muskallunge

XS650 Enthusiast
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HHB PMA on my '78 xs650. The flywheel was slightly touching the stator wires that I thought were tucked away from danger and caused a wire to get exposed. This caused my battery to not get full voltage making the bike very poorly. I pulled the flywheel and noticed some wear on the inside in a circular pattern. Then saw some wear on the copper coiling on the stator that faces out from the engine. Seated the stator mount properly when I installed just both the wiring apparently. Any thoughts on if this is irregular or concerning? If so, suggestions to fix the problem. I don't want to ruin this $$$ system. Thanks in advance.
 

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Very important that the stator and rotor are both seated properly when installed. Those are poor quality Chinese parts, made in factories with no quality control, and there has been reports of the rotor not mating fully with the taper on the crankshaft. I think there was rough machining on the taper in the rotor itself so it did not seat fully. Does the rotor use a woodruff key, and was the key fully seated in its slot?

Have you found the root problem and corrected it........................i.e. is the rubbing of the parts stopped? You could make some resistance measurements between the windings and the steel frame to see if the windings are grounded out to the frame. If the windings are not shorted out,
the bare spots could be covered with some type of insulating epoxy such as J-B Weld.

You would have been better off to have stayed with the high quality stock charging system IMHO.
 
It's not a OEM stator rotor assembly. It's a Hugh's Handbuilt Permanent Magneto Alternator system so that can run the bike kickstart only. It ran like a top until the wire from the stator was worn though by the flywheel.
 
Yes, your first post was very clear, that you have a HHB PMA, and my answer also reflects that.

I'll cut and paste my questions again:
"Does the rotor use a woodruff key, and was the key fully seated in its slot?
Have you found the root problem and corrected it........................i.e. is the rubbing of the parts stopped? You could make some resistance measurements between the windings and the steel frame to see if the windings are grounded out to the frame. If the windings are not shorted out,
the bare spots could be covered with some type of insulating epoxy such as J-B Weld."

Do you think you assembled the parts wrong or is there manufacturing machining problems that caused the rotor to rub on the stator windings?
 
There is no rotor, just a stator with a flywheel. No woodruff key because it's not needed. I believe now that I received a sloppily wrapped stator since my copper coils over lap unlike the nice and tidy stock photo from Hugh's website.
 
This looks to be Hughs problem...............Get in touch with him, it should be a warranty issue.

I would like to see a side on shot of the stater, just to see how far the damaged wires protrude out from it.
 
I'm just putting it out there as a possible theory. Could those be the early signs of bearing/crank wear at play? How much mileage was put on the PMA before this problem came up? You'd think that if the rotor did have a defect the problem would have arisen not long after assembly.

I've seen that "no woodruff" key statement a couple of time now for the HHB units. Personally I'd be uncomfortable without that.

Highly suggest you reach out to Hugh muskallunge to make him aware of the quality concern & for any solutions/swaps he could offer. He was awesome in the couple of screw up I did.
 
Total idiot here. I bought this shit so long ago based on suggestions/emailed links and realize now that it is a Banshee swap out using non HHB stator and flywheel, just the stator bracket/backing plate and hardware. Saw the thread on this page where you have to keep the woodruff key unlike HHB's kit install. So it must be the fact that there's no woodruff. I figured Hugh wouldn't have fucked it up, that dude is quality. Rookie shit on my end, it being my first chop. So if I pop a new woodruff key in to spec, hopefully the wear on the stator will disappear. With some exposed copper on the stator wiring, does that make it toast?
 
There is no rotor, just a stator with a flywheel. No woodruff key because it's not needed. I believe now that I received a sloppily wrapped stator since my copper coils over lap unlike the nice and tidy stock photo from Hugh's website.
Its not a flywheel, its called a rotor. Look up the definition of a flywheel. Alternator rotors are designed to be as light as possible, while flywheels are designed to be quite heavy to give rotational stability.

I now agree with 2M in post #2. When I enlarged your pictures, I see that the damaged windings have been cut about 1/2 way or more, through the diameter of the wire. That is not going to disappear. Looks like its on 2 or 3 phases. If the stator was rated at 16 amps, its probably only good for 8 amps now .
Have you measured resistance??
So, its not the exposed copper that makes it toast. Its the fact that the copper windings will only carry about 1/2 or less of the rated current. Also the engine vibration would likely cause the weakened copper wire to break sooner than later.
 
Auto electric shop could bridge it with something if needed, or pull the two ends together and solder them.
 
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