My wife and I had just rode to Cleveland Ohio from Atlanta Georgia. We were forced to make the trip up there at night. We made all the way to Columbus Ohio when I lost my electrical. Later when I was able to get the bike towed to my destination I found a burnt stator. I am not sure of the exact miles on my engine but I would guess around 35,000 since I have already went through a failed inner cam bearing. I have a silver star headlight and 100 watt passing lights on my 1995 Road King carb. model. The parts guy told me my setup was fine. I have a 32amp stator on my bike. Could the lights have caused this problem or was it just time for the stator to go? Is anyone else running 100 watt passing lamps?

 

If you have two 100 watt passing lights and you had those on for a long time, I could see that putting quite a load on the system. You could have been real close to 30 amps total, which generates a lot of heat. A 32 amp stator, with everything working perfectly, only gives you about 400 watts total.

 

Thanks Dr. I will change those lights asap. Would 55 watt bulbs be alright. There are a lot of deer where I live so I am trying to get the best light possible. I am going to replace all my other bulbs with LED's. Is there anything else I can do?

 

I suppose it's too late to upgrade to a higher output stator (and regulator too I think)?

 

My Indy claims a large part of the failed Evo stators are from the wires that come threw the case going to the regulator...rub on the case. The rubbing wears the insulation bare and the stator shorts out, causing it to burn up and short out. Not saying thats always the problem, but he claims its pretty darn common.


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55's would save you a lot of amps right there. Personally, I stick with what was stock and I don't run the passing lights at all. I find the high beam works better for me than the low beam and passing lights. I also don't have a 32 amp system, so I don't push it. In 80K miles and 25 years, I've gone through one regulator and I'm still on my original stator. Knock on wood.

Changing out as much as you can to LEDs will help. I changed out the little side marker bulbs in my tour pack to LED's, and the front and rear fender tip bulbs. I can't find a LED bulb to replace an 1157 (tail light, front turn signal/marker) or 1156 (turn signal lights) that's worth a damn and that fits on the bike. Those things draw like 18 watts each, so if you dump the 3 that are on all the time, that's about 50 watts right there. And the tour pack bulbs take quite a bit too. I have a project (one of many) to replace my tail light lens with one that has a 18 wheeler truck LED light glued inside it. I have most of the pieces, I just lack the lens, a small white LED for the plate and time.

superbrightleds.com has the little bulbs for the tourpack/fender tips. Red or amber.

You wanna talk tight, try converting a 87 Sportster with it's monster 19 amp system to fuel injection.

 

Wow that would be tight. The plug at the case was split that is what I originally thought made it go bad. Maybe that is right. The only lights I have on my tour pak is a led light bar off a semi truck. I mounted it under the tour pak on the rack for extra brake lights.

 

Damn, thats like trying to light a NFL stadium with a car alternator, lower ur power usage. That stator must be glowing red hot.

 

I am now running 50watt silverstars.
Thanks.