vectervp1 road rescue

[SkooterG]

beemerdons and I are about to hit the road in his jeep with a trailer in tow. Seems vectervp1 is having some electrical 'issues'.

He's on I-10 approaching the AZ state line returning from a trip to kaitsdad's abode.

Well, his datel has been steadily decreasing, and got as low as 11.8 volts. He reached down and unplugged one of his headlights and it went back up to 12.2v.

NOT GOOD.

He's about 20 miles west of Blythe, CA. When he gets there he is going to park it and wait for us. Don't want to be stuck on the side of the interstate when it's a hundred bazillion degrees out.

Too bad for Arty-Farty, though could have been worse. He has not been on the forum much lately. Just a week or two ago, as we were discussing Iron Butt Rally preparations, I brought up the Electosport Stator failures. He has one and was not aware of them. Freaked him out a bit, but at the time he said it was working fine and would hope it got him through the rally.

I think more recently, as he thought about it more he was considering going back to the stock stator before the IBR.

While we don't know for sure yet that it's the Electrosport Stator that's the root cause of his current problems, it sure doesn't look good.

As Warchild would say, his **** is surely NOT in one sock!!!

G/f is not happy about me cancelling Friday night plans. And I get to spend 6 hours in a car with beemerdons! So Arty-Farty aint' the only one having a ****** day.

See ya all late tonight........

 

[LDRydr]

This sucks. Sorry I'm nowhere near there to help. Butt, better now than during the IBR.

 

[mscott]

Good on you! I don't know you guys but you and beemerdons is good folk! h34r:

 

[user 213]

Bummer about Art's problem. At least it's an easy fix if it's the stator, though part availability might become an issue. Hope both of you make WFO w/o further problems.

As to the SO, sure she's disappointed, (as are you), but wouldn't she help out one of her friends?

Funny, Don's bike seems to run ok...

 

[fjrchik]

major bummer. hope its not a worse case scenario.

 

[RadioHowie]

Skoot, my hat's off to you and BD.

Who'da thunk you had a heart?

:****:

 

[dcarver]

While we don't know for sure yet that it's the Electrosport Stator that's the root cause of his current problems, it sure doesn't look good.

Oh gawd, worst pun of this Friday. If it wasn't so nice of you to sit the fart-filled BeemerDonVille, I'd dog pile you for sure..
Good job guys on saving a fellow FJR pilot. :clapping:

 

[ShinyPartsUp]

Do you guys live together or something? You two seem to be together a lot.

IMHO, pissing off the SO is just something ya hafta do sometimes to reclaim ************. Unless of course, you two live together.

There aren't many that would go to all that trouble.

Good on you guys! :clapping:

 

[slapnpop]

If it turns out to be the stator, I'd be interested in doing the post-mortum and possibly trying to rebuild it. PM me if you're interested Art (or Skoot)

 

[beemerdons]

Well, we got Senor Arturo Montoya and his FJR safely to his casa en Gilbert last night at midnight. Tu vato loco SkooterG talked so freaking much we tied him to the roof luggage rack on my Jeep Liberty in order to give our ears a needed break!

As a BMW guy, I'm convinced that the ElectroSport stator failed due to the notoriously weak final drives on our FJR's; ha, ha!

We were in Arte's garage looking at his assembled back up components and preparations for the Iron Butt Rally 2009 Run.

vectervp1 has a new Yamaha OEM stator and stator cover on his workbench. He will bench assemble it this morning. Art says once bench assembled, the stator replacement will only take him an hour. Then he is good to go again for IBR 2009!

ShinyPartsUp: Can I interest you in formally adopting SkooterG and letting him live at your house in Roseburg, Oregon?

I keep trying to talk dcarver into letting him live at the Honderosa to get him out of my hair for a change, to no damn avail!

Skooty pissing someone off? Jesu Cristo, Mr. McNamara! He can truly piss off our Catholic Father, the Pope in the Vatican!

 

[FJRay]

Maybe once you get to WFO we can hang a sign around his neck saying "Free to a good Sheep ranch" It is Idaho. :yahoo:

 

[Ignacio]

Tu vato loco SkooterG talked so freaking much we tied him to the roof luggage rack on my Jeep Liberty in order to give our ears a needed break!....

Skooty pissing someone off? Jesu Cristo, Mr. McNamara! He can truly piss off our Catholic Father, the Pope in the Vatican!

I've been known to be able to speak more than my fair share in a conversation....but when Skooter called me last night....I'm not sure I was really needed in the conversation.

He's a fart on meth in a skillet turned up to 11!

Glad it's just a road bump for Art....I know I'm increasingly happy leaving my stock stator alone.

 

[vectervp1]

Yeah Don really came to my rescue last night with this whole incident. Greg, well... Greg was Greg. He made sure Don didn't fall asleep at the wheel (at 7:00pm, with the sun out), and brought a freaking camera to help out... I suppose that's about all one can expect from Skoot... well that and getting a bike air born.

Of course what you're hearing here is only a minor portion of the whole stator-fail saga. That morning, Hal and I were discussing the failures and how I was fortunate to still have my stocker sitting at home along with a new stator cover, all internal bolts AND a new gasket sitting in a box back home. When I installed the Electrosuck stator some two+ years ago, I managed to strip one of the Philips head screws and decided that "just in case" I should buy a new cover, and all new internal screws. You know, in case this ever failed on me and I needed to do a swap before a big ride.

