Should Stator Wires Be Almost "too Hot To Touch"?

[BRad704]

Think about the wires that come from the stator, cross the bike to the Right side. There's a plug from stator wires, to the harness that leads to R/R.

Should that plug and wires be almost too hot to touch?

This only takes a few minutes to happen and it was actually smoking a little before I turned off the bike. I don't know if it was burning off some heavy dust because my bike sat in our body shop for 6 months, or if it is melting the plug and wires.

The wires from the stator are obviously larger than the harness wires to the R/R. Could I remove some resistance/heat by going to larger wiring?

Details...

1993 VFR

New and fully charged battery

Brand new Rick's Stator

Brand new FH020AA R/R

Electrosport Fault Finding guide gives me: "Charging system perfectly OK."

2500rpm voltage = 14.2V

5000rpm voltage = 14.25v

Resistance across all stator combinations is 1.5-1.6ohm.

[Rice]

Check the connections to the RR. Are the wires hotter closer to it?

Also, Add a big fat ground directly from RR to frame right where RR sits.

[BRad704]

The wires going into the RR aren't hot at all... It seems to be centered aroudn this plug. Which, granted, is very close to engine and exhaust.

When I did the RR upgrade, it came with some mega beefy wiring. The Ground is only about 9" long and probably the thickest wire on the bike.

[CornerCarver]

Brad, pull that connector apart and tighten up the spade clips.

That is loose and causing a higher than normal amp draw (and subsequent heat) but it does not appear to be brown and crispy yet like most that are neglected.

After tightening it a bit, fill the connector with Oxguard and plug it back together, then check to confirm it is much cooler.

[Switchblade]

Bypass plug and straight wire ..

[BRad704]

I like Carver's idea... but I love Switchblades idea.

It hadn't really dawned on me to bypass the plug.

Until I can get some larger wire to match the stator, I'll pull the plug apart and tighten everything up.

[BRad704]

I just checked the terminals and 1 was spotless, 1 was dirty and 1 had some signs of overheating. dark, brittle insulation and the gold spade had turned pink/rosy where it crimped onto the wire.

Would it actually matter if there were 2 different size wires butt-connected together? Shouldn't be any different than a clean plug.

[Auspanglish]

No it's not anywhere near as important as having a good solid connection between them. Actually on many bikes I've seen, the stator wires were thinner than the R/R side and yet the R/R ones were overheating.. Which bamboozled me, as thicker gauge would mean less resistance. I could only put it down to unwarranted resistance in the R/R.

Those wires should not be almost too hot to touch.

Fix the connector issue via the method you most prefer of those mentioned but do it asap or stator will fry.

[BRad704]

I did exactly that... went ahead and hardwired with what I had on-hand. After idling for a few minutes, wires were no hotter than anything else in that area.

At this point, I'll consider this issue closed...

[Auspanglish]

Cool. Literally!

:D

[Rice]

Good deal.

I had mine soldered. No issues.

[BRad704]

SO cool.

I'm admittedly a terrible soldererer. I can weld for days, but one drop of solder and I become a 4 year old with a paintbrush.

[scup]

This should not be happening.

You've got aShindengen Mosfet RR and it's wired directly to the battery with # 10 wire, which is much larger gauge than needed for this system. I'd go to this sight: and test things out:.

THESE ARE GREAT TESTING VIDEOS: http://roadstercycle.com/Roadstercycle.com%20Videos.htm

HOME PAGE: http://roadstercycle.com/

Luck

Josh

[Switchblade]

Good deal.

I had mine soldered. No issues.

+1 Only way to go ...

[gj6n68]

Hello All and thanks to BRad for posting this.

I have done exact same replacement on my VFR800 and have got the same problem where the 3 yellow wires coming from stator to that connector are getting very hot, but nothing on other side of connector to R/R.

Also the timing is same, I did mine just before 2 days, and have same Shindingen Mosfet FHA020AA Kit from Jason Moto Elextrix.

Before replacing the R/R I had done a through fault finding using from https://www.electrosport.com/media/pdf/fault-finding-diagram.pdf and the stator seemed fine, so I am suspecting it is the connector.

As suggested above, I am going to pull them apart, clean, tighten and see if the problem goes away. Luckily I don't have any smoke or burning smell, but one of the connectors does look bit brownish already.

Also, there was a small ground wire connected to old (OEM) R/R mounting bolt from sub-frame, which I have removed right now, could that be a reason for stator wires getting hot ?? I am asking this as Rice has mentioned earlier about adding a ground wire directly from R/R.

