Electrickery and the Versys Stator

A couple of weeks ago I was returning to Prince Edward Island from a trip to Ontario to visit family, friends and attend Round 5 of the Canadian Super Bike races CSBK, when my charging system died and left me stranded on the roadside just outside of Quebec City on QC Route 138, the South Shore.

 I have to admit it's my own darned fault as I have a volt charge level indicator that I installed on the V back when I first bought it in 2013, and it was giving me warning signs earlier this season, but the bike was still running well, and it wasn't until that morning when it told me that I was "breaking even" on charge, then later on, "discharging" as opposed to the "charging" that I was used to. I'd become complacent as to the reliability of this bike, for it's not failed on me for the fives years and 70,000km that I've owned it.

Anyhow, I couldn't get a stator shipped to Quebec City in time to make it worth my while remaining there while it was serviced at the dealership, so I towed it back to the Island and stuck it away in the garage, and ordered an aftermarket stator from FortNine.ca as well as a couple of new Shinko 705 tires as they were pretty much toast at 10k.

Dead at 83,000km and 9 years of service

First I dropped the oil, then tried to remove the side case. Tried. There is a magnet in there that really had a good grip on that stator, so I needed a extra bit of mechanical leverage to break the grip of the old gasket material and that magnet.

Starter driven gears add to the complexity

Right. I now had an easy task of removing the old stator and installing the aftermarket RM Stator, being very careful to route the wires so the counter weight rotor and magnet would never come near the wiring as it spins in very close proximity to the harness.

$200 compared to OEM $500

Rick's Motorsport stators come well reviewed, and I had a friend or two that suggested I'd never need to worry about the stator again once installed.

Once again, I'll stress that routing the wiring properly is the single most important thing you can do.

This is where you need to be careful and install the cable under the retention plate

I've learned that nine dollars worth of dielectric grease goes a long way, and I never separate a connector without using a dab or two to waterproof them.

dielectric grease for the win!

I used a razor blade scraper to carefully remove old gasket material and sealant to create a good mating surface for the new OEM Kawasaki gasket that I had in hand, all $12.56 worth of oil retaining goodness.

I back scraped with this, as scraping forward might shave off case aluminium 

This created a bunch of debris that wants to fall onto the counter weight, and into the new stator, so have a rag or two handy to cover and clean the parts.

Out with the old and in with the new

Time to grab that gasket and see if I can get it back together again...

$12.56 OEM side cover gasket, metallic

Bugger was that side cover hard to get back on! First the gasket is metallic and would stick to the giant magnet pulling it out of shape and into the case itself.

Second, those gear teeth would NOT line up, especially as the magnet would grab hold of the stator and pull strongly from the bottom so I had enormous difficulty putting the case on perfectly vertically.

Third, those gear teeth refused to line up with the starter shaft and locating holes, and the gear pins didn't like locating into the side cover again.

A little high temp silicone for the rubber wiring harness, just in case

And that flipping gasket! No sooner would you get the cover almost on when it would slip out of alignment and stick against the giant magnet again!

I think I had the old cover and stator off and the new one installed in the case in under an hour, but getting perfect alignment of the side cover and gasket to get it to mate seemed to take two hours! Done! It finally mated correctly after I got pissed at the gasket and dabbed a bit of silicone on so it would tack onto the block and stay put for two seconds!

Now to fill it with oil and see where my charge levels were with the new stator.

It's ALIVE

And it's better than it was before. Indicating discharge at under 2000 rpm, break even between 3000 and 2000 rpm, and green glorious green when at around 3000 rpm!

Discharge at idle is normal

You are looking at the voltage indicator installed on the right "dash" panel, the red light indicates discharge at 1350 rpm.

Lift off! We have Lift Off!!!

I revved it up to over three grand, and the indicator shows charging! Coming off the throttle shows continuing to charge even at 2500 rpm.

Fantastic, and just in time for the long weekend!

UPDATE: 2019-08-09

Almost a year and 10,000 kilometres later, the RM Stator is still doing it's job and I'm a happy camper. No complaints.