Last week I decided I was going to swap it out, but I just didn't have any free time. I was going to have a couple of hours this Sunday morning, so my plan was to bench build the "new/old" stator setup Saturday night, then first thing Sunday morning, slap it in there. As luck would have it, I'm still doing that, only now I have the fun and joy of looking at a crispy critter.

Anyway, the other parts of this Saga was just piss poor planning on my part. I figured this was just going to be a quick 800 mile round trip for me so I didn't pack a lot of what I usually carry on me. Usually, I charge my cell phones (yes two, one work phone and a personal) while on the road that way I always have a full charge if I need it. Not this time. I figured "feck it, I'm just doing a short ride." I had been playing with my new-to-me Autocom on this ride, so guess what... battery died as I was coordinating the Search and Rescue operations en route.

My datel dropped to 11.6 volts, and I managed to reach in and pull one of the headlights loose. This brought my voltage up to 12.3 and it held there for 20 miles. We had decided to meet at the gas station in Ehrenberg AZ, but since I knew the bike could at least run with my datel reading 11.6 I wanted to shoot for Quartzsite which is 30 miles down the road. Only problem was, I no longer had a phone to call them and let them know the new plans.

I had to stop in Ehrenberg now and pull out my Blackberry to call them. Anyone guess what happened next??

Yup, its battery was almost dead too. On top of that, I didn't have anyone's number in that phone. I mean its my work phone, why would I? Luckily for me, I was carrying a laminated "ICE" card and had it on a lanyard around my neck. I got a hold of my fiancee to tell her I was OK, and made it to Ehrenberg. I then happen to have Hal's number (because I wrote it down prior to leaving) so I called him and had him call Skoot to let him know I was at the gas station, but my phone was now DOA as well.

Overall, it was an interesting little adventure. Not one I care to repeat, but let me tell you, it's great knowing you've got friends that you can just call on and say "Dude, I'm 200 miles from home, come get me" and know that they'll be there just like you would be for them. That really took a lot of the stress load off of me yesterday. It gave me an opportunity to relax a bit (which I haven’t had time to do) and just people watch.

So thank you again to Don, and :****: to Skoot… nuttin' but love bro, nuttin' but love... :friends:

 

[Allnight]

Glad you got taken care of, safely!

 

[dcarver]

Overall, it was an interesting little adventure. Not one I care to repeat, but let me tell you, it's great knowing you've got friends that you can just call on and say "Dude, I'm 200 miles from home, come get me" and know that they'll be there just like you would be for them. That really took a lot of the stress load off of me yesterday. It gave me an opportunity to relax a bit (which I haven’t had time to do) and just people watch.

Yep, good peeps are actually everywhere. The goal is to identify them and hang with them. If you have time, some pix of the ElectoSux? I have a brand new one waiting for use in Wabs, I think I'll ebay it and buy an OEM Suzuki stator.

 

[vectervp1]

Pics are no problem. I thought I remembered someone asking for some measurements of the inside of the case too. I'll try to get that if it hasn't been done already too.

One of the folks that I (we) chatted with was a guy who is sponsored by Electrosuck and he gave me a name to talk to there. He also gave me his name, and his team name. Told me to tell this guy at Electrosuck that he and his team think they should 'make it right' for me. Don't know if I'll do that, and I don't know if they'll want the crispy critter back. If I don't call or of they don't want it back, I'll shoot you a PM Slap and you can tinker with it.

 

[ionbeam]

Glad your good Karma bucket was full, it doesn't always turn out so well.

I'm at least one guy that is interested in stator clearance measurements. I am working with Rick's Mototrsport Electrics looking for an alternative to Electrosucks, "Proudly supported by Lucas, Prince of Darkness". It has rained for 80 days and 80 nights here in NH and that has set back my work with Rick's.

The OD of the stator is fixed, it is thickness clearance that I'm interested in. To increase the output of the stator the winding wire needs to increase in diameter, wire insulation needs to become tougher which usually means thicker and we need to find new winding patterns to increase number of turns. The only way the stator can grow is in thickness, not diameter.

If you can check any of this it would be a *big* help.

FWIW, Rick's says that 30-40k miles on a high output stator is normal :blink:

 

[user 213]

Glad you made it home w/o having to bribe rednecks with beer. It will be interesting to see if it's a crispy stator or a wire connection issue. Post pics when you get it apart.

Say Art, what towing plan do you have in place for the IBR? Just curious. I dropped AAA after 25 years since they don't cover motorcycles consistently in various states, and picked up Allstate RVRoadhelp, which doesn't give a crap what you're in/on, it's all good. Haven't used them yet though, (knock on wood).

 

[vectervp1]

Hrmm... not sure how I can measure the thickness clearance. If you want, I can probably take some pics of everything, post them to either this thread or yours, then you can "mark up" the photos and let me know what you want me to measure from there. I'll leave the case popped for a day or two.

I actually don't have any towing package at the moment Eric. I carried AAA RV+ for a while, but didn't renew. There are various reasons, but one of the factors was financial. Not sure if I'm going to get anything in the next few weeks either.