One last question, haha... A bad stator will not generate enough voltage to keep the battery chargered, right? So if I monitor just the battery, and I notice that it drops from 12.74v (the last reading I took) to lets say 11v, then I know the stator is bad?

Thanks Everyone!

 

Honestly, the best way to test a stator is by measuring the resisistance across the leads, and making sure none of them are grounded. If the resisistance is ok, and none are grounded.... the stator is working, it can't not work if the test is ok.

The problem with measuring at the battery is your trusting that everything else in the system is ok. There are far too many things that could cause a problem. Its easier, and better to test only the stator, and not the try to test it through the entire system. You have plug conectors, wires, terminals, the rectifier..... anything that is drawing power with the bike running, could cause an issue. If you test the stator with nothing running and it not connected to anything, you know if the stator itself is bad or not.

Its true that if your not charging, the most common thing would be the stator being bad. However, most common, does not mean that is what is going on. That mearly means the stator is the first thing to be checked before moving onto other possible causes.

But, for your question on monitoring. That really isn't that telling either. If your rectifier goes bad, it could easliy overcharge, short out a cell, or do any number of things to your battery, and give you low readings. I guess what I mean is, if your battery is at 11v for some odd reason, it doesn't mean the stator is bad. It could mean the rectifier failed and damaged the battery. About the best thing you can do if your going to check the sytem often, is to measure the voltage at the battery with the bike running. That is the first step in checking the charging system for proper operation, and should be telling enough to see if everything is ok. If something is failing.... you'll have to do an entire diagnosis again to make sure whats wrong.

 

Cool, thanks for the explanation. I checked the resistance at the stator lead and it's within the specs of my Clymer manual (0.2-1.0 ohms). The actual reading was 0.4 ohms.

 

"The next biggest issue on the bike was the voltage regulator/rectifier. Many owners we spoke to reported having failures until they upgraded the unit completely instead of replacing it with another stock part. The stocker is known to overheat and die in as little as a few days and the result was a dead battery. If you are looking at a used F2 or F3, it can easily be checked with a voltmeter by simply testing the battery voltage at idle and again at 5000 rpm in neutral. If the voltage is not at or near 14.5V at 5000 rpm, the regulator is likely dead. Industrious owners however discovered that they could fit a GSXR1000 or a Yamaha R1 rectifier in its place. See www.cbrforum.com for more details. These can be scored off EBay and save you a lot of cash too."

This is from sportrider magazine review on the f2/f3.