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Alternator Dead and Gone

61249

Milo172
This is a long and sad story that began on a pleasant ride in September.
My Bike: 2014 R1200RT purchased new with 55,000 miles currently on the ODO.
Additional electrical components: Clearwater Darla lights
Symptom of problem: no physical warning, just two lit icon in the dash; a yellow triangle with a ! in it, and a half yellow battery image
this translates to "Onboard system voltage critical"

Thankfully, the RT got me home before dying completely. I then started a diagnostic search for the problem, first replacing the battery with a new one hoping the current battery had a dead cell... the problem remained. Next I started to look for the 50 amp fuse that protects the charging system. A friend of mine had given me a spare 50 amp fuse saying I may need it one day; alas after spending hours searching for the 50 amp fuse, during which I removed almost all of the body panels, I discovered through various sources that there is no fuse in the early 2014 RT's... why? I have no idea.

Further investigation pointed to a dead short in the stator and this proved to be the case. the only solution is to replace the entire alternator, which resides inside of the engine.

I can tell you... it is very expensive. Just the parts are over $1000.00

So, am I the only one that has experienced this alternator failure? Have other RT's suffered this problem?

The situation is much more involved than I have stated here, but that is another story.
 
Second one I read about this week. Was it you OldCamper saying you did for friend? Crazy amount of labor if it requires cracking the engine case. Sorry bud!

Knew the F-twins had early model issues, hadn’t heard of any failures around here on Wetheads
 
There were a few threads last year on dead alternators on early wetheads, here and on the bmwlt forum. I believe the stator was upgraded sometimes in the spring of 2014. So you won't find many with that issue.
One of them was due to a loose bolt that shorted the stator.
Also one tried an aftermarket stator that turned out not to work so I would stay away from cheap ones. You could have yours rebuilt but then you would still have the old model.
 
Second one I read about this week. Was it you OldCamper saying you did for friend? Crazy amount of labor if it requires cracking the engine case. Sorry bud!

Knew the F-twins had early model issues, hadn’t heard of any failures around here on Wetheads

From the GSA life expectancy thread-

Check the build date. If it is before may 2014, it has the early stator that has had a higher than normal failure rate. I changed one last summer on 2014 RT. $250 for an aftermarket part and 18 hours to replace since you have to remove the motor and trans to split them.

https://forums.bmwmoa.org/showthread.php?99305-Life-expectancy-on-a-GSA
OM
 
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