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Stator ohm Test

18K views 22 replies 3 participants last post by  Sprotsman 
#1 · (Edited)
What is correct reading for Sportsman 570 Stator test?
 
#3 ·
Looks good to me. The #'s might be higher then the book calls for but they're consistent. Plus there a +/-15% variance couple that with the accuracy of your meter. Like I said looks good to me. For shits and giggles test the 3 stator wires to ground and do the voltage test. This way you can be absolutely sure.

Why are you testing the stator??
 
#4 ·
So recently Rick(RicksMotorSport Electrics) and I swapped in a new VR they just released for 450/570. This bike the 450 had the VR cook earlier. While installing we noticed stator plug had melted a bit, so Rick put a new plug on. Everything seems fine but I just wanted to test stator. So yeah +/- for .2 ohms is .17-.23 +/-. I got .4. That does not account for multimeter leads and or cheap meter, so I guess that’s why I’m getting .4 ohms. Had never done this test and just wanted confirmation I did correctly. And I did check stator to ground all was good. Given that bp, should I bother with a dynamic test?
 
#5 ·
Yeah definitely. Seeing that there was some plug melting it's possible that voltage is higher then it should be coming from the stator. So yeah do it just to be sure. There is a good amount of play thiughthough +/-25%. My money is on its all good but seeing you already had some issues go ahead and verify its all good in the neighborhood!!
 
#6 ·
The plug usually melts due more to a poor connection between the terminals than anything else - fill the connector with dielectric grease to exclude water and oxygen to promote an electrically solid connection and reduce the probability of the connectors corroding and causing a 'hot' connection. But, a failing reg/rec can cause a high current draw lead to melting. Keep in mind, the higher the AC voltage the lower the amperage on the wires - the lower the amperage the lower the wattage (heat).
 
#7 ·
Ok I did dynamic test and looked good. So for the hell of it while there I also did static test on the other bike. Got .0 on all three. WTF-so I went back to first bike and now getting.0 on that one too(earlier getting .4). So I started to think maybe multimeter was junk, it was one of those freebies at Harbor Freight. Went and bought another @ Advanced Auto Parts. “Seems” much better quality. Re-tested both and both still .0 ohms. Stator to ground still good on both. Question-Is .0 still good.
 
#8 ·
sounds like the meter isn't reading properly. are you on the right setting? sometimes these meters have different settings for the particular range you are testing in.
 
#10 ·
ok so for ohms there is only the one setting on that meter. what bothers me is the "M" in front of the ohm symbol. that stands for mega ohms which is a million. so its like the meter is reading wrong in auto mode.
 
#11 ·
ok so I looked at some of my meters. they either had different settings or were auto. the auto one had a button to scroll through the ranges in the ohms setting. so again it looks like the meter is in the wrong ohms range so maybe there is a button or another way to scroll to a lower range. check the manual.
 
#13 ·
idk got me scratching my head. only thing I can think off the top of my head is if tomorrow when you re-test and if you get 0 ohms swap the leads. idk maybe its a directional deal. shouldn't be but that's all I got at this point.
 
#15 ·
huh very strange!!!
 
#16 ·
Retested again today and got same results as yesterday- .0 ohms on stator doing static test. I guess I’ll never know why I got .4 yesterday and then 1/2 later getting .0 ohms. Spoke with Rick at RMSE and he said that reading is fine as long as Stator leg to ground is OL and dynamic test is correct. Both bikes good! Thanks again bp.
 
#18 ·
Ok good to know and good news!! When I put die-electric grease in a connector I put a pencil eraser sized glob on each terminal or two terminals. That way when you connect the two all is coated well.
 
#20 ·
Just looked into this a little more and it’s a bit of an online sh*t storm. Your probably right in your application of grease, seems as though more were more inline with you. The thing is, I had applied it the way you described,but had come across that video and it got me wondering. Back to globs of grease I guess.
 