UPDATE: 2020-08-14

I ran an extension from my battery tender cord up into my tank bag so that I could either charge a power bank or cell phone in the tank bag while touring, or I would be able to plug my heated gear into a "high" connection, and not have to sit on that infernal coiled cord. It was okay for short trips, but would really bother my inner thigh if I put some miles on, plus I'd inadvertently smack the switch off at times. Moving it higher up and routing it through the fairing was the perfect solution. 

BUT, I messed up the stator connector from the RM stator (white female end) to the bike's regulator/rectifier side (black male). At first the symptom was dead easy to sort out. The bike stopped charging and almost left me and my girlfriend with a dead bike in a parking lot five minutes from home! My troubleshooting fixed that problem by repairing the female portion of the connector, or so I thought. 

Pictured below is the connector as it appeared in May after I'd messed up and knocked it about while running that extension. You can clearly see the arcing on the one connector. I thought I had it sorted out and the bike was charging again. 

Arcing on the one spade connector

 At rest with a freshly charged battery, I was getting 12.35 VDC at the battery tender cable.

Once I'd sorted out that connector by slipping in the blade of my pocket knife and squeezing it closed a bit, the bike was charging again! Sweet! Done like dinner.

Fast forward to August when my headlights stopped working. First the low beam, the bulb had blown, and I sorted that the old fashioned way with a trip to Canadian Tire and $18 dollars. Then both low-beam and high-beam failed on me, and while reading a thread on kawasakiversys.com I found that checking the stator lead would be a good start, and low and behold I found the arcing was more severe, and that when I'd squeezed the connector back together in May, it had made contact, but had pushed the female terminal out of the white shell. It was a poor high resistance connection that was "Makin' and a Breakin'" all night long.. Darn it!

I really need to replace the lower connection completely but I settled for ensuring a good solid connection on all three of the terminal leads, and at this time, everything is running the way it ought to. My girlfriend Caroline is going to fetch along some of her butt and spade connectors in her tools just in case she needs to fix my broken bike. :)

2018 Following the Unicorn on the Sunrise Trail

My Versys lives again! Risen from the dead after two weeks of purgatory, I had to get some two wheel therapy in, and Mikayla's post in Red Isle Riders was just the prescription I needed! I'd rushed to get it ready in time for Labour Day weekend!

Anyone interested in joining me and Lorne on the sunrise trail tmrw??

 Leaving montague at 10 am and taking the 6 oclock ferry home!!

The Unicorn will see us safely home

Borden-Carleton PE to Wood Islands Ferry to Charlottetown PE - 282 km

The Sunrise Trail - Bridge to Ferry or There and Back Again

 Ooh!!! Pick me! Pick me!
Thankfully I woke up in time to post up and get included, but I was groggy and confused the poor girl with when and where we would meet up. I thought they were going to meet me at the Borden-Carleton Esso for 11:30ish, but she thought I meant the Grafton St. Timmies for 11:30, and while I was minutes from B-C, she and Lorne were drinking their coffee at Grafton wondering WTF I was...

Leaking gasoline from an overfilled fuel tank onto the parking lot, dontcha know, wondering WTF they were... And no chance of a coffee for me, for it is the great Exodus on the island, where all our summer time guests flee before the advent of the dreaded "End of Season" and "Back to School". A flurry of text messages later and we had that sorted and they flogged their bikes down the Transcanada to meet up with me at 1230ish. (Before you ask, to "Flog" ones bike is to beat it with a crop and rowel it with spurs in order to obtain greater speed)

Bad news: Leaking gasoline (Operator error)
Good news: Not leaking a drop of oil 

Lorne asked me to show them the fun way to get to Port Elgin, but he knew the best place for Bridge pictures, so we stopped under the bridge to get a few great shots.

Am I in this shot? Yep, you is. 

