If the old stator was bad it would be black on the top3 or 4 windings and the oil would stink bad. I have a regulater or two as both my bikes have been upgraded to the 3 phase CE . Kick myself in the *** for not switching it over last year when rebuilding the last bike

 

Ended up being a bad regulator again, got it back up and going now! Thanks everybody!

 

What have you gained by switching it over? LIke I said 87k on 2 wire, and was still going. Unless doing lots of heated gear and wanting to add capacity, I am not sure there is an advantage. But even wanting to add capacity, I you can do that with 2 wire.

I suppose if I wanted more than capcity and was updating everything I might. But I wouldn't do it, to do it.

 

Bike has less than 60,ooo and this is its third stator. I noticed the AO had receipt for a stator replaced by Harley. I do have a few extra peanut bulbs on the tour pack as it has later version. The single phase don't like to be maxed out. My other bike left me in Canada when the stator went out, barely made it back to hotel that night.

There was a reason Harley went to the 3 phase, its way better. With all the labor involved in changing one they most of figured it was cheaper for them to install the better stator

 

Welp, I went home and put my old HD regulator back on it, fired up everything was charging good. Rode about 100 miles and voltage dropped back off again. Thinking I’ve fried the second regulator now. Should I once again go back and test all the plugs with a voltmeter? Will that tell me what’s getting too much power causing the regs to fail?

 

When you say fail, what did it do? But ya I wouldn't keep throwing volt regs at it. How much is the stator outputing? Rev it up to 5k+, should be around 100 volts AC, maybe 120. it is 20 or 25 volts per 1000 RPM.

Is it really fried, or not charging? I would go through everything.
Not saying it is not better. Just not sure it is worth it, doing, unless repalcing everything based on age. I got jacked up head lights and passing lights, on the smaller FLHR stator. If I was running lots of heated gear I would go with bigger.

 

[QUOTE=Rounders;20798843]When you say fail, what did it do? But ya I wouldn't keep throwing volt regs at it. How much is the stator outputing? Rev it up to 5k+, should be around 100 volts AC, maybe 120. it is 20 or 25 volts per 1000 RPM.

Is it really fried, or not charging? I would go through everything.

Guess I can’t say it’s for sure fried, I’m just assuming at this point because it did the same thing with the previously regulator. I’m hoping I will be able to get over and do some tests tonight, I keep the bike over in my parents barn. And by fail, I just mean it’s showing good volts around 12-13 on the volt gauge then all of a sudden drops down to 10 volts. I rode it home and put it up when I seen that again. And I know I shouldn’t go by the gauge, but it stays pretty close when everything seems to be working right. Each time it’s gotten down to 10 volts something has been wrong.

 

What do you guys mean by “heated gear”?

 

Stators don't put out "too much voltage", they're just windings spinning in a magnetic field (or vice versa) that create a certain amount of A/C current (per 1000 RPMs), based on the size of wire and number of turns in the windings... the "magic" is done in the regulator, with the rectifier changing the A/C to DC and a diode limiting the output to a certain level and sending the excess to ground. When stators "go bad" its a break down in that generation of, or conducting, the current. A short in a winding, a bad connection, worn parts, etc that all lead to less or no output. It is possible that this doesn't show up until everything is hot, in your case because the issue showed up after the bike got hot (running temperature) I'd test everything when is was hot. Even if I had to stop testing and go ride it to get it back up to temperature.

How did you determine voltage was dropping off? Was it not starting? When the bike was cold again, was the "issue" fixed?
First, because of my bad luck with regulators/alternators/diodes, I never plug/unplug the regulator's connectors until I have removed the "main breaker" and dropped all power from those connectors... do you have to, probably not, but it doesn't take much to pop a diode... better safe than sorry.

Second, are you using a quality regulator, rated for your bikes system... sometimes things are cheap (Amazon $75 regulators for instance) for a reason. Be sure all connections (and grounds) are tight and clean.

Third, just because when it gets hot it stops putting out current doesn't mean its the regulator... It could be that you have an issue with the stator when it is hot that then shows up (stops/reduces the creating of current), but when it cools it clears itself (unusual, but it can happen). So I would test your stator connector for its output as soon as you can when you come in from riding and you think its messed up. As soon as you get it in from riding, and the "voltage has dropped off", pull the main breaker, pull the DC connector on the regulator, replace breaker and start the bike, and check the regulator's output at the regulator. If it is not good, shut the bike off and pull the breaker again, then pull the stator's connector off the regulator, put the breaker in and start the bike, and check the A/C output of the stator. The goal is to keep the bike hot while testing and see what you find.

Just the fact that you put a new regulator on it, and all was good in the garage, then you went riding and it went down hill, would make me want to test it while it was at riding temperature... to see if something was breaking down when it got hot. I also rigged up a way to hook my multimeter to my battery, and put the seat back on, and go ride my bike (multimeter in a jacket pocket)... so I could compare what my multimeter was saying -vs- what the volt meter on the bike was showing... and trust the multimeter over the volt gauge on the dash.

 

All good points. I've seen some cheap digital volt meters,I'd be tempted to rig one up where I could see it



I would think a bad voltmeter would show low volts not high. But I don't know.



A volt reg should be around a $150. If it is really cheap I would wonder.

Last fall I saw one on Amazon for under $100. At first I thought old bike and not selling, and wanted to get rid of.

The wording looked like cycle electric. But the sell was not, and further reading it wasn't. Negative reviews too

Heated gear is jackets, gloves with heating element that plugs into bike battery. If you had a lot of that, may want bigger charging system

If I was updating to 3 wire, I'd make sure primary lined up right. 3 wire came out after Harley got rid of timken bearing. Not saying it matters, but I would research.