[rwall89]

So stupid newbie question. I rode my bike yesterday and it ran fine all day. Parked it and had to drive a car for a bit to take a baseball player to his new team. Came back to pick up my bike and the battery was dead and wouldn't start. Jumped it off and then it died while loading my bag back on it and would start again so jumped it off again and left it hooked up for a bit to charge. About 20 miles down the road my gauges turned off then my headlights went dim, started backfiring and then shut off going down the bypass. Got it jumped off again and got it to my grandparents house. Charged it all night and all day today and it had enough juice to make my hour ride back home. Am I looking at replacing the stator?

 

[WilliamTech]

So stupid newbie question. I rode my bike yesterday and it ran fine all day. Parked it and had to drive a car for a bit to take a baseball player to his new team. Came back to pick up my bike and the battery was dead and wouldn't start. Jumped it off and then it died while loading my bag back on it and would start again so jumped it off again and left it hooked up for a bit to charge. About 20 miles down the road my gauges turned off then my headlights went dim, started backfiring and then shut off going down the bypass. Got it jumped off again and got it to my grandparents house. Charged it all night and all day today and it had enough juice to make my hour ride back home. Am I looking at replacing the stator?

Sounds right or R/R .....maybe a shorted battery, but doubt it.

Measure the voltage at battery with bike rev-ing at 4K rpm.....sb= 14.+ VDC
if not, Stator / R/R issue. Meter Tests are in the stickies/Threads.

:smiley_th

 

[denny6006]

read the first few posts in this thread ,check it like it says too and you will know for certain.

 

[VN750Rider/Jerry]

It's really easy.

1. Disconnect the 3 bullet connectors.

2. Set your meter on ohms

3. Touch one lead from the meter to the engine case. I used the rear manifold to avoid paint getting in the way. It does not matter which lead goes where. With a lead touching the engine, take the other lead and touch each of the 3 yellow wires in turn. Make sure they are the wires coming from the stator, not the wires coming from the R/R. You should get no continuity between any of the wires and the engine. If you do, your stator is shot. If not, move onto the next test.

4. Set your meter to VAC. Start the engine and rev it to 3000 rpm. Now check the AC volts between all 3 of the yellow wires, 2 at the time. Do not let the wires touch each other or ground. You should get high 40 to low 50 AC volts at each wire on a stock stator. If you do, your stator is good.

5. Now with a fully charged battery showing 13.xx volts with the engine off, start the engine and rev it to 3000. With the meter set to DC volts, and the leads connected to the battery terminals, you should get over 14 volts. If you do, everything is ok. If the voltage does not go up, or drops (the lights draw power from the battery, and can make the voltage drop down to around 11 volts if the system is not charging) the system is not charging, but the stator is ok.

6. There are a lot of possible problems, but I'd bet on the R/R, as it is the most expensive part. But check for proper ground, check the R/R connector, check the headlight relay, etc. You can check the R/R, but as was said, it can show good and still not work. If nothing else is found, and the DC voltage at the battery connections is low and doesn't budge when the engine is revved, you can be pretty sure it is the R/R

A charging system that is not working will cause the bike to misfire badly and die at idle, even with a fully charged battery. Apparently on the Vulcan, the ignition system requires the charging system to be working for the bike to run right.

 

[johnoni]

Hi all. New Newbie question. Have checked all the different things suggested on here with a multimeter. Cleaned connections etc. But still my indicators stop working when i pass 1500rpm. Baffled. Anyone have any ideas please.

 

[vulkan]

If the headlight relay is the culprit, there is an easy (and free)
repair you can do to bypass the relay. This will make the headlight
come on when you turn on the key, instead of when the engine starts.
There are 2 plugs going into your junction box (where the fuses are);
one is a 10 pin connector, the other is an 8 pin connector. Unplug
the 8 pin connector. There are only 7 wires going to this plug, so
one of the holes is empty. Move the blue wire to that empty hole and
plug it back in to the junction box. Now when you turn the key on the
headlight comes on. Let us know if you have any problems.......OK what does this fix??If the "headlight relay is the culprit" ...the culprit of WHAT!!??Hard starting??Battery drain??Extra "bright" lights??