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers... and sisters. (And Unicorns)

Confederation Bridge

I took the lead, and we ran across 16 to the second exit onto NB 955 that would take us through Murray Corner NB, and if we had kept on, out to 15 and into Moncton, but I knew we could take a back road back over to 16 near Port Elgin, so we had a great little ride while avoiding that conga line of tourists and transport trucks fleeing the island.

I admit, I was a bit worried that the road I chose to cut back over to Port Elgin turned to gravel at some point, so I skipped Blacklock Road and made the mistake of taking them down Davis Road. Blacklock would have put us back out onto 16 just before Port Elgin, whereas Davis Road had been tar and chip sealed, and with the light traffic it got, there was a lot of loose limestone right through the intersection, and poor Mikayla had to practice her loose surface motocross skills. I think she white knuckled the whole four kilometer stretch back out onto 15 where we had to turn back and head back towards the roundabout and in through Port Elgin. If you guys had only mounted some more aggressive tires we could have cut cross country. TKC80s anyone?

Resting for a spell at Baie Verte NB

Baie Verte NB

I pulled in here cause I figured Lorne would have a good nic fit on by this time, and when I told Mikayla it was "Smoke Break time, here is yours" she flatly told me "I don't smoke". "But you do eat chocolate? Eat the red ones last." and handed her a pack of Smarties. "I like you, you can ride with me more often." :D

Lorne went off to chat up some riders from Halifax bound for PEI for an overnight. He breaks the ice, and they wandered over to admire Mikayla's helmet horns. Turns out the male rider of the two had previously owned a 2009 Versys as well, and tried to convince his female friend that this could be her next bike. I sheepishly admit I tried to sway her too, not that I am in the least bit biased.

Someone started to gear up, and I thought it might be nice to keep the group together so, I got my stuff on too, and took the lead again until we hit Pugwash where I stopped once again and offered up the excuse that I thought they would like another break. Mikayla looks at me like I have two heads, and pipes up with "I'm good." forcing me to tell her the real reason why I pulled over, the gated entrance to the salt mine was chained closed, and I could use this gravel parking lot to get onto the access road for pictures of the salt docks, of the Windsor NS Salt Mine. Lorne was happy, he's a self professed "Train nerd" and wanted to check out the historic train station on the other side of the lot, so I got to take my pictures and hand off the "Leader of the Pack" BS to someone else. :)

Hills of salt in Pugwash NS

Windsor Salt Mine - Pugwash NS

Pugwash Rail Station

Lorne, our tour guide, told us a bit of the history of the station, and the industries around it, and finding out that he was a history buff as well as a train nerd made him good friend material right on the spot as I love history, and if you follow my blog, you will see evidence of my passion on almost every ride I do.

I gotta tell you that while I was leading, the Unicorn was setting the pace, hanging back just a bit, so I thought I was going a tad fast for him, and settled for a wee bit less than my usual warp factor 7, but once the Unicorn got in the lead, suddenly Warp factor 7 was not good enough and I had to wick it up to Warp factor 9 if I didn't want to get left behind!

The Unicorn was getting hungry and suggested that we stop in Tatamagouche NS at Big Al's. It was a great idea, and all three of us ordered a coffee before perusing the menu. Once Lorne mentioned the hot hamburger sandwich as interesting, and I found that it came with grilled onions, I was sold.

We left the Unicorn waiting for his feed while Lorne and I went out for a smoke and a bit of bromance as we chatted about Tottenham ON and Newmarket ON, until Mikayla interrupted us with a text that our food had arrived. Awesome! Damn Lorne and his "They have cake in that fridge over there!"
"Is there any lemon cake in it?" I asked.
"I never made it past the chocolate cake", was his retort.
Mikayla read off the dessert menu "Lemon mousse cake". Darn them! One chocolate cake for Lorne, one carrot cake for Mikayla and the Unicorn, and one Lemon mousse for me!. Mmmm!

Just when I was getting ready for my afternoon nap, Mikayla and Lorne dragged me off to see the Tatamagouche Train Station Inn, which was probably a good thing as I certainly needed to work off that lunch and cake.

