Changing a stator

[No Worries]

Has everyone heard how awesome the old Suzuki GS's are? If not, I'm sure you heard about the electronic problems. I'm the original owner of a 79 GS1000. In 33 years, I've had one electrical fire, two stators that went bad, and one rectifier, and two regulators that went bad (they were separate back then).

It originally came with points ignition. In the early 80's I changed to Dyna coils and Dyna electronic ignition. The ignition advance is still by weights and springs. They work good as long as I spray some grease on them every couple years. I originally put on carbon-core sparkplug wires, but changed to solid copper wires. The damn thing starts instantly, all the time.

Last summer, I took the bike to a local bakery. When I came out, the neutral and oil pressure lights came on, but when I pressed the start button, the lights went out and there was no cranking. I pushed the bike across the street to an auto repair shop and told them I had a dead battery. They brought out this wheeled-charger with huge copper battery clamps. I swear you could have welded thick steel with them. It took me several minutes, but I was able to fit them on the little battery screws. After several minutes of charging, the bike started right up.

I went home and stuck a voltmeter on the battery. The voltage stayed the same. I decided to replace the separate R/R's with a single R/R. I also cleaned all the connections. Didn't change. So I got a new stator. The below pictures show the details.

The cylinder cooling fins are on the upper left, the starter is on the upper center, and the stator is in the cover. Even though it is in an oil bath, notice how burned the windings look. I believe I put this one in circa 1990.

This picture shows a cardboard copy of the gasket I made for the bolts. Thy are all the same size, but all are different lengths. Big timesaver.

Here's the new stator installed. The big tool between the screwdriver and hammer is an impact wrench. It's the only way to get those phillips-head screws off without stripping the heads.

Here's the voltmeter reading with new stator and R/R. Perfect. When I went back to the bakery, I bought a dozen donuts for the guys at that repair shop.