Another alternator hits the dust and not under warranty

[WayneC1]

Again Joel I agree with you

The dealer and BMW should be the first port of call for any owner who has suffered a failure, not giving the manufacturer the chance to put something right & understand the grievance is poor form to say the least

As for dealers, same here in Oz, I was extremely loyal to an Oz dealership as they did the right thing by me for over 20 years & I recommended them to all and sundry. Sadly no more, the business was sold and the service degenerated.

In the case of the F650GS axle lug failures, BMW staff lied to myself and others round the world, The UK Service Manager put in writing to UK owners that I had overloaded the machine and knowingly rode a defective machine (after owning it for 24 hours)

That experience made me realise that making BMW and the dealer know of the problem had to be backed up by a report to the relevant safety/defect body.

On the US recall situation, I bow to your knowledge but quite often these things are agreed between the regulator & manufacturer & the manufacturer puts out a voluntary recall/Campaign for rectification so it is not recorded as a forced recall.

Also good to hear on your new job, hope it goes well for you, my hat is off to you on the the assistance you have given the guys here with the stator problems

[JRWooden]

Originally Posted by MonsterJ

I found the superceeded stator assembly at San Fran BWM and pulled the trigger on it. I ride my bike every day and I can't wait for the new item to show up on our shores. Hopefully this one will last another 50K miles. I'm going to install one of the LED voltage monitors to keep an eye on it. It was a pretty straight forward swap. I think I knocked it out under two hours.

Here's a side by side comparo with the new part and the old, fried one.

Crispy bits were all inside cover. I'll be doing an oil change tomorrow.

Most of the epoxy coating got hot enough to melt away.

I'm hoping we can eventually find a vendor that can do rewinds that meet the spec of our bikes. It would be nice to have one for a spare since I've had both of my GSs stators fail and they've been replaced with superceeded parts.

MonsterJ:

Sorry, another question did you get the new flywheel design as shown in post 399 ?

[Olvi]

OK. BMW has taken actions to cooling issue. I'm still wondering, does stator have too much epoxy (or whatever is the material) they put to hold winding in place. Does it need those extra couple millimeters? I have seen few other stators and they haven't had that "extra" layer that this stator has. There has been just enough to bind winding together and keep them immobilized.

What I'm going after is that can this "extra" layer act like a thermal insulation? Heat can't escape properly and/or oil can't cool the windings enough and the winding insulation melts?

[Indy Unlimited]

I think we need the epoxy coating to keep the wires from vibrating and thus breaking at the bends.
Many manufactures make thermally conductive but electrically insulative epoxies that are rated to 500F for potting and dipping.
The aftermarket stators get away without the epoxy but fail a lot sooner than the stock unit. Most people epoxy coat the aftermarket stators for long term reliability.
It is difficult to evaluate the reason for stator failure but most are due to the copper wire breaking and raising the resistance to the point of frying. I would not put a stator in there without the binding force of an epoxy resin.

[ebrabaek]

Originally Posted by Indy Unlimited

I think we need the epoxy coating to keep the wires from vibrating and thus breaking at the bends.
Many manufactures make thermally conductive but electrically insulative epoxies that are rated to 500F for potting and dipping.
The aftermarket stators get away without the epoxy but fail a lot sooner than the stock unit. Most people epoxy coat the aftermarket stators for long term reliability.
It is difficult to evaluate the reason for stator failure but most are due to the copper wire breaking and raising the resistance to the point of frying. I would not put a stator in there without the binding force of an epoxy resin.

I have some potting epoxy good for 500-600 deg. F.... I'm not sure as of how to go about the dipping though.....

Erling

[theborv]

What does it mean to rewind the alternator? Sorry to ask a noob question

[JRWooden]

Originally Posted by theborv

What does it mean to rewind the alternator? Sorry to ask a noob question

The stationary stator is the part that gets rewound.
If you look at some of the pictures: http://www.electrosport.com/products/stators/
You see that wire is wound around the laminated steel core.
There are permanent magnets in the flywheel and as it spins around the stationary stator the magnetic flux induces the current in the stator wire/windings. When the stator burns up it is the wire windings that are destroyed.
By working carefully you can remove the dead windings and "rewind" with new wire.
Make sense?

[JRWooden]

Originally Posted by ebrabaek

I have some potting epoxy good for 500-600 deg. F.... I'm not sure as of how to go about the dipping though.....

Erling

At one point in my career I worked at a place that made small industrial transformers.
After being wound the transformer cores were submerged in a tank of some sort of epoxy resin which was then placed in a vacuum chamber and theey pulled a vacuum on it ... this made sure the epoxy resin saturated all of the windings leaving no air voids (much better than dipping ... and much more expensive as a mfg. process).
After the transformer was "saturated" with epoxy they were hung on a moving chain so that the excess could drip off and then the epoxy cured in an oven. Good stuff but ... not real cheap....

[theborv]

Originally Posted by JRWooden

By working carefully you can remove the dead windings and "rewind" with new wire.
Make sense?

Yes, perfectly, thanks! :)

[ebrabaek]

Originally Posted by JRWooden

At one point in my career I worked at a place that made small industrial transformers.
After being wound the transformer cores were submerged in a tank of some sort of epoxy resin which was then placed in a vacuum chamber and theey pulled a vacuum on it ... this made sure the epoxy resin saturated all of the windings leaving no air voids (much better than dipping ... and much more expensive as a mfg. process).
After the transformer was "saturated" with epoxy they were hung on a moving chain so that the excess could drip off and then the epoxy cured in an oven. Good stuff but ... not real cheap....

Ahhhh... I see.... Well I can do that.....except for the vacuum..... Ohhhhh well......

Erling

[MonsterJ]

Originally Posted by JRWooden

MonsterJ:

Sorry, another question did you get the new flywheel design as shown in post 399 ?

Nope. The new stuff wasn't available and I couldn't wait. Nothing like a $800 temp fix.

[JRWooden]

Originally Posted by MonsterJ

Nope. The new stuff wasn't available and I couldn't wait. Nothing like a $800 temp fix.

Yours needs to burn out within (what I believe) is the 2-year warranty period ... then you can get the good stuff....
Pack on the miles....

[JRWooden]

Originally Posted by JoelWisman

... That said, the data is word of mouth, though pretty direct. Call the NHTSA and see if they can provide you with a list of involuntary non-cooperative recalls they have forced on BMW Motorrad. Although civil servants forget the serve and civil parts now and then, we pay for them.....

I got to a human being quickly, and the guy I talked to was very nice ... he was unable to answer the above question.
If anyone else would like to give it a go with whoever answers the phone at the time, the number is: (888) 327-4236

[hardbern]

Please!
Everybody who has experienced this failure needs to log a complaint with the NHTSA as has been suggested here by wiser people (thank you by the way!).
https://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/Vehicl...nt/index.xhtml

don't wait, do it now. They cannot rely on forum complaints to initiate investigations.
and if you have stalled while in traffic because your battery was completely drained and your alternator toasted, SAY SO!

please.

[JRWooden]

Nobody ever found a source for the wiring harness plugs did they?

I'd like to make a "detuning" adapter for my stator but not have to cut up the harness to do it,
so a male/female pair of the 3-wire plug coming out of the stator would be really nice to have ..........