I was always told if there's no oil under 'em, there's no oil in 'em.

That's quite an achievement sealing up an old brit bike so it doesn't leak.

Well, I got the stator changed out and the wiring splicing was a little fun but worked without any big problems.  I am happy to say it appears to be charging.  It's idling around 13.6 to 13.7V and jumps to around 14.5 when you twist the throttle a little.

Anectdotally, the lights when I first got it fixed were sort of dim and yellowish.  After riding about 5 miles, they were nice bright white lights.  I haven't had any problems starting or anything that looks like low battery since putting everything back together.  

The bike had another problem that had developed since it had been sitting waiting for me to fix the stator.  It wouldn't hit a lick.  The engine would crank over just fine. All noises were normal. It just wouldn't fire for anything.  I drained the tank, gave the carb a good cleaning. Still nothing even spraying starting fluid in.  Turned out that somehow the spark plug had started arcing from insulator to metal way  up inside. As soon as I replaced the plug, it hit first time. (I did blow away the crud before removing the plug)

I noticed that the new stator is about 5 laminations thicker than the original.  On the original, they have little plastic guides at the end of each pole. They are close to 1/8" wide on each side.  This one fills that space with extra metal.  It also appears, I didn't measure it, to be one gauge thicker wire.  If so, the combination of extra metal, thicker wire should make for more watts generating capability and hopefully not burn out as easily.

I'll post up a message with a few pics sometime this weekend when I have time for those that may be interested.

edit: to correct spelling

Steve,

Where did you purchase your new stator?

Kenny G

KennyG,

I got the stator from PCC Parts on ebay.  He's always got them for around $35.  It looks to be well made.

Kris,

I've always been told more laminations (actually about 1/8" thicker) means more magnetic flux conducted.  With the same number and size of windings, the voltage should be higher. With increased wire diameter, the current should be higher.  With the same number of windings and heavier wire, it should produce a little higher voltage and a little more current unless we are already at magnetic saturation either due to magnet strength or core design.

But, with no more increase than there is here, it's probably negligible anyway. I'm just hoping it holds up well and doesn't fry.

I may be wrong too.  It's been a long time since I have been exposed to very much electrical theory.

Yeah...that's about what it took to find out mine wasn't charging adequately.  Since it was charging some, it took a good while to finally kill the battery enough for it not to start.

I don't know if it will kill the reg/rec or not.  It shouldn't unless it gets way over voltage. The input to the reg/rec is just diodes.

I don't know if anybody will have a good answer on that one for you. I don't remember hearing of it but just might not have read the posting it was in.

Finally getting back to this thread.  Work gets in the way.. and my experience on this fix was a lot worse than Steve's!!!!  

Here is a picture of the old and new stator with wiring harness.
NOTE: The harness looks goofy.  Too much wire on the stator side of the oil seal.  You have to trim the insulation on the stator side, then slide the oil seal towards the stator until the wires are the right length.

Then.. I noticed an extra, and OPEN hole in the oil seal.  HUH??  
Plugged it with a piece of plastic.  

Put it together, and the oil seal is just a bit too tall.. it sticks up higher than flush with the cover.
OK.. sand it down a bit, but leave a bit of a bump so it will squish down to the gasket when I bolt it up.

Bolt it up.. oil leak.  Open it up, and the gasket wasn't sitting quite right, and it got ruined.
Order OEM gasket instead of 3rd party knock off.   New gasket in.  Better material, smoother cuts, much nicer.
Bolt it up.  Not leaking.  Go for a ride... and .. it is trying to imitate a Harley by marking it's spot when I go to eat lunch.  Another oil leak.
Open it up.  There is oil inside the cable.  That oil seal that gave me so much grief just isn't gripping the wires tight enough..  I though it slid kind of easy when I was adjusting the wires.
Now.. not a happy camper.  
Grabbed the old oil seal.  Took FOREVER to dig all old wires out of there.. but finally got all the pieces out.

Had to cut my nice new harness to take off the new oil seal and put the wires into the original oil seal.  
Had to use a hair dryer to heat the seal up to get it soft enough so I could force the wires through.
Then spliced the wires back together.  Same way Steve H did it.  Staggered the cuts, buttsplice solder, heat shrink, very pretty end result.

Put it all back together.. again.  (Man, I am getting GOOD at this!   ).
Took it out for a ride this morning, and .. it looks like I finally got it back to how it should be.  I'll keep an eye on the voltage output (my splices could have been better) and oil situation.

I'm still glad I replaced the harness, as the old one was pretty brittle.
HOWEVER, for those of you with not so high mileage, go Steve H's route and just get a stator that you will have to splice in.
Save some money, and may save you some of the grief I had!!!

Quite an ordeal, Youz,, good job solving that.