#21 ·
Ok so there is truth in the video. And what are we doing??? I mean we are putting on a non conductive substance on parts that need to conduct!!! So in a perfect world we like be mad to apply die-electric grease. Now the vid is dealing with road driven automobiles. We on the other hand are driving off-road vehicles through harsh conditions. So although there is a down side to the application the up side out weighs it. My application description a couple posts ago is pretty spot on. But basically my goal is to fill the connector voids with out applying so much grease it overfills the connectors. So it's a two fold deal, one preventing oxidation/corrosion and two preventing contamination.
 
#22 · (Edited)
I hate to butt in, but............

You tube is a good source of some very helpful information, butt....... Not everyone capable of making a video knows what they are talking about. You tube is a good source of mis-information too.

I have found videos that are so off base that I have asked for investigation of the vid and if proven incorrect to be removed. I can't say definitively that I have been responsible for the removal of certain videos, but most I have queried have been removed for inaccurate or misleading information.

The guy in the video is correct that dielectric grease is an insulator, but ask the same guy about water and he will probably tell you water is a conductor of electricity. What is water? Hydrogen and oxygen and neither one conducts electricity. I know of no combination of two non conductors mixed together resulting in a conductive substance, but contaminate any insulator with a conductive substance and the insulator now becomes a conductor. How good of a conductor is determined by contaminant.

Carbon is a conductor, not a good conductor, but mixed with some other materials and it becomes a very good conductor. Carbon resistor spark plug wires do not contain wire. They use Aramid fiber to resist stretching impregnated with carbon dust to conduct the spark from the coil to the spark plug. The carbon (which is not pure carbon) provides an electrically conductive conduit that somewhat resisted current flow causing the spark to delay and intensify. Because the spark was delayed, the voltage necessary to ionize the path of current flow was increased providing a stronger more intense spark.

Now the meter you have is cheap - I looked on line and could not find the meter's sensitivity or margin of error. I have 3 meters, a Micronta general purpose digital beater for the tool box, an OTC range selectable digital and a $600 Simpson lab grade analog meter. When I need an accurate indication, I turn to the Simpson. For stators, either of the digital's is adequate. I am not looking for the ohms of the windings - I am only concerned about continuity and opens - if each winding is continuous and not shorted to ground, it's generally fine, but I test both open circuit and closed circuit. Shorts between the windings are mostly undetectable with an ohmmeter, but hi pot the winding (high potential)(a fancy term for high voltage) and a short will reveal itself. Check the AC output of the winding when not connected to the rec/reg - normally about 50-90 volts - then check the AC voltage when connected to the rec/reg - voltage will generally be above 30 AC at 2500 RPM - if one pole is substantially less than the other two poles (say A-B = 25, A-C = 30 and B-C = 15) then one pole is shorted winding to winding internally and needs to be replaced. Open circuit will show only the potential, closed circuit shows the available potential. It's like a bad battery - shows 12 volts just sitting there, put a load on it (starter motor) and the voltage drops to 1 or 2 volts trying to run the motor - take the load off and the voltage slowly returns to 12 volts. Put it on a charger and it charges quickly, but it still will not run the motor.

You can accurately test the charging system with about any meter if you perform all the tests and don't rely on the values in the manual. They are just a guide. The only way you will get the same readings is if you use the same meter that was used to harvest the values and then it has to be at the same temperature and with the same length leads. With a good meter, the resistance will change with meter lead length and gauge. A good meter can be adjusted to compensate for the leads and connections

Now while dielectric grease is an insulator, it promotes clean solid connections - the metal to metal contact is not decreased using dielectric grease - as the contacts are pushed together, the grease eases insertion and then excludes air and water keeping the connection clean and dry. When I worked in the Environmental Laboratory at General Electric in Bloomington IL, we used dielectric grease on fuses in 600 volt million amp circuits to assure positive electrical contact and then used fuse block clamps designed to prevent the fuses from blowing out of the fuse block terminals when we purposely short circuited the device to test the resulting failure.