 

[mick.park]

It's really easy.

1. Disconnect the 3 bullet connectors.

2. Set your meter on ohms

3. Touch one lead from the meter to the engine case. I used the rear manifold to avoid paint getting in the way. It does not matter which lead goes where. With a lead touching the engine, take the other lead and touch each of the 3 yellow wires in turn. Make sure they are the wires coming from the stator, not the wires coming from the R/R. You should get no continuity between any of the wires and the engine. If you do, your stator is shot. If not, move onto the next test.

4. Set your meter to VAC. Start the engine and rev it to 3000 rpm. Now check the AC volts between all 3 of the yellow wires, 2 at the time. Do not let the wires touch each other or ground. You should get high 40 to low 50 AC volts at each wire on a stock stator. If you do, your stator is good.

5. Now with a fully charged battery showing 13.xx volts with the engine off, start the engine and rev it to 3000. With the meter set to DC volts, and the leads connected to the battery terminals, you should get over 14 volts. If you do, everything is ok. If the voltage does not go up, or drops (the lights draw power from the battery, and can make the voltage drop down to around 11 volts if the system is not charging) the system is not charging, but the stator is ok.

6. There are a lot of possible problems, but I'd bet on the R/R, as it is the most expensive part. But check for proper ground, check the R/R connector, check the headlight relay, etc. You can check the R/R, but as was said, it can show good and still not work. If nothing else is found, and the DC voltage at the battery connections is low and doesn't budge when the engine is revved, you can be pretty sure it is the R/R

A charging system that is not working will cause the bike to misfire badly and die at idle, even with a fully charged battery. Apparently on the Vulcan, the ignition system requires the charging system to be working for the bike to run right.

#3- I got a reading of OL across all combinations of the three yellow wires. Although, at times, it would flash quickly to a high two-digit number and then immediately return to OL. I tried multiple locations on the frame and got the same results at each location.

#4 I get a fraction of a VAC across all combinations.

#5 With a fully charged battery at 13v, I start 'er up and get no fluctuation of voltage at different RPMs. idle=12.xx; 3k=12.xx; 5k=12.xx

I do know that the PO replaced the R/R within the last year or so.
If I leave the bike on the trickle charger overnight, I come out in the morning to a 13v reading on the battery. It starts/runs fine, I can do my commute, park the bike for 7-8 hours, it reads 11.8v when I come back in the afternoon, and starts up fine for the ride home. Seems to not drain very rapidly, but it definitely doesn't seem to be charging on its own. I have a 90mi ride through back roads coming up next week and I'm a little nervous.

Am I in for a stator replacement?

 

[Spockster]

#3- I got a reading of OL across all combinations of the three yellow wires. Although, at times, it would flash quickly to a high two-digit number and then immediately return to OL. I tried multiple locations on the frame and got the same results at each location.

#4 I get a fraction of a VAC across all combinations.

#5 With a fully charged battery at 13v, I start 'er up and get no fluctuation of voltage at different RPMs. idle=12.xx; 3k=12.xx; 5k=12.xx

I do know that the PO replaced the R/R within the last year or so.
If I leave the bike on the trickle charger overnight, I come out in the morning to a 13v reading on the battery. It starts/runs fine, I can do my commute, park the bike for 7-8 hours, it reads 11.8v when I come back in the afternoon, and starts up fine for the ride home. Seems to not drain very rapidly, but it definitely doesn't seem to be charging on its own. I have a 90mi ride through back roads coming up next week and I'm a little nervous.

Am I in for a stator replacement?

Sounds like it, but on #4, what ac volt setting was the meter set on? And what was the number of the fraction?

 

[mick.park]

Sounds like it, but on #4, what ac volt setting was the meter set on? And what was the number of the fraction?

My multimeter has two AC settings, 200v and 500v. I had it set to 200. I believe it was reading 0.1 to 0.2. I went inside and popped both leads into a wall receptacle just to be sure it was working right and it read 123v so I *guess* I trust the reading?

 

[Spockster]

Hmmm, yes, it does look like the stator is toast. Very low ac output.

