Topic: HELP...What can cause a stator to burn?

[quietlikeachurch]

I just finished a top-end rebuild on a '70 CB350 twin.  While I was setting the ignition timing with a strobe, I spotted intermittent sparking inside the rotor case, followed by a garlicky-smelling smoke.  I removed the cover and found that part of the stator had burned and there was a brittle broken wire sticking out of the blackened insulation !  The burn is in a spot on the outer edge of the stator and is not near anything that could touch it and short it out.  I'm not very good at diagnosing electrical problems, so is there anything obvious I could have done to short the thing out?  All wires coming from the stator look fine and were plugged in correctly, and everything else electrical seems to be working fine.  I'm hoping it was just a freak failure...

Thanks,
-Ian

[TwoTired]

What can cause a stator to burn?
Wire isulation breakdown in the rotor.
Too high a load placed on the stator.
Charging a bad battery.

The wrath of the electron gods.

Cheers,

[chung]

Loose the Elect Starter system before it takes out your "new" stator. The Honda Twins have a habit of sending mister weeder into the stator at fairly low milage. Thrashes around like a chainsaw when the clutch lets go.............like a grenade

[dusterdude]

mister weeder?

[Bob Wessner]

Glad I wasn't the only one who didn't know what that was. 

[dusterdude]

yea,but you coulda showed your ignorance first.