Yammy Recall WR250R

[Lonesome Dave]

Hey all you WR250R and X owners.  Yamaha issued a safety recall on the following years and models.
2008-2015 WR250R and 2008-2011 WR250X

It has to do with the Stator.  Apparently, the stator insulation is too thin on the wire wrapping and can melt.  Causing it to stop charging and shortly thereafter stop motocycle.  Making it a safety issue.  Many of you probably already know about this by a letter you received from yammy, but in case you didn't get it, now you know.

I have mine and Yeti's and/or Sandhillrider's WRR up at Sturgis Motor Sports.  I picked mine up tonight and learned that the stator was on it last leg (no pun intended).  Service manager, Ivor Swanson said there's eight individual wire hubs on them and most of mine were black, not the normal dark carmel color.  Mine was ready to leave me in the middle of nowhere.

You might think this really isn't a big deal, you'll do it this winter, but Bogus Jim's WRR's stator went out 2 or 3 years ago.  The real problem was it destroyed it's self and put a bunch of back junk into the oil.  That winter, Jim split the case and made sure all of the junk was gone, including the area of the oil suction screen where it would tend to collect.  I have around 11k miles on mine and I willing to bet Jim had about 10 to 14K on his at the time.

Now you know!   I hope Hank doesn't beat me up on this post! 

[Hank]

THATS ALL WRONG!!!!!!   Just kidding.  Carry on.   

Sent from the Altair 8800 I carry around.

[Bogus Jim]

Service manager, Ivor Swanson said there's eight individual wire hubs on them and most of mine were black, not the normal dark carmel color.  Mine was ready to leave me in the middle of nowhere.

There's 18 poles, not 8. It's a 3-phase stator, so 6 poles wired to each phase.

My first stator failed at 18k miles, the second one is pretty discolored at 28k miles so it's likely on the way out. I'll take the bike in later this fall.

I'm probably going to swap out the R/R for a MOSFET series (not shunt) type. On most motorcycles, the stator outputs full power all the time. Any current that isn't used by accessories or EFI, is shunted to ground by the R/R. So both the stator and the R/R tend to run hot.

In contrast, a MOSFET series R/R handles excess current by creating an open circuit on the stator windings, instead of shunting to ground. So stator tends to run cooler and in theory, last longer. You can google for more info. The MOSFET shunt R/R have been around awhile, but the MOSFET series are somewhat new... I think the 2014 vstrom 1000 uses it. And some of the Polaris UTV's. 

[Hank]

Interesting info Jim!

All this makes me glad I ride those super reliable orange bikes that never have any problems from the factory.      cough cough.

[Lonesome Dave]

Okay already......getting beat up again.  I heard "8" not 18 and I didn't get to see it.  I do like the idea of the MOSFET thingy Jim was talking about.  He's so damn smart.  We'll see what Yeti's looks like tomorrow.  This stuff is so exciting.    

[grubbie]

You guys and your technical mumbo-jumbo. I try to learn as I go but all this MOFSET shunt R/R talk and KTM schematics and wiring do-hickeys,....if I had to try and figure all that out I would never get to ride! So far so good though, haven't been forced to work on much electrical, especially on a Jap bike. I can repair draglines, haul trucks, shovels, and darn near anything in a power plant. Put me on a 12 volt electrical problem, and I am crippled.
I wont be able to get my WRR recall work done until after the fall rally. Hopefully it will last through that at least.

[greatbuffalo]

When my Tiger's stator went I went with a shunt type to replace it. Didn't really it made good sense to me so I spent the little extra $$ and have a bi of piece of mind because of it. Maybe that piece of mind has something to do with the fact that I haven't ridden the old girl since I got "Blue" the Tenere. I should take her out and flog her on Sunday.