| Author | Message | ||
     Faceyman |
Please pardon this post if this issue has already been addressed, I am new to this forum. Issue: I have an '09 1125R. Two weeks ago, I received call from HD dealer stating there was a recall for an electrical harness upgrade. Last week, I rode the 1125R the 120 kilometers to the HD dealer, had the recall completed and rode home without issue. Went for a ride last night, battery light on instrument cluster came on at low revs and when stopped at traffic lights, this was continuous at low revs & lights so I decided to head for home...almost did not make it, bike shut off close to my house and would not restart. Checked the battery with a voltmeter and it was reading 11.9V. Was able to boost bike with battery pack and it did start. Recharged and load tested battery this morning...battery is ok now. Called HD dealer, they could offer no advice. Advice...or can you point me to an area in the forum were this may have been addressed. I am hesitant to take the 1125R out at the moment for fear of getting stranded. Prior to the electrical harness upgrade I had no issues with 1125R, worked great...have owned since new and have 5000 kilometers on the bike. Thanks in advance... | ||
| Zac4mac |
The harness is doing it's job. It shuts off one leg of the stator to preserve its life-span. This effectively turns it from a 3-phase to a single-phase alternator. "Less area under the curve" = less power/less heat/more life. This process will be at the expense of battery stored energy if you spend much time at low-revs, under 3k rpm. ALWAYS keep your bike on a tender when not riding and spend as little time under 3k rpm as practical. Stay tuned here for ANY progress on a REAL fix. Welcome to the 1125 and BadWeB. Zack | ||
| Dannybuell |
exactly what zac4mac said. these machines are not for urban riding. welcome. | ||
| Jdugger |
I've been meaning to post this up. I was recently had the cases off my '09 race motor. I was shocked at how differently my stator looked than the cooked ones I've seen here to date. (it's a fairly new motor, so that may be some of it. I'll be really curious to see what my other '09 motor with 6k+ on it looks like next time I'm in there...)  | ||
| Tbowdre |
faceyman- you may have a battery that's going/not holding a charge. Or more likely your stator is going and now that one leg is shut off at low RPM (harness upgrade does this) it can not keep up with the voltage loss. you could check the AC voltage output of your stator. this is an indication of stator health. If the stator checks out it is probably your battery. Healthy stator, healthy battery, working R/R with the harness upgrade should NOT result in battery light at idle. my 0.02 only todd | ||
| Tbowdre |
looks like that > 5000/6000rpm track time is working out for your OEM stator there Jdugger | ||
| Jules |
Faceyman - check the output of your stator. I'd previosuly posted to say that what you are experiencing is "normal" with the harness but in fact the haness can make things worse if your stator is already a bit "marginal" The test is pretty easy and only takes 10 mins (the only item you need to remove is the rider's seat). | ||
| Jules |
Oh and just one small point to clarify... The harness wasn't a recall. It was an "optional upgrade", if you don't want it you can take it back off (also takes just a few minutes). | ||
| Faceyman |
Thanks all for the advice re: electrical issues. Load tested battery it is ok, will hook up tender as an interim fix. Are the directions online for testing stator and readings I should receive or be concerned about? | ||
| Tbowdre |
multimeter set to AC volts with scale to like 200. Battery at full charge. disconnect harness at the stator connection, start bike and measure all 3 legs of stator. The connector has 3 wires. consider them 1,2 and 3. to test check AC volts across 1-2, 1-3, 2-3. Look for symmetry about 18-20V at idle and 40-50V for 4000-5000RPM. No expert here just learning as I go dealing with my 1125.... 3 stators, current is a lower output Custom Rewind, 2 R/R, current one is OEM, one new battery and no harness. Seems well sorted after 3500miles and still charging... never below 13.2 todd gonna take a peek soon and see what the stator looks like when I check the valves | ||
| Blk09r |
Check this thread out. This may be your problem.... http://www.badweatherbikers.com/buell/messages/290 431/581926.html?1279805060 | ||
| Reepicheep |