Although there is nothing the guy in the vid is totally inaccurate about, he is simply not factually accurate. For an unbiased summation on the use of dielectric grease, read this article Dielectric Grease - I will continue to fill electrical connectors with dielectric grease and let sleeping dogs lie.
 
#23 ·
I hate to butt in, but............

You tube is a good source of some very helpful information, butt....... Not everyone capable of making a video knows what they are talking about. You tube is a good source of mis-information too.

I have found videos that are so off base that I have asked for investigation of the vid and if proven incorrect to be removed. I cant say definitively that I have been responsible for the removal of certain videos, but most I have queried have been removed for inaccurate or misleading information.

The guy in the video is correct that dielectric grease is an insulator, but ask the same guy about water and he will probably tell you water is a conductor of electricity. What is water? Hydrogen and oxygen and neither one conducts electricity. I know of no combination of two non conductors mixed together resulting in a conductive substance, but contaminate any insulator with a conductive substance and the insulator now becomes a conductor. How good of a conductor is determined by contaminant.

Carbon is a conductor, not a good conductor, but mixed with some other materials and it becomes a very good conductor. Carbon resistor spark plug wires do not contain wire. They use Aramid fiber to resist stretching impregnated with carbon dust to conduct the spark from the coil to the spark plug. The carbon (which is not pure carbon) provided an electrically conductive conduit that somewhat resisted current flow causing the spark to delay and intensify. Because the spark was delayed, the voltage necessary to ionize the path of current flow was increased providing a stronger more intense spark.

Now the meter you have is cheap - I looked on line and could not find the meter's sensitivity or margin of error. I have 3 meters, a Micronta general purpose digital beater for the tool box, an OTC range selectable digital and a $600 Simpson lab grade analog meter. When I need an accurate indication, I turn to the Simpson. For stators, either of the digital's is adequate. I am not looking for the ohms of the windings - I am only concerned about continuity and opens - if each winding is continuous and not shorted to ground, it's generally fine, but I test both open circuit and closed circuit. Shorts between the windings are mostly undetectable with an ohmmeter, but hi pot the winding (high potential)(a fancy term for high voltage) and a short will reveal itself. Check the AC output of the winding when not connected to the rec/reg - normally about 50-90 volts - then check the AC voltage when connected to the rec/reg - voltage will generally be above 30 AC at 2500 RPM - if one pole is substantially less than the other two poles (say A-B = 25, A-C = 30 and B-C = 15) then one pole is shorted winding to winding internally and needs to be replaced. Open circuit will show only the potential, closed circuit shows the available potential. It's like a bad battery - shows 12 volts just sitting there, put a load on it (starter motor) and the voltage drops to 1 or 2 volts trying to run the motor - take the load off and the voltage slowly returns to 12 volts. Put it on a charger and it charges quickly, but it still will not run the motor.

You can accurately test the charging system with about any meter if you perform all the tests and don't rely on the values in the manual. They are just a guide. The only way you will get the same readings is if you use the same meter that was used to harvest the values and then it has to be at the same temperature and with the same length leads. With a good meter, the resistance will change with meter lead length and gauge. A good meter can be adjusted to compensate for the leads and connections

Now while dielectric grease is an insulator, it promotes clean solid connections - the metal to metal contact is not decreased using dielectric grease - as the contacts are pushed together, the grease eases insertion and then excludes air and water keeping the connection clean and dry. When I worked in the Environmental Laboratory at General Electric in Bloomington IL, we used dielectric grease on fuses in 600 volt million amp circuits to assure positive electrical contact and then used fuse block clamps designed to prevent the fuses from blowing out of the fuse block terminals when we purposely short circuited the device to test the resulting failure.

Although there is nothing the guy in the vid is totally inaccurate about, he is simply not factually accurate. For an unbiased summation on the use of dielectric grease, read this article Dielectric Grease - I will continue to fill electrical connectors with dielectric grease and let sleeping dogs lie.
I asked you to butt in Latebird. Thanks for more confirmation on that. And your right about misinformation on YouTube and the internet in general. An overload of information often leads to confusion.
 
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