TPE rewind is the best, most reliable stator you can get.

 

[mick.park]

Thanks I emailed him this morning. His site is under construction.

Weird thing- today I rode about 20mi on the highway and once I got out of traffic and was able to go about 50+mph I saw the voltmeter read about 13.5 at 4000rpm for a while. Is this promising, or unrelated?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Spockster]

Thanks I emailed him this morning. His site is under construction.

Weird thing- today I rode about 20mi on the highway and once I got out of traffic and was able to go about 50+mph I saw the voltmeter read about 13.5 at 4000rpm for a while. Is this promising, or unrelated?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

You could check out the wiring, I know the three bullet connectors off the stator are known to create problems.

Might also look at the Two Wire mod, known to cure charging system brownouts, among others.

However, you know the stator has tested dead with those three wires disconnected, so it's not looking good.

Have you gone though the testing for the R/R? Stator and R/R were both toast on mine.

 

[mick.park]

Hmm- maybe I did my test wrong. I did my readings by removing the heat shrink around the soldered connections of the three yellow wires going into the R/R. I didn't remove the solder.

I'm not near the bike now. I'll send pics

 

[Spockster]

Hmm- maybe I did my test wrong. I did my readings by removing the heat shrink around the soldered connections of the three yellow wires going into the R/R. I didn't remove the solder.

I'm not near the bike now. I'll send pics

Yes, the stator leads need to be disconnected for that test. Think you should be able to unplug at the R/R.

If it checks out, then maybe it is brownouts that the Two Wire mod might help. You wouldn't get the intermittent 13v+ if it wasn't charging at all.

 

[mick.park]

A glimmer of hope. Thanks. Yeah the PO replaced the RR and removed the goats belly. The wiring may be slightly different than stock. I know the brown wire that's over there has been disconnected.

 

[michiganteddybear]

there are 3 bullet style connectors that connect the stator wires to the harness (and therefore the R/R) that are know to cause problems.. they burn up, rust out, or just plain fail. you can disconnect them to test the stator.

I want to say they are behind the engine, not to far from the battery box. Follow the wires out of the engine case, down under the front bevel gear, then they wrap up towards the battery box if I remember right. I cant check mine, because I no longer have them run that way.

 

[mick.park]

Thanks for clarifying. I found the correct wires and was able to confirm that the stator is shorting to ground. Resistance spiked all over the place when testing the combinations of the three yellow wires. I originally tested the leads on the right. Once I located the ones on the left, it made more sense and aligned with what everyone had described.

I was not able to test VAC because it appears that my battery is now toast and won't complete a charge on the trickle charger.

I've seen a lot of threads on stator replacement here. Is there one in particular you guys recommend? Maybe a video?

Thanks!

 

[Knifemaker]

Thanks for clarifying. I found the correct wires and was able to confirm that the stator is shorting to ground. Resistance spiked all over the place when testing the combinations of the three yellow wires.

I was not able to test VAC because it appears that my battery is now toast and won't complete a charge on the trickle charger.

I've seen a lot of threads on stator replacement here. Is there one in particular you guys recommend? Maybe a video?

Thanks!

Did you see this?
http://www.vn750.com/forum/19-electrical/16839-replace-stator-without-removing-engine-mod.html

 

[Spockster]

Three ways you can go with stator replacement: Engine pull, engine tilt, or the Tux plate mod.

I did the tilt because I didn't want to lift the engine by myself. There's a lot you don't have to disconnect/remove with this option, and the engine stays mostly inside the frame, so closer to realignment. I left the carbs connected, front exhaust manifold, and bevel gear in place. I did however remove the airbox for earshave at the same time, as well as coasters and removal of the air injection system, so all that helped.

Tux mod can be tricky, plenty of posts here, and a member was selling the plate if you're not inclined to make your own. There can be problems with oil leaks, stator/rotor alignment, and metal shavings from the cut if done on the engine. But many have done it successfully.

 

[Grizzlyonu]

What's the big benefit of the Tuxedo mod? That you don't have to remove or tilt the engine to replace the stator?