On a different note, has anyone done any wire upgrades right from its origin in Stator ?? Would that be easy job ?? And most importantly would it solve the problem if we use thicker wire instead of 3 yellow hairs taking almost 30V to 50V constantly on motorways ??

Thanks all for the help, and I hope this is the last electrical problem I have to deal with before I can really start riding this year.

[5232eagle]

I changed out my stator wires ( larger wires) also to get cooler wire from the stator ,and i realized that the honda engineers proably used the smaller wires not only to save weight and cost but to probably increase the restience and thus reduce some of the current flow.

The bike generator is trying to run at max output continuously so my bigger wires are feeding even more current to the R/R and getting it even hotter. With shunt charging systems you always have to be somewhere in the middle ,not drawing to much current but never not drawing any.

[Switchblade]

I changed out my stator wires ( larger wires) also to get cooler wire from the stator ,and i realized that the honda engineers proably used the smaller wires not only to save weight and cost but to probably increase the restience and thus reduce some of the current flow.

The bike generator is trying to run at max output continuously so my bigger wires are feeding even more current to the R/R and getting it even hotter. With shunt charging systems you always have to be somewhere in the middle ,not drawing to much current but never not drawing any.

The other side of that is the R\R is designed for that and the small stator wires were not. You did good !!!

[mcrwt644]

I'd go with GLL's additional ground wires too

[Rice]

Hello All and thanks to BRad for posting this.

I have done exact same replacement on my VFR800 and have got the same problem where the 3 yellow wires coming from stator to that connector are getting very hot, but nothing on other side of connector to R/R.

Also the timing is same, I did mine just before 2 days, and have same Shindingen Mosfet FHA020AA Kit from Jason Moto Elextrix.

Before replacing the R/R I had done a through fault finding using from https://www.electrosport.com/media/pdf/fault-finding-diagram.pdf and the stator seemed fine, so I am suspecting it is the connector.

As suggested above, I am going to pull them apart, clean, tighten and see if the problem goes away. Luckily I don't have any smoke or burning smell, but one of the connectors does look bit brownish already.

Also, there was a small ground wire connected to old (OEM) R/R mounting bolt from sub-frame, which I have removed right now, could that be a reason for stator wires getting hot ?? I am asking this as Rice has mentioned earlier about adding a ground wire directly from R/R.

On a different note, has anyone done any wire upgrades right from its origin in Stator ?? Would that be easy job ?? And most importantly would it solve the problem if we use thicker wire instead of 3 yellow hairs taking almost 30V to 50V constantly on motorways ??

Thanks all for the help, and I hope this is the last electrical problem I have to deal with before I can really start riding this year.

Hello All and thanks to BRad for posting this.

I have done exact same replacement on my VFR800 and have got the same problem where the 3 yellow wires coming from stator to that connector are getting very hot, but nothing on other side of connector to R/R.

Also the timing is same, I did mine just before 2 days, and have same Shindingen Mosfet FHA020AA Kit from Jason Moto Elextrix.

Before replacing the R/R I had done a through fault finding using from https://www.electrosport.com/media/pdf/fault-finding-diagram.pdf and the stator seemed fine, so I am suspecting it is the connector.

As suggested above, I am going to pull them apart, clean, tighten and see if the problem goes away. Luckily I don't have any smoke or burning smell, but one of the connectors does look bit brownish already.

Also, there was a small ground wire connected to old (OEM) R/R mounting bolt from sub-frame, which I have removed right now, could that be a reason for stator wires getting hot ?? I am asking this as Rice has mentioned earlier about adding a ground wire directly from R/R.

On a different note, has anyone done any wire upgrades right from its origin in Stator ?? Would that be easy job ?? And most importantly would it solve the problem if we use thicker wire instead of 3 yellow hairs taking almost 30V to 50V constantly on motorways ??

Thanks all for the help, and I hope this is the last electrical problem I have to deal with before I can really start riding this year.

I would def. add a beefy ground directly to where rr attaches to the frame.

I'd also add a thick charging wire directly to the positive battery terminal.

Oem wires are quite long and run through too many connectors, all of which reduces effi is ch of the RR.

I've done this on mine a few years ago and haven't had a problem since.

I am still running the original OEM RR of the 2006 vintage.

Regarding questions of increasing (or rather decreasing) the gauge of the RR wires, I see no point. The fact that there is more heat in the thinner wires on one side of the connection tells me that the connection is bad.

[gj6n68]

Thanks 5232Eagle, Swtichblame, mcrwt644 and Rice.

