm having problems with electricals. First, bike wouldn't run right because of weak ignition, solved with iridium plugs. After that, bike wouldn't charge... I tracked it down to the reg/rec and replaced that, only to find out that that wasn't it. Tested my rotor and found it to be bad, so replaced that too... still no charge. I think it could possibly be my stator now. Using my multimeter set to 200 ohms I have a steady 1.3 ohms of resistance between all three yellow leads -- haynes manual says factory resistance is like .4 - .5. Is it the stator? Brushes are good, rotor is new, reg/rec is new, negative ground wire from battery has been cleaned and is making good contact, ground wire to coils/frame is clean and good. Other than that, I dunno what it could be... one of my turn signals isn't working and neither are flashing -  could that be a related short or something?

Thanks.

[endwrench]

Bump. This issue is driving me insane. I just want to ride.

Charging system: Brand new rotor, tested it at 4.5 ohms, good. Brand new reg/rec, good. Stator tests at 1.3 ohms between each of the yellow wires. None of the 5 wires on the stator show continuity to ground. Brushes are new and way above the scribe mark making good contact, good.

Basically, the only that isn't brand new in the freaking charging system is the stator, and it passes all tests. And the bike is literally outputting 0 volts at all RPMS. Battery voltage does not change at all. I unplugged the    stator wire that plugs directly into the reg/rec while the bike was running and put the volt meter on the yellow wires... 0 volts. Theoretically, if you tested the wires coming directly out of the alternator with the bike running wouldn't you be getting like upwards of 15 bolts. I don't get it. I'm extremely frustrated.  

[sgtslag]

The alternator outputs AC, not DC.  Did you switch your meter to AC?

With regards to the stator, are you following the FSM on testing procedures?  The yellow wires from the alternator, are isolated from Ground/Chassis.  They connect to one another, and to the Rectifier, which converts its AC output, to DC power.  Measure the resistance between the three yellow leads, to test for continuity between them:  they should have a low resistance between all of them, as they are all interconnected.  Cheers!

[endwrench]

I followed what it said to do in my Haynes. Resistance between the three yellow stator wires is around 1.3 ohms. Factory resistance is .4 -.5 ohms between the yellow wires, but I've seen elsewhere on the interwebs that it doesn't really matter what the resistance is, as long as there is continuity.

[sgtslag]

Not true, I'm afraid.  The stator is a coil of wire, which has a fixed resistance per foot of copper wire.  The wire is wrapped, to form a "coil" of wire, which creates more electricity, the longer the copper wire/greater the number of windings in it.  If some of the wires short out (common with age and heat), the resistance goes down, and the number of windings goes down, reducing electrical output -- the coil effectively gets smaller.  If it becomes 'too small', it won't put out any electricity.  Some windings can become shorted, others can become open -- both situations lead to failure.

If your stator is outside of OEM specifications, it is likely failing.  If you have replaced all other components of the charging system, then whatever is left, must be the problem.  I would suggest the stator is bad, or the electrical connections between the different elements of the system, are bad.  You could try taking it to a business that rebuilds alternators, and ask them if they could test it for you.  Cheers!

[Re-run]

Have you fully cleaned and tested every connection?
In some cases, a connector looks good but is slopped out inside and the connections aren't being made.
It can be hard to trace down something like this cause you can't see inside the connector.

Also, have you looked at every positive connection to make sure they are tight and clean?

When the bike is running, after a couple minutes, check the heat on the rectifier. If a charge is being put out, it should be getting hot from converting AC to DC, or at least warming up a little.

Your system goes from rotor/stator -> rectifier -> regulator unless a combo unit then combine them, -> battery.

[endwrench]

I was checking the direct alternator output with DC, so I switched my meter to AC to check it... still not picking up anything. I let the bike run for 10 or so minutes and the reg/rec was still cold so I'm pretty convinced that the alternator is just not outputting any voltage at all. Which doesn't make sense, because the rotor is new and the stator passes tests, blah. I guess the approach of just completely replacing everything is the only thing I can do at this point. Might as well buy a new stator, I'm already in this deep haha.

Thanks for the replies. Bike pic!

[sgtslag]

I hate to add insult to injury, but if those are Constant Velocity (CV) carbs, the pod filters will never work...  The CV's depend upon the OEM air box to generate the correct vacuum for the four carbs to work.  It's a dead horse, trying to make pods work on the CV's.  Save your cash, and buy an OEM air box off of e-Bay, return the jets to factory standard, and re-tune/synchronize them.

The best option for increasing air flow, is to either install an oiled, UNI foam filter element, or install a K&N air filter (spendy, but the last air filter the bike will ever need) -- performance improvement has only been tested on the Butt-Dyno, so no science to prove the investment is worthwhile (of course, I've never seen anything but the Butt-Dyno reference for the pods, either).  Cheers!

[Hellbilly429]

I would say if the stator is testing at 1.3 ohms and the range is supposed to be from .4-.5 ohms then the resistance is too high in the stator and therefore it fails the test, and like you said it's the only thing left to replace that you haven't already. As for the turn signals not working have you tried replacing the relay at all? or making sure the wires are connected correctly to it?

[Hellbilly429]

The reason I think it is the relay and that it shouldn't be related to the charging system, my turn signals work and my bike is still currently not charging. Also I had a problem with the headlight switch before making bad connections and the headlight would not stay lit without me pushing on the switch, so maybe your problem with the signals could be in the switch?

[LukeM]

One more thing to check are the 3 little yellow wires going from the stator to the rectifier.  If resistance builds up there, it'll cause problems with charging.  They shouldn't be burnt at all.  If they are, you can replace them with another connector, or strip and solder the wires together.  This will make the system less interchangeable, but more reliable.

Luke M