Warchild
Benevolent Dictator
Well, well, well....... that big-*** 8-page stator thread I started a couple weeks ago, all the angst and worrying... all for NOTHING! :glare:
Recall the initial issue:
So I finally got a chance this weekend to pull all the necessary fairings off the bike for a close, thorough inspection of the entire whole system. And I found what appears to have been the problem all along.
It is NOT the stator that was the problem, per say.... it was the stator CONNECTORS! Specifically, the middle connector you see pointed to by the yellow arrow below:
When I went to pull off these three connectors to inspect for corrosion, etc, the outside two connectors were *very* tight, and it took a fair amount of effort to pull them off. Inspection under a big magnifying glass showed that they were in excellent shape, clean and dry, not even a hint of corrosion.
However, when I reached for the middle connector, I barely toughed it and it fell right off the R/R!
OBVIOUSLY, this connector had not been making a very good contact with it's R/R terminal! Otherwise, it was in fine shape also; clean, dry, no corrosion, etc.
So I took this opportunity to finally make use of a set of Craftsman micro-pliers I got for Christmas last year. Using the small needle-nose pliers, I re-tensioned the female connector so it would be an extremely tight fit on the R/R terminal, just as the outside two had been.
Re-installed the three terminals, and broke out my Calterm digital multimeter, and started taking readings. I am please to report the voltmeter now displays the **EXACT** behavior I always expected it to have!!!
With the engine running at 2000 RPM, low-beams only, and no other electrical accessories running here is the voltmeter reading.... ~ 14.2v, exactly where it should be under these conditions!
Now with the bike running as above (except now I'm running at my typical underway engine speed of 5000RPM), I fire up the PHIDs, and watch the voltmeter momentarily dipped to ~ 13.3v before climbing back up to this reading within about 5-8 seconds:
This is *exactly* the behavior I was expecting to see all along (and in fact, I did observe this same exact behavior when the stator was first installed back in April.)
To continue the testing, I then turned on the Widder electroinic controller on FULL BLAST to light up my watt-sucking Warm-n-Safe electric jacket liner (which consumes 100-watts of power). Now I have it all.... I have the PHIDs burning so I can spot the deer, and I have electric clothing to keep me warm enough to stay in control of the bike.
And here is what the voltmeter shows when running like this at 5000 RPM!
With the PHIDs still lit off, I decide to turn down the electronic controller to 50% to see how much I can save.... and it appears to give me back a couple tenths:
At this point, I am most definitely back to being a proponent of this new stator! B) B) B)
Obviously, until/unless the factory Regulator/Rectifier connector can be supplied, one needs to ensure the simple female spade connectors used by the ESG130 stator remain tight and in good shape. Arguments could be made for cutting off your factory harness and use the OEM connector. That's an option you could consider if you want; I decided to keep my OEM factory stator and it's wire harness intact until I am absolutely done with all my long-term testing.
If the stator output is still behaving as advertised after some hard-core use this upcoming winter (and I have no reason to believe it won't), I'm calling it good.
Recall the initial issue:
While I suspected some sort of stator issue at first, any number of items could explain this wild fluctuation. It could be a bad R/R, damaged wire harness, loose/corroded connectors, etc, etc
So I finally got a chance this weekend to pull all the necessary fairings off the bike for a close, thorough inspection of the entire whole system. And I found what appears to have been the problem all along.
It is NOT the stator that was the problem, per say.... it was the stator CONNECTORS! Specifically, the middle connector you see pointed to by the yellow arrow below:
When I went to pull off these three connectors to inspect for corrosion, etc, the outside two connectors were *very* tight, and it took a fair amount of effort to pull them off. Inspection under a big magnifying glass showed that they were in excellent shape, clean and dry, not even a hint of corrosion.
However, when I reached for the middle connector, I barely toughed it and it fell right off the R/R!
OBVIOUSLY, this connector had not been making a very good contact with it's R/R terminal! Otherwise, it was in fine shape also; clean, dry, no corrosion, etc.So I took this opportunity to finally make use of a set of Craftsman micro-pliers I got for Christmas last year. Using the small needle-nose pliers, I re-tensioned the female connector so it would be an extremely tight fit on the R/R terminal, just as the outside two had been.
Re-installed the three terminals, and broke out my Calterm digital multimeter, and started taking readings. I am please to report the voltmeter now displays the **EXACT** behavior I always expected it to have!!!
With the engine running at 2000 RPM, low-beams only, and no other electrical accessories running here is the voltmeter reading.... ~ 14.2v, exactly where it should be under these conditions!
Now with the bike running as above (except now I'm running at my typical underway engine speed of 5000RPM), I fire up the PHIDs, and watch the voltmeter momentarily dipped to ~ 13.3v before climbing back up to this reading within about 5-8 seconds:
This is *exactly* the behavior I was expecting to see all along (and in fact, I did observe this same exact behavior when the stator was first installed back in April.)
To continue the testing, I then turned on the Widder electroinic controller on FULL BLAST to light up my watt-sucking Warm-n-Safe electric jacket liner (which consumes 100-watts of power). Now I have it all.... I have the PHIDs burning so I can spot the deer, and I have electric clothing to keep me warm enough to stay in control of the bike.
And here is what the voltmeter shows when running like this at 5000 RPM!
With the PHIDs still lit off, I decide to turn down the electronic controller to 50% to see how much I can save.... and it appears to give me back a couple tenths:
At this point, I am most definitely back to being a proponent of this new stator! B) B) B)
Obviously, until/unless the factory Regulator/Rectifier connector can be supplied, one needs to ensure the simple female spade connectors used by the ESG130 stator remain tight and in good shape. Arguments could be made for cutting off your factory harness and use the OEM connector. That's an option you could consider if you want; I decided to keep my OEM factory stator and it's wire harness intact until I am absolutely done with all my long-term testing.
If the stator output is still behaving as advertised after some hard-core use this upcoming winter (and I have no reason to believe it won't), I'm calling it good.
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