Alternator stator coil rewinding

Thanks for posting this. Very interesting and great photos

Cheers

Hi, thanks everyone for the comments, I truly didn't thing the post will make such impact. That's very rewarding. Kawboy yeah, the end result is there but I only made around 350 km with new winding. If there is anything I would worry about is the winding tightness, because of the engine vibration which can “move or shake” the wire on the bobbin and cause the insulation damage, apart of that there is not much else to go wrong. Bucko You did this 40 years ago on A1 ? Wow the generator must have been almost new. I'm surprise it actually broke. The windings came quiet ok, because I wound so many transformers back in the days I was building tube amps I couldn't even count them now. Scotch yeah !! it was a long way with all that wire, the main problem I had with it, was not to muddle up my self in it after I had a second beer while winding. Stan truly inspiring was, when You send the first pictures of you bike ready, and when you fired it up for the first time. It amazed me so much I than thought.. one can do anything if he is only willing, so here goes credit to you. Zed thirteen I was actually worried that the pictures are somewhat too big, but I'm not that much a wizard in front of the keyboard so the you go. While posting I was hoping one day it will help someone else to rewind his generator. So thanks again everyone for reading.

Outstanding work! I don't know many people who would even attempt this, let alone get it right first time. I have had a number of issues with stators, generally caused by overheating on my A1. Hope you used high temperature solder for the lead wire connection to the winding wire as I have some failures from these overheating. The larger diameter wire also helps as it reduces I squared R heating. Great pictures and great work.

Daro wrote: Bucko You did this 40 years ago on A1 ? Wow the generator must have been almost new. I'm surprise it actually broke.

I remember the bike was just out of Warranty - basically one riding season - and I was pissed they didn't 'goodwill' a new alternator. I bought the bike new in early 79 so the dead winding would have been in the spring/summer of 80

Same bike a few seasons later - I think it was probably 1984 or 85 - spun a main bearing and trashed the crank (and probably the cases). I ended up buying an almost new motor from a later model for about $500 and dropping it in.

The other thing about my 79 was that it burned oil like crazy. I thought it would stop once 'broken in' but the oil consumption problem didn't alleviate until I replaced the motor. Interesting that I recently did a 10,000Km trip on my 86 ZN and didn't burn a drop.

Bucko wrote:

Daro wrote: Bucko You did this 40 years ago on A1 ? Wow the generator must have been almost new. I'm surprise it actually broke.

I remember the bike was just out of Warranty - basically one riding season - and I was pissed they didn't 'goodwill' a new alternator. I bought the bike new in early 79 so the dead winding would have been in the spring/summer of 80

Same bike a few seasons later - I think it was probably 1984 or 85 - spun a main bearing and trashed the crank (and probably the cases). I ended up buying an almost new motor from a later model for about $500 and dropping it in.

The other thing about my 79 was that it burned oil like crazy. I thought it would stop once 'broken in' but the oil consumption problem didn't alleviate until I replaced the motor. Interesting that I recently did a 10,000Km trip on my 86 ZN and didn't burn a drop.

I had a an oil consumption problem with my 79's as well and found it resolved itself when I took the crank breather off the air box plugged the hole in the bottom of the air box and then ran a hose out the back of the tail piece (with inline gas filter in it) I figured I was so heavy on the throttle a lot of the time (loved the sound of my DG exhaust) that oil vapour was being drawn into the air box.

Hi Neville good point ! I only used normal solder S-Sn60Pb40 which has a melting point at 183 – 190°C. The copper wire used is a grade 2 type W210 (EN13601 Cu-ETP). This wire have a temperature class of 200°C max, so the numbers are close but you right, it would be definitely better to use solder with higher melting point. That's for future reference, for the next time. I'm wondering now what is the temperature of the oil in the engine when operating under load? Hmm than we could estimate what is the temperature margin that we have spare. Thanks for your input, that's great!