Motorcycle Maintenance while Home

There's been several items on the to-do list for my motorcycles.  I've delayed them so I could do the work in the comfort of my garage at home rather than in some wind-swept and dusty campsite.  (That and parts had to be ordered)

Wednesday, March 10

I replaced the battery on Brigitta, my BMW R80 Airhead.  The old battery died on Monday when I tried to go for a ride.  I'd noticed via the voltmeter that the battery wasn't charging as I rode out of the neighborhood and so had turned around and started troubleshooting.

My battery tester said it was bad, but it's also not quite suitable for motorcycle batteries with their low Amp Hour ratings.  Must get a more suitable one in the future.  I also verified via an Autozone tech that the battery was bad.

I replaced it with the same battery, a maintenance-free unit from Amazon (it came full charged)

Installation was straight forward, no issues.  Brigitta started right up and now charges when the RPMs go above 2000.  The battery lasted about 4 years.

Since I was on a roll, I went ahead and swapped the stator on Yagi, my Yamaha TW200 Dual Sport.

Nothing wrong with the one that was installed.  I had recently received back from a neighborhood friend, a refurbished one.  The first swap I had done oh so many months ago had failed (something broken in the stator itself).  

So I had my neighbor who is good at soldering, transfer the good wiring harness from the failed stator and connect it to the known good stator that came with the motorcycle but who's wiring I'd damaged by not routing it correctly.  This had started the whole stator debacle.  Chronological order:

Home Early due to Lack of Spark

Yagi has spark once more ! Kinda... (now waiting for parts)

Boondocking near Westcreek, CO

A Paradigm Shift?

Maybe not so big a Paradigm Shift after all.....Yagi has Spark Again

So, I swapped in the refurbed stator and she fired right up when tested.  I'll keep the known and trusted Partzilla Stator as "known good spare" and ride Yagi with the refurbed one for a while to gain trust.