I would like to know how difficult job it is to change the stator wires right from their origin in stator?? Is it is too difficult job, or someone like me who's done R/R replacement and refurbished forks can manage to change the wires, with my skill level ??

Also, I completely agree with Rice that the connection isn't working as it should be especially as one side of wires are hot and other side aren't, but I just want to put thicker wires to make sure nothing burns out in case the connectors play up again and I don't notice. And now that I have new Mosfet R/R I am bit more relaxed on blowing up a R/R like oem.

Also, the same connection was working well with stock oem, when I believe it was clean and plugged in tight, so I am definitely going to put a ground wire from R/R like before and clean up the connections to see if the wires behave well, and then may be someday over winters change stator wires to thicker ones.

Thanks once again. This learning is just priceless.

*I just saw that Rice posted a reply just as I was writing this message.

[Auspanglish]

I have had at least two professional electrical engineers say that thicker stator wires isn't necessarily necessary. One problem with swapping them out is that most only cut the existing wires where they exit the stator housing and solder thicker ones in. This is an exercise in futility aq your changing one (supposed) problem for a (potentially much) worse one: a dodgey solder and at the least one more splice in the wiring. Changing the wire from the very origin I'm unsure that's feasible as I imagine at that point there is a thermal-isolation shelack coating which messing with would require it be retreated and it's not a common household or garage workshop item.

[Rice]

I have had at least two professional electrical engineers say that thicker stator wires isn't necessarily necessary. One problem with swapping them out is that most only cut the existing wires where they exit the stator housing and solder thicker ones in. This is an exercise in futility aq your changing one (supposed) problem for a (potentially much) worse one: a dodgey solder and at the least one more splice in the wiring. Changing the wire from the very origin I'm unsure that's feasible as I imagine at that point there is a thermal-isolation shelack coating which messing with would require it be retreated and it's not a common household or garage workshop item.

I completely agree.

[gj6n68]

Thanks a lot Auspanol for detailed insight on changing stator wires from origin, my doubts have been confirmed as I do know that any 'windings' do need the coating etc done properly.

So for now, all I am going to do is put a ground wire from R/R to ground, and clean and tighten the connectors to see if heat dissipation from the three Stator wires reduces.

If that goes well, I'll run it a few times and see the outcome before hard wiring them completely.

Thanks a lot to everyone.

[ember1205]

This is a common problem on the Goldwings too, and the fix is the same... Hardwire.

If you leave it "as is", you're ASKING for a stator failure. The connectors get loose, corroded, and dirty over time. That causes additional resistance, and that causes extra heat. The heat degrades the plastic plug and possibly even the insulation on the wires. Then, you end up with one leg of the stator touching ground. This causes that leg of stator to fail, and it's all downhill from there.

I don't know if it was ever made available for the VFR (didn't look), but there was a Stator Wiring Repair Kit for the Goldwings that consisted of new plugs and some new wires to connect in. My Goldwing has been repaired at one point, and the wiring is almost completely shot again. I'm going through that bike now and doing maintenance and making repairs - I will be hardwiring the connections at the stator AND at the other end where the R/R is because those plugs are degraded too.

[gj6n68]

Hi All,

Yesterday I cleaned the spade connectors and plastic housings thoroughly hoping that the problem of wires getting how in between stator and connector would disappear. I also connected the ground from stator mounting bolt to frame.

And to my dismay when I started it up, the wires right from stator to R/R including the white plastic connectors were all getting hot.

So, I had to leave it where it was again.

But, I followed the electrosport fault finding guide (https://www.electrosport.com/media/pdf/fault-finding-diagram.pdf) and did the stator tests R/R output tests again.

The results are as below:

Battery out put at idling is 14.7 volts.

Stator Tests:

1. Resistance between A-B, B-C, C-A is 0.5 ohms. It started of with high values but settled at 0.5.

2. Resistance between any of the yellow stator wires and Engine case or any ground is 1 ohm, which from my memory used to be OL. This points that stator need replacing.

3. And the last test of checking AC voltage between stator connectors at idling gave 17V and 60+ volts at 5k rpm.

I am not sure what to make out of 17V at idling between stator wires at idling, and if I should conclude that stator is shot with ground because of results in test 2.

Any help would be great, plus suggestions on which stator to buy and from where, as I am really thinking if I can solve this issues at all ?? Though I have a new R/R, battery and the only thing remaining is Stator. But, I don't want to end up changing stator to find out that the problems still persists.

Thanks once again.

gj