96 GTX Disintegrating Mag

[gofish247]

I've owned a 96 GTX for a year and a half and while running ok at the beginning, it has become downright frustrating as of late. Actually it's become dead in the water. The problem is that it's blowing 15 amp fuses, which seems to be fairly common. To solve the problem of blown fuses (both the rear 15 amp harness fuse at the ignition coil and the front 15 amp fuse at the electronic module), I had a Sea Doo mechanic take a look and diagnose things. As you can see from the attached photos, the stator and mag turned out to be a mess. The outside ends of the stator have been ground down and the inside of the mag is disintegrating. He advised me the metal shavings were working their way into the stator windings and causing the short.
We replaced the stator and mag with used parts. The machine ran great for the first test run (approximately 30 minutes of hard riding) but on the second trip out it started blowing fuses again after 5 minutes. This time around it has just been the rear 15 amp harness fuse at the coil that is blowing. After tearing it apart again, the mechanic feels the same thing may be happening with the stator in that it is touching the mag wall. Sounds like maybe a loose bearing but he says he has checked that out and that's not the problem. Another 'experienced' Sea Goo guy says that the touching of the stator and mag will not cause a fuse to blow so something else may be the issue.
As background information, it appears the gaskets are not original so some engine work was done at some point but I don't know the full extent of it.
Has anyone seen this type of damage to a mag and stator? Any thoughts on a cause and solution?

 

[Dr Honda]

Well.... my 2 cents....


The stator shorted and it cooked itself. The short on the system, overheated the cup, via the back EMF. That caused it to crash, and die.


I would replace the cup, stator, and the regulator.


As far as "Has anyone seen this type of damage to a mag and stator?"..... I've seen lot's of cooked stators over the years. And, associated MAG cup/flywheel damage.

 

[Sportster-2001-951C-Stock]

Two things I'm aware of:

1) Water inside the housing causes corrosion over time, the saltier the faster.
2) Improperly torqued/lack of locktite causes lose mounting hardware which allows stator to rub against flywheel.

I would imagine if the bearings were rung out that badly it might not run correctly.

 

[gofish247]

Sportster,
Although I've had it only a short time, I can't find any evidence that it spent time in saltwater.
Certainly the improper torqueing of the bolts or failure to use locktite could have been a previous issue which caused the problem. I'm advised that the replacement parts were torqued to spec and locktite was used.
When it is (was) running, it ran like a champ; no reason for concern until it instantly dies off. Sometimes at the dock, sometimes while running 50 across the lake. No sign that the bearing(s) were bad when it was running.

 

[gofish247]

Dr. Honda,
We replaced the stator and mag with used parts and the regulator was recently replaced with a new part. The stator tested ok before it was installed. Everything was good news on the first test ride but turned bad fast on the second.

 

[Sportster-2001-951C-Stock]

Does your mechanic see rubbing of the replacement stator on the flywheel? This can cause the stator to short out, and will blow a fuse if the stator does short to ground. The regulator can be disconnected from the stator to isolate/confirm an intermittent charging fuse failure, the yellow stator wires should not have any conductance to ground.

A rectifier can also short which will cause the fuse to blow, but usually this will not be an intermittent short.

If the replacement stator isn't currently rubbing the flywheel, then it's still possible the used stator was on it's way out from corrosion?

I think you're telling me the replacement stator is rubbing the new flywheel, was the flywheel nut properly torqued? I would think if it wasn't torqued then it would be wobbly on the crankshaft and cause damage to the keyway.

 

[Mekanix]

Dr. Honda,
We replaced the stator and mag with used parts and the regulator was recently replaced with a new part. The stator tested ok before it was installed. Everything was good news on the first test ride but turned bad fast on the second.

What did you get for measurements the second time ?