crazypj
Split personality, I fake being smart
Alternator stators can fail with heat/cool cycles, it was VERY common on 1978 Honda 250/400, in fact, pretty common on a lot of late 70's bikes.
I know Yamaha had a batch of bad stators, they found out 'the new guy' on night shift hadn't been trained properly and had set winding machines wrong so copper wire was wound too tight causing the insulation to wear off.
I remember changing dozens under warranty (not as bad as Honda though, they had tens of thousands fail)
I have no idea how many would be produced during a single shift but expect several hundred at minimum?
Anyway, stators failing was quite common, if you check windings with multimeter you'll find either short or open circuit on at least one set of coils.
In the 80's it was very easy to get stators rewound, no idea if you can find electric motor shop that could re wind stator with better quality materials?
Suzuki's were so bad we did almost every GS 550 and GS750 and a few GS850's the shop sold because replacements were not much better than the original, Suzuki's have always had charging problems on four strokes, I think because they spent too much on developing great engine, (I've done some really crazy things to them in the past, 175mph GS'550' (720cc)
Yamaha tend to have batch issues rather than design faults (except second gear on new models, first year almost always has a problem needing re-design for second year and replacement parts kit for the ones that break which is almost all of them)
BTW, I jump around with examples because I worked at Honda/Yamaha/MZ shop then Suzuki/BMW/Vespa shop then Suzuki/Yamaha (etc) in Britain.
Oh, Mikuni carbs use same enrichener plunger on all CV carbs and VM slide carbs, the position varies slightly but all work the same. (it makes things simple when you want to swap from lever operation to cable operation or vice versa)
They draw more fuel with throttle completely closed, if throttle is opened even slightly the vacuum through enrichener circuit is lower making bike harder to start.
I know Yamaha had a batch of bad stators, they found out 'the new guy' on night shift hadn't been trained properly and had set winding machines wrong so copper wire was wound too tight causing the insulation to wear off.
I remember changing dozens under warranty (not as bad as Honda though, they had tens of thousands fail)
I have no idea how many would be produced during a single shift but expect several hundred at minimum?
Anyway, stators failing was quite common, if you check windings with multimeter you'll find either short or open circuit on at least one set of coils.
In the 80's it was very easy to get stators rewound, no idea if you can find electric motor shop that could re wind stator with better quality materials?
Suzuki's were so bad we did almost every GS 550 and GS750 and a few GS850's the shop sold because replacements were not much better than the original, Suzuki's have always had charging problems on four strokes, I think because they spent too much on developing great engine, (I've done some really crazy things to them in the past, 175mph GS'550' (720cc)
Yamaha tend to have batch issues rather than design faults (except second gear on new models, first year almost always has a problem needing re-design for second year and replacement parts kit for the ones that break which is almost all of them)
BTW, I jump around with examples because I worked at Honda/Yamaha/MZ shop then Suzuki/BMW/Vespa shop then Suzuki/Yamaha (etc) in Britain.
Oh, Mikuni carbs use same enrichener plunger on all CV carbs and VM slide carbs, the position varies slightly but all work the same. (it makes things simple when you want to swap from lever operation to cable operation or vice versa)
They draw more fuel with throttle completely closed, if throttle is opened even slightly the vacuum through enrichener circuit is lower making bike harder to start.