2. It has had the harness recall and I added tightwads harness.
3. It has the orig. stator.
4. The battery 3 yrs. old.
In preperation for this August's Summer Summit (which I hope to make) I thought I'd check my electrical connections prior to the long trip.
Pulled the fairings. I unplugged the connector between the stator and the reg/rect. On the female (stator) side the middle wire looked bad (burnt), also the middle female connect looked burnt. On the male (reg/rect) side the middle wire also looked burnt. So I did the AC voltage checks on the stator (with it unplugged) and found low voltages 2.6 vac at idle and 6 vac at 5000 rpm on one of the three legs. Cleaned the plug up and put it back together to check DC voltage while running. Approx. 12.8 regardless of RPM. Both of these readings tell me to replace the stator. And since I really don't want to play chase the ghost I'm leaning towards also replacing the reg/rect and battery (seems like I only get approx 3 years out of my VFR batteries and I keep them on a battery maintainer). I may even soldier the wires between the stator and reg/rect to eliminate the poor connector.
Mark, you can buy all you need from member Tightwad at wiremybike.com . He may not have the stator in stock, though. No need for the flywheel replacement. Stator/Reg-rec combo will be about 300 bucks. You can get Tightwad's VFRness wiring harness upgrade for about 50 I think. It adds beefier wiring, an extra fused link in the path to the + leg of the system and an extra ground wire, which I recently put directly on my battery's (-) terminal (in electrical schematics the symbol for ground and battery are very similar). This took voltage from squidgy13.5+ at idle and 13.xx -14 at 5k rpm to 13.6 idle, and linear(ish) rise to 14 from idle to 5k rpm. I like it.
You will hear terms like MOSFET (code red), and other jargon aimed at...wait, sorry that's from "a few good men" in the courtroom scene opening act. Anyway, that's about what you will need. Solder is always a good idea (make sure the solder infiltrates the wiring connection). If you have some silver paste to help spread the heat at your mounting location, that may help - even the MOSFET R/R runs hot. Just not as hot...
Wiremybike will answer many questions, and I believe Tightwad is an electrical (wizard) engineer. I cannot claim as much. But I did stay at a motel 6 last night.
Cheers!
Yamaha R1 regulator is much better quality but it isn't a direct swap and may also need to be re-located due to it's size. Have you done any tests on the stator to determine if it's bad??
I did that swap about 15k miles ago (stator, R/R, battery) and used all OEM parts. Still running like a champ at 45k miles and no hint of burning/melting at the connector. I also took care to coat the connectors in Oxygard. FYI when you replace the stator, be sure to tie a "fish wire to the stator wires (after you cut the connector off) so you can pull the new stator connector and wires thru the tight ass space you have to feed the wires.
[image: View Post]ki-speed, on 05 June 2012 - 02:28 PM, said:
A. Where should I buy a new stator from?
For reliability, can't go past the OEM stator but there are alternatives such as those from Wire My Bike.
[image: View Post]ki-speed, on 05 June 2012 - 02:28 PM, said:
B. Do I have to replace the flywheel?
Depends what your engine number is - needs to be 2503808 or later as the part code changed at that point. Prior to that you might have the smaller flywheel/stator combo and need a new flywheel as well. You can measure the outer diameter of your existing stator to confirm. Old (small/underpowered) stator is 107mm outer diameter, new (improved) stator is 114mm outer diameter. If you need to pull the flywheel, use this tool from Motion Pro. It's about ten bucks.
If you DO need the flywheel and stator, Honda sells the combined kit for $290. It's part number 31100-MCW-325. FYI, if you do have the smaller flywheel and put the bigger stator in there without replacing the flywheel, you will smash stuff to pieces and possibly even bend your crankshaft.
[image: View Post]ki-speed, on 05 June 2012 - 02:28 PM, said:
An 03 model should have the lastest flywheel, to my knowledge the stator flywheel upgrade was only for 02 models.
You RR is probably fine, unless you have burnt wiring or something, and fried it. But until you have a good stator, you really wont know whether the RR is Okay for sure.
Its really rare for a 6th gen RR to fail, 5th gen quite the opposite.
Personally I dont have time for aftermarket Boon doggles, buy OEM and the Chit works the first time . As far as heat, I see no heat issue with stock RR, mines alittle warm, but i can hold my nakid hand for any length anytime, so its not hot.
I seem to recall it might have ran warmer before I started running an RD as standard, maybe that aides with the RR not shunting as much current, so it runs cooler, dont know. My stock RR has 100,000 miles on it.