Alternator rewiring

[swanman]

I am pretty sure I f***ked my alternator by connecting a battery charger to the battery whilst still plugged in on the bike. Dumb ass!:shit:
Checked the stator resistance and way too high so am assuming (as per the manual) that the stator coils are buggered.

My q is I have phoned the usual wreckers etc and we are talking 300 plus so where can I get one rewired/tested/fixed. I have the whole thing off the bike so can take it wherever is required quickly.

I remember having a similar prob 5 years ago with a gpz1100 and got that rewired for about $100 in panmure somewhere.

Cheers in advance.

Swannie.

[cheetor]

can't see how you could fuck your bike doing that....
had a visual inspection of the stator coils yet?

[swanman]

To be honest no. I put ohmeter accross the 3 outputs, should read .18 ohms and they read 1.1ohm. According to the manual this means that the stator requires replacement.

Have checked continuity, fuses, output etc all fine except output of course which is nil.

WIlling to change my opinion if you know better. I suppose it could be a diode/regulator. Everything is containted in one unit, under the alternator cover.

[Ixion]

That is a little odd. Burnt out coils will usually read either (near) zero resistance, or a lower then spec resistance, as burnt insulation allows current to short across winding. Or infinite resistance, if open circuit.

A slightly higher than standard reading does not, IMHO point to burnt out coils.

Also, partially burnt out coils (ie not zero ohms, not infinite) will usually give some output, though at a lower voltage.

Are you confident of the accuracy of your meter?

There are a number of places can rewind coils, though finding one that will charge less for a one off job than a OEM replacement may be another matter.

[Motu]

So your battery is not charging? Was it charging before you tried to charge it? Perhaps the fault was already there.If you have hooked up the charger wrong it's more likely damaged the regulator/rectifier,it takes a lot of current to damage the stator windings,the reg/rec diodes will blow first.

[sAsLEX]

You can buy the wire for about 10 bucks and do it yourself save all that money, jsut takes a little time is all.

[swanman]

All good comments.

I guess I should investigate the regulator and diode. Just need to investigate what is what and how to test.

Here is a pic I think the silver looking thing is the regulator and the arc shaped thing behind the 3 silver wires is the rectifier.

[swanman]

So your battery is not charging? Was it charging before you tried to charge it? Perhaps the fault was already there.If you have hooked up the charger wrong it's more likely damaged the regulator/rectifier,it takes a lot of current to damage the stator windings,the reg/rec diodes will blow first.

Was charging very well before. Allways good power in battery.

[swanman]

Are you confident of the accuracy of your meter?



Yes good quality unit works well.

[sAsLEX]

To test the regulator run the engine with it back in place and you should see ~13.5 ish volts at the output of it when running the engine and say 11-18 at the input depending on the revs

There is also some ohm values for most regs to test like the stator but the above is a good start without knowing those values

[swanman]

To test the regulator run the engine with it back in place and you should see ~13.5 ish volts at the output of it when running the engine and say 11-18 at the input depending on the revs

There is also some ohm values for most regs to test like the stator but the above is a good start without knowing those values

Allready tried that. Output from the unit measured at the outgoing pos wire is 0 volts.

[sAsLEX]

Allready tried that. Output from the unit measured at the outgoing pos wire is 0 volts.

What about across the batt when running? As it should read close to 13 odd then as well in case your earthing your ground wrong on the multi!?

[swanman]

What about across the batt when running? As it should read close to 13 odd then as well in case your earthing your ground wrong on the multi!?

Acrros the bty when running is just bty voltage slowly lowering, i.e. no charge at all.

[sAsLEX]

Acrros the bty when running is just bty voltage slowly lowering, i.e. no charge at all.

Normally when regs die they stop regulating the charge coming through from the alt and show a high voltage say 15-17 say and that cooks your battery, could just be a loose wire?

How flash is your multimeter? Can you read the alternator output directly?

[Ixion]

Every case is different. But as a general rule, burnt out coils will show a low (eg right down to 1 or 2 volts) charge , reading directly across the output of the rectifier. A dud regulator will show a very high voltage output (+20v). A shorted regulator will sometimes show zero volts output but will also blow fuses and take the alternator coils out with it. Open circuit on one diode of the rectifier will show half voltage (about 6 to 8v) . Short circuit usually either blows fuses or takes out the coils.

A thought, if you're testing with a DC voltage setting on the meter and you're getting AC voltage output, the meter may not read it.

Can you measure the voltage directly at the stator coil outputs, between the three legs?

Is this an excited field alternator? In which case maye the connection to the field is dud?

[swanman]

Is this an excited field alternator? In which case maye the connection to the field is dud?
Not quite sure what that means. It is listed in the serive manual as a generator as opposed to an alternator.

I did take a measurement of output right at the 3 legs if I remember correctly is was in the region of about 2-3 volts. Can't remember if I used it on ac or dc scale.

[jonbuoy]

2-3 volts doesn't sound good. Might be work checking none of them are shorted to ground - that the windings are not connected to the bike frame. It shouldn't have done any damage connecting a charger to the battery with it still on the bike - same thing as jump starting.

http://www.electrexworld.co.uk/

[Motu]

That is a car style alt,not your usual motorcycle stator and external magnetic rotor.The main windings are very substantial,you'd need an arc welder to melt them.But the rotor is an electromagnet and is powered up by the battery,kinda like the ''fields'' Ixion mentions....there are also brushes like an old generator in there.But I still doubt you've damaged any windings,it'll be a diode for sure.

[swanman]

Well I have taken the whole thing to my fav bike place that is panmure motorcycles. He sorted me out last time with my GPZ 1100 unit.

I think that you guys are right it is a diode or one of those techy things. I told the guy at Panmure that so I'll see what he comes back with. And more importantly what it costs.

Cheers:yes: