VintageVmax.com

I have an 86 Vmax, pretty sure the stator is gone.

It runs great, no issues there. No headlight, tailight, or grip warmers. Basically everything electrical besides the engine has not worked since I bought it a few weeks ago. I finally got a chance to tear into it today.

I repaired a few wiring cobble-jobs, looked like an attempt to figure out the problem by the previous owner. All circuits tested good, all switches good. I could get everything to work as it should by connecting a battery to its circuit.

With the sled running, I got a very dim lit testlight on the supply wire for the lighting, and as soon as a load more than the testlight was applied, nothing. On the grip warmer circuit, I got a bright testlight. Not being too concerned about the grip warmers I hooked the lights into that circuit, and now they all work, but are extremely dim, not worth anything at night.

This sound like a stator issue? I dont have a multimeter so I couldnt test the stator circuits.

I hate to throw more money at this sled, and from my experience with motorcycles, stators are not cheap. The damn thing is in such good shape for its age its hard to resist fixing it. It might come up for sale. At least I can ride it during the day. Any thoughts?

Possibly, a voltage regulator or ground problem which could explain why it runs but lights don't work or are dim ?


http://www.psep.biz/store/yamaha_snowmo ... _coils.htm

V-MAX 83-91 YAM VMX540 L/C ADLP010854 $17.95

Thanks for the links! Those prices are absolutely in range, lol.

I understand these have different coils for lights, grip warmers, and engine, so that might explain why it still runs fine, other coils are weak??

I tested the grounds that I found on the sled, all were good, but not sure if anything is missing.

Is there anywhere I could get a schematic for this beast?

If you have a volt meter you can test the lighting coils very easily without disassembly.
The wire plugs that are just in front of the black recoil and come out of the back of the stator coil.
Unplug the black and yellow wires.
Use your Ohm meter and test between the black and yellow wires coming out of the stator.
Resistance should be 0.22 Ohms + or - 10%

You might have to remove the oil tank to have room to work.

Thanks, Ill test it and see what I get, I have a friend I can borrow a voltmeter from.

The previous owner really made a mess of the wiring up in the handle bars, took some time to get that all straightened out.

Thanks very much for the diagrams! Now I can check everything out and be sure if it is the stator or not.

Is the voltage regulator right next to the coil pack? It is a grey box attached to the top of the air box, just to the left of the coil looking from the front.

The voltage regulator is on the front side of the left footwell, behind the speedometer drive and below the driven clutch. Make sure the ground there is clean and tight !

I recently had a belt explode. The shrapnel took out the wire to the regulator. When the regulator was disconnected, all the bulbs burned out simultaneously. When I replaced the bulbs, they were dim, flickered on the next ride and then went out. I traced the problem to a broken & loose ground on the stator.

I resoldered the wire and now the lights work fine.

I put a piece of hose over the regulator wire to help prevent it from being damaged the next time a belt delaminates.

Is that ground point accessible without removing the flywheel?

I havent had much time to mess with the lights since we got a big snowstorm this weekend, been out playing all day....

The headlight is hooked up to the grip heater circuit, and is mediocre at best, only bright at high rpms. Its better than no headlight.

Grounds all look good, the only one I havent checked/cleaned is the stator one. Ive got a dim testlight on the feed wire from the lighting stator, but as soon as a load is applied-- any one of the light bulbs...testlight goes completely out.

No, the ground point is not accessible until the flywheel has been removed.

You may be able to see it with a small dental mirror through the hole in the flywheel, but I have my doubts that you can see around the frame to look into the flywheel hole without a second mirror. Even if you can look in the hole, getting enough light in there to see a broken wire would be very tricky.