stator

[badinfluence63]

Was coming home from Nova Scotia this past late August. Was 9-12 cars from the border, hit some pot holes and a piece of angle iron came up and whacked the bottom of my cases and shortly after the bike died and wouldn't re start. Pushed it up to and across the border and had to call a flat bed truck up from Bangor to come all the way up to Calais,Maine then back to the HD dealer in Bangor(650$). The repair bill (fried stator) came to 591$. My question is why would a stator fry with only 12,000miles on it? I still have the same stator on my old 1983 FL.

[Wrider]

Because when that angle iron hit the bottom of your cases it bent them a little, causing the wrong amount of clearance between the stator and rotor. The rotor probably tapped the stator a few times and fried it.
That's my guess at least!
Wrider

[Gummiente]

Pretty good guess, Wrider, but I'm not sure that's it. The cases are pretty thick and tough and would crack or break if hit hard enough - and they would need to be hit REALLY hard for that to happen - but they're just not pliable or soft enough to bend or deform. The alternator stator is on the inside of the clutch basket, which is on the left side of the motor, not the bottom. The primary cover would crack or break if it were hit hard enough, but something would have to penetrate the case and whack the clutch first before the alternator would see any damage. My guess is that his bike had a bad stator and the piece of angle iron hitting the motor had nothing to do with it failing.

However, if the alternator wires exit out the bottom of the motor like they did on my old Sportster, perhaps the angle iron sheared them off when it scraped its way under the motor, shorting out the alternator and frying it in the process. This would drain the battery, but it would take at least two hours for that to happen, after which the bike wouldn't have enough juice to start.

[badinfluence63]

Thanks for the input. Stator was fried black when gotten to. I'ts sounding like a bad stator as the outside cases were scratched at worst. Either way it was strange that a HD with only 12000miles would have a malfunctioning stator. I felt like a crazy donkey with my bike on a flat bed feeling like the poster child for "I see, told ya harleys were crap!"

Since I been gone from here I picked up another bike..a concord purple 2001 Ultra, thats the one that crapped out on the Canadian border. Got it in July. Still have the 1998 Ultra w/ sidecar and the 1983 FL which I am thinking of turning into a bobber on a rigid w/ a springer front end.

Seen your pick on the Ural corp page...pretty good Gummiente

[crazy5dave]

There is no "automotive style" alternator in a harley. I dont know the word for it exactly. although i guess i could be too, as "Alternator" comes from the fact that its putting out A/C power which must be rectified to D/C to go in to a D/C battery. Automotive style alternators have a casing of magnets with a coil of wire spinning in the inside of them. A harley uses a stationary coil of wires bolted to the cases and a rotor of magnets spin around the coil on the crank shaft in what looks like a dog dish. this is not behind the clutch basket in this model. its driven off the crank pinion shaft directly behind the compensator. a couple of years of old sportsters(86-90?) it was behind the clutch. dont quoto me on the years. on the rotor there is a warning. it basicly says not to hit it with sharp blows. that includes and impact gun! which sucks as this it ussually the tightess bolt on the bike with red lock tight. or the trans sprocket lock nut. as shape blow will crack a magnet and effect its polarity. there are ussually 6-10 magnets on a rotor. one broken magnet with render it non-working. also if the wire off the coil is broken or shorts to ground it will not work. ive seen stators go out with less the 12K but only once or twice.