Nice summary Todd! That's the most reliable test, as it's either making volts or it's not. The other test to do (building on your description) is with the bike off, set the meter to the lowest resistance (ohm) setting. Then measure 1-2, 1-3, and 2-3. All should be very low, and all should be similar. It's hard for a meter to measure this low accurately, so worry less about the exact value (.3 ohms or .6 ohms) and worry more that they are all reasonable (under 3 ohms) and similar. Then measure 1-ground, 2-ground, and 3-ground. These should all be infinity ohms. Good news on the Custom Rewind holding up! Are the custom rewind guys sharing information about what they are trying? How much less capacity? Heavier gauge wire? Lighter gauge wire? | ||
| Dannybuell |
From other threads, Custom Rewind saw a warranty return and decided on heavier wire. Several here have used CR customrewind.com. CR uses epoxies. One person has tried RM stator rmstator.com. RM stator uses varnish like the OEM. One person has questioned the epoxy methods potential for heat dispersion. An Ex Buell engineer currently a motorcycle magazine journalist recently shared here at BWB an unconfirmed statement regarding oil jets on the 1190RS stator rotor commenting that it would be a popular retrofit. No news on that front from Erik Buell Racing or anyone here. Compufire has a three phase system for Harleys with wet clutches that shows a stator rotor with slots. The Compufire regulator rectifier is a 'series' design which has been hailed as superior to the shunt design by a couple of electrical engineers here. Several are using the Compufire RR, one person had a failure but the rest are happy. | ||
| Reepicheep |
Nice summary, thanks. The series regulator has the potential to reduce heat in the stator, particularly when you have a charged battery. | ||
| Faceyman |
Thanks again everyone...only been signed on here for 2 days and already very impressed with people sharing and providing advice! | ||
| Htekwo |
I have a CR Stator with thinner wire for less output. I think this experiment resulted in too little output. I will have them rewind with thicker wire next time. This weekend, I had an issue on a 200 mile ride thru the twisties. Voltage started to drop and eventually left me stranded (had to call the wife and the F250 into service). Question: When trying to jump the Bike off from another bike, I got max smoke and fried battery tender lead. We checked the connection of both bikes and battery leads were not reversed on either bike or tender leads. Why couldn't I jump off the bike this way? Shorted Stator? Help! PS. All riding this day was done with Headlight turned off! (Message edited by htekwo on August 02, 2011) | ||
| Jules |
It depends on the guage of wire used in the jumper leads, there's a lot of current draw when doing that so you need "proper" jumper leads. I would have thought that thinner wire ought to (in theory) give a higher output as there would be more windings, but the thinner wire would have a harder time coping so would more heat build up (think "light bulb" where the light is created by the current through a thin wire heating it until it glows). IF the stator was shorted (big IF) then all you needed to do was to disconnect it under the riders seat to jump the bike. Riding w/o the lights could potentially make things worse on your charging system (again this is just my personal opinion) as the output of the stator isn't being "used" so the VR has to shunt more output to earth (and the VR is a bit marginal on these bikes already). Of course, once the charging system is toast, disconnecting them to get home is the only way to go...but before it fries, I'd leave them on.. | ||
| Jules |
You COULD also have a short in your battery, that'd smoke any jumper leads PDQ but I suspect you'd know if you had one.. | ||
| Sparky |
If you tried to jump the bike using the battery tender lead, that's wrong. Always use proper battery cables that are large enough to handle the massive current surge that would fry smaller gauge wire, and connect directly to the battery post(s). What I usually do is connect the positive posts first, then connect the negative cable to the donor battery and, just before hitting the start button, clamp the jumper cable to your bike's frame or engine. This method avoids sparks around the batteries and limits the time a fully charged battery would be trying to put a large amount of current into your depleted battery. | ||
| Rogue_biker |
exactly what zac4mac said. these machines are not for urban riding. That's not entirely true. I ride mine in urban mode a lot and it works just fine. Of course on a hot day the bike gets hot, but what bike doesn't? Only aircooled H-D with 9:1 compression do! Few motorcycles will like stop and go traffic...sportbikes are the worst...in any case that's what scooters are for! | ||
| Ratgin |
these machines are not for urban riding. Where does it say that in the sales pamphlet or owners manual? |
