stator

[worker]

I have a 2002 ultre, with 50.000 miles on it. This is my 4th stator. Is there anything else I should be looking at?

[moose]

try looking at cycle electric. I have heard nothing but good comments on their products.

[IndyHarley]

 I think two stators after 50,000 miles is probably not that much out of the ordinary for an HD but 4 seems to indicate you are going through stators for reasons other than just normal use.

[BikerJim44]

I would take a look at the crank main by measuring run out. Also making sure the end play is set correctly. After the first replacement they may not have shimmed the rotor correctly and it could be moving on the main shaft. Check the teeth on the rotor and make sure they are not gulled out from wobeling on the main shaft. Do you notice any odd vibrations or anything like that. If so then you could have flywheels that went out of alignment and will need to tear it down and have the wheels trued welded and plugged. Good time to do any high performance mods you have been thinking about if it is that. You can remove the cam cover and check for runout on the pinion shaft. If you have over .003 run out then you need to address the issue. I would most likely suspect that someone left out a spacer on the rotor and it's moving around and hitting the stator though. That's what I would look at first. Remove the rotor and give it a very through inspection for any unuaual markings on the magnets, check the teeth on the rotor, make sure none of the magnets are loose as well then do all the checks to make sure that it is properly set up in there. That is pretty excessive. Even one stator in 50K is a bit much IMHO. Hope you find the problem and please let us know. Oh yeah and when the stator was replaced did they make sure to put the correct one back in? If it's not the right stator or rotor or both then that would have an effect. Spidey.

[Paniolo]

I have a 2002 ultre, with 50.000 miles on it. This is my 4th stator. Is there anything else I should be looking at?

Welcome to my world. I have a 2001 Ultra with 50K and am on stator #4. The OEM one burned up in Zion. The second one burned up in Bear Tooth Pass. The third one burned up in the Petrified Forest National Park. Each time the different dealership doing the repairs checked out everything and found no problems.

[Grenadabiker1]

Go with Cycle Electric and also use their regulator. HD regulators shunt excess current to ground. CE regulates voltage so the stator is not maxed out all the time.

[beachrider]

The stator puts out a constant voltage at certain rmp's the regulator regulates the excess current to ground it don not regulate the production of the stator.

[02ultrarider]

02 ultra, just back from a extended trip, 2nd stator ate it at 60K miles, to me thats totally unacceptible on a touring bike. ohh btw cost was $400 to get it rpaired. lucky the bike quit running 5 miles from a dealer, tobad the dealer did not want to come pick me up.

[Ratfade]

I'm on my 4th stator in 95,000 miles on my '00 eglide. This winter I plan to switch to the Cycle Electric model.

[Geezer-Glide]

I just replaced my first stator with 74000 miles on my 2003 Electra Glide.  Here's what happened.  About a year ago, I replaced the rotor.  The teeth had galled out a little and it had a little whobble.  Nothing bad enough to hit the magnets on the stator though.  When I put the new rotor on, I noticed my volt meter was running much higher, and it would not drop to about 12V while at idle sitting at a light.  The rotor I had installed was the high output rotor.

Now, with the high output rotor and the STANDARD stator, more amps/volts/ohms or whatever (You electric guru's know which I mean) are drawn thru the stator.  This causes the standard stator to fail the smoke test after awhile.  How long? Each one is different.

When I replaced my stator, I noticed how much heavier the windings were from the original one that failed.

So, there's my experience with burned up stators.  Hope it can help someone.

[smoserx1]

Go here:

http://harleytechtalk.com/htt/index.php/topic,11177.0.html

and get M-1111.  It sort of explains some of the issues.  I have the 38 amp system and my stator lasted 120000 miles.  The only reason I changed it was the grommet was leaking oil.  I also don't know why a fuel injected bike would need a 45 amp system.  7 amps difference seems like a lot just for the extra sensors and ECM capability.  But anyway everything I have ever read suggests that folks with 45 amp systems buy lots of stators and folks with 38 amp systems buy few.  If you don't think you need 45 amps you might want to consider replacing your rotor with a 38 amp version.  The 38 amp rotor is cheap.

[Ken R]

The stator puts out a constant voltage at certain rmp's the regulator regulates the excess current to ground it don not regulate the production of the stator.

I don't believe that's true any more, beachrider.  They were changed before 2002.  Now, the regulators block the excess voltage, not shunting to ground. 

I lost a stator on my 2002, installed a new C.E.   Then, the regulator went bad.  Installed a C.E.  That  was 3 years ago.   So far, so good. 

All the stators I've seen (burned and some  not defective yet) showed overheating of the coils in the 10 - 12 o'clock position.  The rest of the wiring coils looked like new.   I've only seen maybe a half dozen (including my burned stator  and the C.E. about 3K miles after I installed it). But every one of them look  like they overheat in the 10 - 12 position.  Makes me wonder if the primary oil isn't getting to those coils to help keep them cool.