Damn !! I hope this Cycle Electric unit takes care of this problem. This is the 4th one in 13 years, not sure what the first one was but the second two were HD brand. It's really irritating having to fix the same item over and over again. First pic is the second stator installed by Black Hills HD in 2006, lasted until 2014, second was the HD unit installed in 2014 and removed yesterday. The stator looked undamaged but it seems foolish not to replace the entire setup while it's open.

Anyone else experienced something like this? I've got a built 80", it's not a torque monster (around 90) but pulls hard for what it is. I don't ride it so hard that I'd be tearing the centers out of the rotors. The Cycle Electric unit has different ,heavy duty designed components that look like they should hold up better, fingers crossed I don't have to do this repair again.

 

I do not understand all the mechanical damage.

 

Wow...never seen that before. I've seen the splines on the rotor rounded off, but having the rotor center come off like that? Hmm...

Two wild guesses:
1. Bad luck with manufacturing of rotor
2. Compensator nut is getting air impacted on WAY too tight pushing washer against outside rotor and scoring it and weakening it (1st pic) (doesn't account for the 2nd pic though). Impacting compensator nut may knock off the glued on magnets causing rotor failure.

 

I've had bikes eat stators. Each time, there was an intermittent short somewhere that you'd never find until you're working on something else. Once it was the spotlight switch on a FLH that was shorting against the fork tube. Found it when I changed the fork oil once. The XLH ate a stator and a couple regulators. The short was in the left turn signal wire right were it went through the fender into the turn signal, or just inside the turn signal. Anyway, that's my findings.

 

The inner spacer may not be thick enough to give the clearance needed (mine mushroomed thinner after time, and re-use). Also, if you use an impact to install the sprocket/compensator, you risk fracturing the magnets on the rotor. I advise against using an impact. Depending the year bike, I would get new OEM spacers, they are not the same, so insure the right one is on the inside of the rotor. On my '86, the nut will bottom out ( about 13 complete turns), then accept max torque. I made sure all the old loc-tite is out of the sprocket nut, then cleaned with naptha, prior to re-assembly with new loc-tite. My inner primary has to come off for removing the stator so yea, it is a job. Good luck----------------------RJ

 

Am I the only one that thinks that roasted stator looks an awful lot like a torn up rotor???

 

I will hazard a guess, -some magnets got lose and jammed with the others and hit the stator.
Something had to give.

 

You're right Mike, I didn't have a pic of the stator from the first pic but it was a mess.The really odd part of the first pic was it started and ran fine that morning, rode it until about noon when we went to see that Mark guy at the Baker tent Back to the lot to head out and nothing when I tried to start it. It went home in a trailer and after the battery was charged I was able to ride it back home and start it until the battery ran down, This last time I heard a bang in the primary and saw it wasn't charging.

I just thought it was strange that two different experienced Tech's installed them and had similar failures.Almost has me wondering if there's something not right on that end of the crank.

 

 

I agree - see #8.