stevenrankin
Active member
After a bad accident with my 78 R100RS, it sat in boxes for a few years. I was riding my 84 R80RT most of the time anyway.
So, I finally had the RS rebuilt in time to get to the RS rally. When I had it rebuilt, I added heated hand grips, I have them on the R80 from the factory and like them.
So now, the RS is on the road but I am riding the RT 90% of the time. I hit 200K with the RT this past summer and decided hey, time to put miles on the RS.
I am riding one sunny but cold day and the generator/charge light comes on. As it was, it was closer to go to my friend's airhead shop than it was to get home on the battery.
Once at the shop we start troubleshooting and discover the stator winding solder joints and insulation on them had melted/burned off.
Moral of the story; With an old charging system, don't overstrain it with additional stuff. Granted, heated grips should have worked fine with the stock system and in fact a solder joint may have been bad and I never caught it before. Still, all three solder connections were melted.
Crazy eh? The past few rides with the RS saw me using the heated grips a lot whereas I had only tested them when first installed for a few minutes to see if they worked.
So, could there be another cause? We are looking over everything and I am upgrading to an Omega system so I can use my electric jacket pants and grips. Cheers all St.
So, I finally had the RS rebuilt in time to get to the RS rally. When I had it rebuilt, I added heated hand grips, I have them on the R80 from the factory and like them.
So now, the RS is on the road but I am riding the RT 90% of the time. I hit 200K with the RT this past summer and decided hey, time to put miles on the RS.
I am riding one sunny but cold day and the generator/charge light comes on. As it was, it was closer to go to my friend's airhead shop than it was to get home on the battery.
Once at the shop we start troubleshooting and discover the stator winding solder joints and insulation on them had melted/burned off.
Moral of the story; With an old charging system, don't overstrain it with additional stuff. Granted, heated grips should have worked fine with the stock system and in fact a solder joint may have been bad and I never caught it before. Still, all three solder connections were melted.
Crazy eh? The past few rides with the RS saw me using the heated grips a lot whereas I had only tested them when first installed for a few minutes to see if they worked.
So, could there be another cause? We are looking over everything and I am upgrading to an Omega system so I can use my electric jacket pants and grips. Cheers all St.