Hobicus Posted May 1, 2008 Posted May 1, 2008 Charging System Test 1) Make sure the battery is fully charged, and tests OK. Take it to your local batteries plus and have it tested after charging. A bad cell in a battery can give you 12 volts, but fail under load. When in doubt, replace it. 2) Start the bike. Take your electric meter set to DC volts and measure across the terminals on the battery. With the bike running it should be somewhere between 12 and 13 volts at idle. 3) Rev the engine, and measure the voltage at 4000 - 5000 RPM. It should climb to 13.9-15 V. If it goes over 15V, your regulator rectifier is cooking the battery. Replace it. If it doesn't climb, it's either your stator or your RR, you'll have to follow the Stator Testing Procedure below to determine which it is. Stator Testing Procedure This is probably the easiest, most reliable test: Always start charging system tests with a fully charged battery!!! 1) The stator will have 3 wires coming out of it. Usually they're Yellow. Locate where they connect to the Regulator/Rectifier, and disconnect it. 2) Start the bike. 3) Take an electrical meter, set it to AC Volts. Measure voltage between any 2 of the wires. You should get 15+ volts across them at idle, and when you rev up the bike, it should quickly climb to anywhere from 40 to 80 volts. 4) Check all possible combinations. If you don't get voltage, or get nearly none, the stator is bad. Every other test you can do (continuity to ground, resistance between the pins, etc) won't answer the question: Am I getting output from the stator? If you're getting output from the stator, and the connectors look good, your Regulator/Rectifier is most likely bad Replacement Procedure You will need to remove the rear tail cowl, the left lower fairing, and lift the gas tank. Note that the mounting bolt for the engine is removed because of my frame sliders, and has to be removed (on my bike) when you remove the fairing. Here's the plug for the stator. You have to disconnect the stator and fish the wire back through where it comes out by the stator. It's a bit of a challenge to get it through all the places it needs to go. The cable ties that came with the bike have a little lever on them you can pull up, and they come loose. So don't cut them. You'll need a #8 socket to pull the bolts. They are all the same, so don't sweat it if you mix them up. Note the little tab on the top of the stator cover. You will need to pry a bit to get it to come loose, that's what that tab is for. Once it's loose, grab it, pull back and wiggle it, and it will come free. Here's the inside of the stator cover. There's 4 bolts holding the stator in place, and one bolt holding the wire out of the way. Usually when you pull the cover, the starter motor gear falls out. Don't sweat it, you will put it back in before reassembly. Removing the stator requires a #5 allen wrench (in your honda tool kit) Here's the new stator (I used one from Rick's because they are cheaper and I didn't trust OEM any more. These had good reviews on the net, from what I could find. Note that I've already cleaned up the gasket on the cover, too. The new stator had the rubber plugs separated, so I had to move them together and trim the heat coating out of the way. This is right before final assembly. Note that I've cleaned off all the old gasket material. The last thing to do is to put black RTV gasket sealant, a new gasket and then line it up and re-assemble. I took no pictures with the new gasket and RTV, because I was too busy trying to get it back together. The picture shows the starter motor gear back in place. It only goes in one way. Just put the center pin in place with the gear, and when you put the cover back on, there's a spot inside the cover where the other side of the pin goes. It will sort of snap in when you go to line stuff up. That's the magnets in the flywheel. As long as you line it up close, it will pretty much snap right in place. Replace the bolts and torque them down. I try to go in a star pattern. I will have to look up the torque spec, but I like "one grunt tight" but DO NOT over tighten. This is aluminum, and you can strip the threads. That would suck. Here's the cause of my failure. See the bare wires. Must've been grounding to frame. Here's a closeup of the bare wires 1 1
cbrxxquad Posted May 1, 2008 Posted May 1, 2008 Good job Rich! Needs to be put in the usefull post section.
airborneXX Posted May 1, 2008 Posted May 1, 2008 Great write up Rich! I'm going to add one thing... On 97-98 models (and maybe right up until they moved the R/R to the other side) the wire harness on the stator is much shorter, and the connector is different. You will find the connector up near the starter. 1
blackhawkxx Posted May 1, 2008 Posted May 1, 2008 I hope things keep breaking on your bike so we will know how to do everything. J/K, good job.
rideonXX Posted May 1, 2008 Posted May 1, 2008 Excellent write up! Thanks for taking the time and putting in the effort to share the experience. Happy trails----kel
runner Posted May 2, 2008 Posted May 2, 2008 Was the timing coincidental or did you plan the replacement? Anyways, excellent job! What was the tipoff it was time for replacement? I have been thru the R/R replacement exercise and can foresee replacing the stator in time...
blackhawkxx Posted May 3, 2008 Posted May 3, 2008 Runner-http://www.cbr1100xx.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=53401
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