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John Chambers wrote:
I have an 86 interstate with 106,000 km and it left us stranded again. A month ago, it would not restart at a gas station and it backfired moments before arriving. No lights.... dead. 30 Amp fuse was blown so I replaced and removed driving lights and it has been fine ever since. Today we were an hour into a ride, when I stopped for a left turn and it died again. 30 amp fuse was blown. I replaced and we were on our way. A half hour later bike started to sputter and backfire and died. The dash lites were lit so I knew it wasnt the fuse but it wouldnt turn over and wouldnt bump start. After sitting for a half hour, we did bump start it and drove about 10 km's and it died again. Bateery seemed dead, but we left it again for a half hour and battery seems to recover enough to allow bump starts. Again we went about 5 kms and it died. We finally tralered it home. Is it the stator ?????
John, there is no way of knowing if your stator is bad without doing some tests.. With that 30 amp fuse blowing it sort of points to another problem (like a short somewhere)..
You could have a bad battery, short in one of the circuits, or another problem..
It probably wouldn't hurt to start with a basic stator test to begin with...
---To do that---
You will need a small DVOM voltmeter, a digital is best but an analog will work if you are good with it..
The connectors for the stator tests can be accessed form the battery area by pulling the L/H battery cover off..
The battery doesn't have to be fully charged but should be good enough to start the engine a few times..
Once the battery area cover is removed you will find three yellow wires running just in front of the battery, if still original there will be a 3 wire plug in those 3 yellow wires,, if the wires have been hard connected there will be some sort of tape or solder joint in the 3 yellow wires..
You will need to either disconnect the 3 wire plastic plug, or use side cutters & cut the three yellow wires. You can cut them all at once as their re-connection order doesn't matter. That connector MUST BE disconnected (or the yellow wires cut) or you won't be able to do a good meaningful test & get accurate readings. You will need to be sure the terminals in the connector are clean, (or the wires are cut back to clean wire) to get solid usable test data..
The 3 yellow wires coming out of the rear of the engine need to be lettered or numbered (either 1,2,3, or A,B,C) so you can tell them apart during the testing.
To run the test get your voltmeter set on the 100 volt AC (Alternating Current) scale & the probes hooked up & where you can access them easily.
Start the engine & warm it up a little,, then run the engine at 3000-4000 RPM's. With the engine running at close to 4000 RPM's place the voltmeter probes across the 3 yellow wires making sure you test all the combinations (A to B,, B to C,, C to A.. If your stator is in good shape you should show 50+ volts A/C across all the legs (A to B,, B to C,, C to A.. The voltage should be fairly close to the same on all 3 legs also.
If you have good voltage your stator is probably good to go yet.
If you have an ohmmeter function on your voltmeter you can also do a basic resistance test..
Start by placing your meter on the X1 scale or X10 scale analog (or the ohm or K scale on a modern meter).. When taking the readings be sure what scale you are reading in as even a good stator will show a slight resistance to ground on the M scale or even the higher end of the K scale.
Measure from each of the yellow wires to a good CLEAN ground, you should show close to infinite (open) with no short to ground in any of the yellow wires coming form the engine side. Don't use your fingers to hold the bare probe ends to the wires or that alone will show resistance.
Then measure between yellow wires A to B,, B to C,,& C to A,, the resistance should be between 1 to3 ohms (depending on the stator temperature & amount of oil soaked into the windings) on any of the legs & close to the same on all 3 legs..
If you have the production plug in the 3 yellow wires you really should cut the plug out and use splice clips then solder the three yellow wires to the front 3 yellow wires then cover each wire individually with heat shrink tubing..
If your stator tests out good & you can't find an obvious short in the system, pull your battrey & have it load tested,, it's possible you have a bad battery..
Twisty
:baffled:Well i had a 86 interstate with only 81000 milesit was doing the same thing, yours is doing. After putting $1000.00 into it ran for awhile then stated all over again,count your loses and get rid of it, i did and bought a new one 2005 and love it