The Train Station Inn, Tatamagouche NS

While I was clearance sale shopping in the gift shop, the three of them abandoned me and disappeared without a trace, so I tossed my new purchase into my top box, geared up and rode the Versys around looking for them, to find that in Nova Scotia, you are encouraged to ride your ATV or motorcycle responsibly while sharing the old rail bed with others. Great idea says I, and with my brand new Shinko 705s, I decided a quick tour on the "Discovery Trail" and was pleased to find it well signed and regulated for the safety of all.

Stop ahead!

Hey! There they are! Trying to break into that old dining car and make off with the silver spoons! That Unicorn is a bad influence! I called them on it at once, but that shifty Lorne says "You have it all wrong, it's the recreation of that classic scene from the movie Titanic!"

I'm Flying!!!

Sorry Lorne, Rose is much better looking.

Once the Unicorn was back in the saddle, we made good time to Pictou NS, but one of us, not naming any names, needed a Timmie's, cause that chocolate cake he'd put away was making Lorne sleepy, so after buying a round of coffee, we sat in the parking lot and made conversation about what makes the world go round, bikes of course.

Time for the ferry, and not trusting the Unicorn's capricious sense of direction, Lorne lead the way out to the ferry, as he has a personal connection with over and above that of a passenger, as he likes to think of himself as a marine mechanic, and has worked on the "Holiday Island" a few times, but I told him that if he really was any good, he ought to have been able to get it right the first time. Not to worry, it's only bruising and I'll heal up quickly no doubt.

I caught Mikayla clearly in violation of the rules and was going to report her to the captain and have her keel hauled or strung up at the gratings by her thumbs for a flogging, when she explained that the Unicorn made her do it. "Well, that explains it, let's go!"

Have you thought of getting an intervention for the Unicorn? It's never too late.

Lorne wanted to show us his babies, and I'm glad he did, as I really enjoyed our brief tour of the engine and generator room. He insisted we don some safety gear before entering, and I'm very glad he did, as the noise at IDLE was loud! He said once underway it would be even worse, and we'd have to leave shortly.

How come I can't hear anything with these ear plugs in?

For the last time, it's not going to fit in your frame, Mikayla!

Yes, the wheelies would be epic, but I think this would REALLY lower your new bike... 

Work it, girl! Let's see some attitude! You're piqued! Give us the duck face, now happy face!

The addicts stampeded past Mikayla and raced out to the ever shrinking smoking area for a puff, and Lorne got to have a play date with the Unicorn.

Faster, Lorne, faster!

Hank the Unicorn and fiends... friends.

Do NOT cross the yellow line with that in your hand Mister!!!

How do you make this day perfect? You head on up to the deck and find that it's turned into a dog park for the ferry ride! I was in heaven meeting and greeting puppies of all sorts and breeds, and I think Mikayla made a friend. The collie even rolled over for belly rubs. :)

Just a bit to the right, Ahhh! Now lower.. That's it. Mmmmm.

This guy walked up with his unleashed Border Collie bitch, and I was reminded of the bond Suzi and I had when walking off leash together. Suzi figured I was well behaved and didn't need to be on the leash as long as she was there to supervise me. It looked the same way here, and I envied them their bond, as I miss my dear Suzi so much.

Where is that?

"Where is that, Lorne?"

"That is Prince Edward Island, my dear."

The Unicorn is all ready to go!

It was time to leave the ferry, and to go our seperate ways as they headed East, and my path took me West, and back to Charlottetown where I had to duck into the Timmies to see if any of the gang were hanging out tonight. Nope, but I did have a nice cuppa and a chat with my Dad when I told him that I'd met a gentleman on the ferry that grew up in the same small town as my old man, Hampton NB. Luv ya Dad, and can't wait to see you when you visit Wendy-Sue and I this September.

Toujours Frais

Thus ended an awesome ride. History, motorcycles, dogs, Unicorns and food. Did I mention dogs?

Suzi Bandit
2009 to 2016
Four off the floor in pursuit of the ball