GEN 1 Electrical Stator

[dayven99]

I'm doing my best to upgrade my Gen 1 2004. I'm looking to upgrade to GEN 2 stator or getting a aftermarket High power Stator. Any Gen 1 riders changed there stator to higher power? BESIDES CHANGING MOTORCYCLES. I ride the FJR about 5K a year or more and always changing the battery once a year. I have weak starts after I take the bike on a long ride so I'm sure the stator is not charging the battery as much as required. Even when nothing extra is in use the bike's battery still drains down. (Info Note: While the FJR sits at home it is on a battery tender.) Looking to also invest into device to monitor the power as well. Any ideas on GEN I mods riders have already done?

Just FYI for electrical use not all at once:

Currently:

Clearwater Erica lights

Scorpio Alarm with RIDE system

Cell Phone Charger

Soon to be added:

Radar detector

RDL heated seats front and rear

Audiovox Cruise control

Heated Motorcycle gear

Garmin GPS

 

[PJ4863]

Search for it, there's a recent thread involving it. As in make sure you replace the rectifier/regulator as well.

 

[PJ4863]

I have a Gen 1, I'm running the rostra, gps, aux leds up front and a TIR3 aux brake light. I'm also running a voltmeter to keep an eye on the charging system. I replaced my headlights with LEDs as well, not because the beam is better but to get back the amps. If you don't run the CC yiu can do the LED bulbs as well for the rear lights. That will also get you amperage back.

 

[Twigg]

The electrical load you currently have should not be depleting the battery.

Check that it is charging correctly by putting a multimeter across the terminals with the engine running at around 2000 rpm. It should read 14.2 to 14.4 Volts.

If it is then the charging system is fine and the battery needs testing or replacing.

 

[FJRay]

I think on a Gen 1 you have around 120 watts +- to work with. Add up your loads and see where you're at. Going to a Gen 2 system is pricey but a better choice than electro sport. They are pretty much toast by 30k. I'm on my second one.

 

[Mihalis fjr]

The electrical load you currently have should not be depleting the battery.
Check that it is charging correctly by putting a multimeter across the terminals with the engine running at around 2000 rpm. It should read 14.2 to 14.4 Volts.

If it is then the charging system is fine and the battery needs testing or replacing.

+ Find the coupler where comes from the stator.Connect the + of a multimeter at the one of the outside pins of the connector where goes in the stator.Connect the - of the multimeter at the central pin of the connector and look what the meter shows,then without to move the + of the multimeter,connect the - again of the multimeter at the other outside pin of the connector.It should read 0.15 - 0.23 Ω.If everything is within specs,your charging system works fine and probably you need a good quality battery as the oem is..

You said that you have weak starts after a long ride.Are you sure that the starter motor works good?My friend had the same issue the most times,and the problem was inside the starter motor,where the magnets had unstuck from their position..

 

[mcatrophy]

Make sure your tender is not overcharging the battery. A charger giving a continuous trickle charget will reduce your battery life.

Unless you leave your bike unused for a couple of months, there should be no need for a charger at all, the battery should last for a few years.

Most important farkle, as mentioned above, is a voltmeter.

 

[Fred W]

^ This.

Install a Datel (or other similarly accurate) digital voltmeter to directly monitor the charging voltage. Wire it directly from the battery (not from some other power distribution circuit) If you want to install it with a switch or switched relay make sure that the voltmeter is the only load on that switch or relay contacts so the voltage you read accurately reflects the voltage at the battery terminals.

Now you will know (not just guess) what is going on.

Normal charging voltage on the bike with no additional loads is regulated to ~ 14.1-14.3V (even at idle). If you don't have that to begin with, stop and figure out what is wrong with your charging system.

As you add bigger accessory loads you will note the charge voltage sagging, especially at lower rpms. When your charging voltage drops to ~ 12.8V or lower you are depleting your battery, and you may find the battery doesn't have enough power to start the bike after the next stop.

The devices in your list that are significantly large loads are (in order of importance) the Heated Gear, Heated Seats, and Clearwater Aux lights. All of the other devices are relatively small loads of little significance. A 90W jacket liner will draw a full 90W of power, but only when on. If you use a Pulse Width Heat controller (like a Heattroller) it will still draw 90W, but only for a portion of the time that it is pulsed on. You will see the voltage on the Datel dip, then jump back up, at the rate of the controller pulsing.

I was successfull at powering 2 90W jacket liners and 2 pairs of 25W heated gloves on my 1st Gen (along with a bevy of other little insignificant loads like RD, GPS, Starcom1, etc.) because they were on separate heattrollers, and I (unlike my wife) I tend to keep mine turned down pretty low. Worth noting that I could not run that amount of load along with a pair of 50W halogen aux lights (another 100W load) as that would put the charging into battery deficit. I was also not able to run my heated grips (an additional 50W) along with the two sets of heated gear, but could do that when the Mrs wasn't along for the ride.

All of my experience above was with the original OEM 1st Gen stator, which withstood that abuse for ~100k miles. I would not install an Electrosport stator if you paid me to. Just installing a 2nd Gen stator will not boost your output power to 2nd Gen levels. You also need the stronger magnets of the 2nd Gen rotor, which I believe requires a 2nd Gen Stator cover. As mentioned above you'll also need to upgrade to a 2nd Gen R/R that can handle the higher amperage. Someone did it many moons ago. It was expensive, and I'm not sure we ever heard what the full benefits were

Knowing what your charging voltage is makes all the difference in using the 1st Gen alternator to its fullest capability.