I'm new here, and apologize for not doing an intro.... but I'm trying to get my g/f's 2000 Savage going.

Do you have to remove the Pulley and belt like Clymer says, to replace the stator, or will the side cover come off the engine with the pulley still in place?

Thanks, and any tips or tricks to changing the stator would be appreciated as well.

Thanks dave

Ok, new question.

New battery
New Stator
New Voltage Regulator/rectifier

Still will not put out more that 13V at any rpm, struggles to get to 13V actually.  Put old regulator back on, same result!  

What else am I missing?  Please help, I'm getting super frustrated, I've never had this much trouble on any other bike!

It could be a bad ignition switch. I've seen this problem before and was surprised when I found out it was the switch.

It may be that your testing wrong ! You should be unplugging the three wire connector (yellow wires) going from the alternator to the voltage regulator and testing for AC volts-3 tests between each of two of the wires,@ 5,000 rpm ,you should be reading 100 volts AC.        When you test for DC volts across the battery ,the reading you get depends on many factors, rpm, battery charge, how long you run the bike, if you remembered to turn on the high beam ,and how long you took to start the motor. Finding the DC voltage dropping across the battery as you test at higher rpms may just be the regulator doing it's job.13 volts may seem low ,but it's still higher than a new fully charged battery will read at rest(usually 12.2-12.4)

Anything over battery voltage(12.3) is enough to charge the battery. Why not do a test ?let the bike sit overnight ,check the battery voltage before starting,take it for a ride 50-100 miles,park it over night and test voltage again ,if it's the same your golden.If not I'll concede you have a problem.

@Batman, if you have a new battery fully charged and healthy reading say 12.7 with the static charge drained, then turn on the electrics the voltage will drop .5V maybe .6 which needs to be taken into account.

A better test of the battery is to see how low the voltage goes when it cranks over.

@JoG, I can say from recent experience on my GS that it's had a crappy wet battery in it probably for 5 years and would turn over instantly and all that even after a few low levels. However I checked it a couple of months ago and to my horror all cells were uncovered a fair way, however I resurrected it to see what would happen and it came back as good as new...

It was always 12.6 after the static charge had drained and had enough cranking voltage to turn over instantly. So I just ignored it. Never hesitated to start, then two weeks later we went on a long ride, pulled over a couple of times to get petrol no problem, then later we turn down an interesting looking side rd. Stop for lunch, go to start the bike and it is completely dead, not a flicker of life, I was convinced it must be a fuse or electrical, until I saw the tiniest glimmer of an oil light.

Fortunately the local Suzuki store was only 20mins ride away and it was a public holiday the day before, so it was all good. But there's a warning of how an apparently good battery can be inches away from death. Had we been out the day before, then I would have been up shite creek, sans paddle as they say.

batman wrote on 09/27/17 at 13:04:41:


the voltage regulator/rectifier does not sense battery charge and reduce the voltage when the battery is full.  Any long ride is going to overcharge the battery.