Kawasaki VN750 Forum banner

Frame Mod Stator

7K views 20 replies 10 participants last post by  Tamdango 
#1 · (Edited)
Here is a link for the photo's for a frame mod to get to the stator. This is being posted for a member. Any questions will have to go thru arkjeff.

Sorry about the link. I had attached a slide show & apperently it times out. Which would explain why it worked when I tested it & didn't work later.

Here's Jeffs info.

Hey y'all.
I took the pictures, know the bike and know the owner. I am also on the slowest dialup known to man which is why I had to mail kanuck69 a CD with the pics when he asked for them. So, while I've seen the pics, I haven't viewed his presentation of them.

This is sorta like that kid's game where one kid whispers something in the ear next to him and so on and on. What comes out at the end may not make sense...

The joints are held together by bolts on either side of the initial cuts. The bar stock serves several purposes and is indeed slid into place by way of the slots visible in one of the pics. This allows you to insert the upper portion and swing the other into place b4 sliding the bar into the rear portion of the existing frame. The bar not only gives the joints strength but keeps the bolts from crushing the rather soft and hollow frame tube. A weld job may be stronger but defeats the purpose of a 'roadside stator change', which is possible with this mod.

I've been on this forum for over 3 years and know a few of you. I know that most if not all of you are much more 'particular' about your bike than my friend may be. He used a Skil saw to cut the frame tube, scrounged a piece of bar stock form a junkyard, and just basically winged it from there. Maybe his attitude was that he had nothing to lose at that point. ?

Any improvements some of you may make is just all for the better. Go for it. My buddy was utterly disgusted with a 12 month + 1 day bike with ~12K miles that had a stator fail. He was basically ready to run it off a bridge into the river and I kinda don't blame him. Instead, after calming down, he came up with this idea with no real concerns with the appearance, just practicality. I do know that changing the stator took about 30 minutes tops after creating an easy way to get to it.

FWIW, the bike or frame is solid as a rock. You can in fact take it apart in just a few minutes. This mod was all he wanted it to be and he is totally satisfied with it. If I still had my vn750 we'd do it to mine and might change something or maybe not. But anyhow, it is what it is and if it spurs some of you to build off it and make a prettier fix then it was worth the postage to mail kanuck a CD.

PS

He did this mod just about one year ago. The 2 of us had gone on a 2 week trip around the US and wound up at Kentucky Lake for the Vulcan get-together (looking like the Beverly Hillbillies) and I think that was in Aug or Sept of last year. Just a week or so after we got home he started having the classic symptoms of a bad stator.

So figuring in a period of pouting, scratching his head and refusing to do a motor pull or pay for a fix, it has been just about a year. No problems. And, as he says, maybe this will insure that the stator never goes bad again now that it is so easy to fix!

And yes, Aluminum. The ends had to be shaped on a grinder wheel so they would slip into the curves just a bit.








Sorry. limited to 10 pics 5 from gallery omitted.



Sorry. limited to 10 pics 7 from gallery omitted.



Sorry. limited to 10 pics 9 from gallery omitted.







 
See less See more
10
#11 ·
Look at pic's 11 and 12 you will see 2 holes drilled in the tube. In #13 the 1st hole looks like it has something it. Can't make it out very well on my computer picture.
I would think that you would drill a hole in the top part and put a bolt in that hole and do the same with the other end of the frame piece.
This would make the stator change a lot eaiser.
 
#12 ·
Yeah, some kind of write-up is certainly needed to explain what's going on.
My only guess is some kind of clamps where the holes are??
 
#13 · (Edited)
to me it looks like after he had the top section in place he rotated the frame around into position then slide back the inside tube in the lower section of the frame, maby he used the two top notched out holes to tap the tube back. in picture two you can't see the inner tube on the last notch twords the front of the bike. i still dont' see how this is all fastened. to me it looks like welding it up would be the best way.
 
#14 ·
I agree that a write up would help. I've got ideas from this one. When I do mine, I'll give a write up of what's done in a step by step. It seems to me it could be made alittle simpler from what I see.
 
#15 ·
Hey y'all.
I took the pictures, know the bike and know the owner. I am also on the slowest dialup known to man which is why I had to mail kanuck69 a CD with the pics when he asked for them. So, while I've seen the pics, I haven't viewed his presentation of them.

This is sorta like that kid's game where one kid whispers something in the ear next to him and so on and on. What comes out at the end may not make sense...

The joints are held together by bolts on either side of the initial cuts. The bar stock serves several purposes and is indeed slid into place by way of the slots visible in one of the pics. This allows you to insert the upper portion and swing the other into place b4 sliding the bar into the rear portion of the existing frame. The bar not only gives the joints strength but keeps the bolts from crushing the rather soft and hollow frame tube. A weld job may be stronger but defeats the purpose of a 'roadside stator change', which is possible with this mod.

I've been on this forum for over 3 years and know a few of you. I know that most if not all of you are much more 'particular' about your bike than my friend may be. He used a Skil saw to cut the frame tube, scrounged a piece of bar stock form a junkyard, and just basically winged it from there. Maybe his attitude was that he had nothing to lose at that point. ?

Any improvements some of you may make is just all for the better. Go for it. My buddy was utterly disgusted with a 12 month + 1 day bike with ~12K miles that had a stator fail. He was basically ready to run it off a bridge into the river and I kinda don't blame him. Instead, after calming down, he came up with this idea with no real concerns with the appearance, just practicality. I do know that changing the stator took about 30 minutes tops after creating an easy way to get to it.

FWIW, the bike or frame is solid as a rock. You can in fact take it apart in just a few minutes. This mod was all he wanted it to be and he is totally satisfied with it. If I still had my vn750 we'd do it to mine and might change something or maybe not. But anyhow, it is what it is and if it spurs some of you to build off it and make a prettier fix then it was worth the postage to mail kanuck a CD.

BTW Kanuck, did you show the pic of his new rear tire??

j
 
#16 ·
I don't think it looks bad myself, and a quick coat of black paint would make invisible to untrained eyes.

I understood sliding the bar stock (what is the stock BTW, Aluminum?) into the tube, and inserting on end, swing around the other end and sliding that second piece into place, I just can't see the bolts, or what holds it in place.

And I agree welding it would be somewhat silly because if you go thru the trouble to go that far, you'd want it easily removable, like the other side for future repairs. (there's been more than one member here do a stator more than once on the same bike)

Anyway, thanks for the pics, and thanks for the details. ;)
 
#17 ·
PS

He did this mod just about one year ago. The 2 of us had gone on a 2 week trip around the US and wound up at Kentucky Lake for the Vulcan get-together (looking like the Beverly Hillbillies) and I think that was in Aug or Sept of last year. Just a week or so after we got home he started having the classic symptoms of a bad stator.

So figuring in a period of pouting, scratching his head and refusing to do a motor pull or pay for a fix, it has been just about a year. No problems. And, as he says, maybe this will insure that the stator never goes bad again now that it is so easy to fix!

And yes, Aluminum. The ends had to be shaped on a grinder wheel so they would slip into the curves just a bit.
 
#18 ·
Sorry, No I didn't put the tire pic in. But know that you've given me some text to use as a descriptive. I'll rearrange the first part of this thread to show with text. Instead of just a link to the photos.
 
#21 ·
Sorry to revive a dead post. I'm new to this and have come across this issue and have so many questions:
What diameter bar did you use? Length? Material?
I only see 10 pictures when another reply referenced 11, 12, and 13 about bolting the bar to the frame. Does anyone have those pictures? The link provided does not have pictures from the job.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top