Swapped out the stator and regulator/rectifier on the Blackbird.
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-BIG DAN
Why?
What did you do to your bike today?
- Thread starter jackson409
- Start date
Why?
This is a long story...
Prior to purchasing the blackbird, I did a year of research and studied the quirks of the beast prior to buying in.
This 1137cc monster has 3 major issues that seem to creep on every single owner at some point.
1. Excessive heat from the FI models. Many guys wrap the titanium headers and run antifreeze alternatives. She just loves to be hot. Not boil-over, but fans on in traffic everytime without fail.
2. #1 above, wet stator, and an already maxed out electrical load analysis lead to the thermal breakdown of the charging components. Typical complete failure of the battery/stator/RR is reported before 50K miles.
3. CCT goes out typically every 20K-30K miles. I have a CCT/gasket on the shelf waiting for the rattle to show it's face.
She has 16K miles total...
I have replaced all lights with LEDS to lower the electrical load dramatically.
I have installed a voltmeter on the dash to watch my voltages, as it is the best troubleshooting method for charging faults. Especially the soft fault I have discovered.
First 5 miles of riding, she reads 14.2v
Then it drops to a range of 11.8-12.5v for the remainder of the journey. This is very close to the static voltage of the battery, so the stator is just maintaining voltage at operating temps.
Upon initial testing, the stator tested good while cold. After the voltmeter discovery, I realized thermal expansion is grounding a leg of the stator to the frame. so instead of 40ACV per leg, it's reads 40-40-6ACV.
Just swapping out both components at the same time, because the new RR has a much larger cooling fin bank than OEM.
-BIG DAN
This is a long story...
Prior to purchasing the blackbird, I did a year of research and studied the quirks of the beast prior to buying in.
This 1137cc monster has 3 major issues that seem to creep on every single owner at some point.
1. Excessive heat from the FI models. Many guys wrap the titanium headers and run antifreeze alternatives. She just loves to be hot. Not boil-over, but fans on in traffic everytime without fail.
2. #1 above, wet stator, and an already maxed out electrical load analysis lead to the thermal breakdown of the charging components. Typical complete failure of the battery/stator/RR is reported before 50K miles.
3. CCT goes out every typically every 20K-30K miles. I have a CCT/gasket on the shelf waiting for the rattle to show it's face.
She has 16K miles total...
I have replaced all lights with LEDS to lower the electrical load dramatically.
I have installed a voltmeter on the dash to watch my voltages, as it is the best troubleshooting method for charging faults. Especially the soft fault I have discovered.
First 5 miles of riding, she reads 14.2v
Then it drops to a range of 11.8-12.5v for the remainder of the journey. This is very close to the static voltage of the battery, so the stator is just maintaining voltage at operating temps.
Upon initial testing, the stator tested good while cold. After the voltmeter discovery, I realized thermal expansion is grounding a leg of the stator to the frame. so instead of 40ACV per leg, it's reads 40-40-6ACV.
Just swapping out both components at the same time, because the new RR has a much larger cooling fin bank than OEM.
-BIG DAN
Ok
Had the KDX on a milkcrate through the summer. Noticed she had tipped over, but I didn't think she had gone straight through the top of the milkcrate!-BIG DAN
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Huh, I'd have thought that tie down strap would have been more than enough to reinforce the crate from collapsing.
New top end?