Hello Lynn,
Your information is the most helpful I have found after searching for days. I just joined here so that I could discuss my problem with you please. I bought a new Hammerhead GTS150 end of last year. It has the 8-coil stator with a DC CDI. It will not keep the battery charged if I turn on the lights on now. I added a 2nd set of lights a couple of months after I got it and am wondering if I damaged something by doing that. With lights off, the battery voltage gets up to a healthy 14.5 VDC, but starts dropping to below 12 VDC when I turn the lights on. I assumed it had to be the regulator, but after replacing it, it still does the same thing. My AC voltages from the stator with the plug disconnected from the regulator read the following: Pink = ~50VAC, Yellow = ~.123VAC. This is read with one of my meter leads on the green wire for voltage reference. The red & black wire reads ~100VAC, but of course is not hooked up with it being a DC CDI. So I'm thinking the stator coil connected to the yellow wire is dead. Does that sound right? Could I take that unused red/black wire and connect it in place of the yellow one or would that fry my regulator? If not, I'm thinking I should upgrade to an 11-coil stator.

 

On your engine you measure the AC output between the two wires from battery charge output winding. You do not measure between each of them and ground. But even so those voltages sound wrong. Did you measure these voltage with the regulator disconnected?

In any case I think your problem is caused by the lights you added. The 8 pole GY6 stator can only put out 55 watts at really fast engine speeds. At lower speeds it will deliver a lot less than that. Realistically while driving around over a range of engine speeds you cannot expect to have more than a total of 35 watts of lights and still be able to keep the battery charged. In other words, when you have the lights on and the engine is at slower speeds the charging system cannot keep up with a 35 watt lighting load. No problem - the extra current needed is just drawn out of you battery (discharging it). The battery voltage during this time will read 12.6 volts or so. When you run the engine speed up it can easily keep up with the 35 watts, and it is able to push the voltage up above the battery voltage (up to 14. 5 volts max) and charging current then flows *into* the battery, charging it back up. Over time (and engine speed variations) you must have (on average) a current net flow into the battery or the battery will eventually go dead.

So how much lighting did you add? How many watts? Did you leave the existing lighting on? Id so, how many watts was that?

Overloading the charging system is not a problem at all except that the battery is making up the difference. It won't harm anything. In fact it is "situation normal" for most small engines running at low RPM with the lights on. The excess current needed to run the electrical loads above and beyond what the stator can put out simply comes from the battery. But if the overload persists more than 50% of the time then your battery will eventually go dead.

You asked about hooking the red/black (higher voltage) wire in place of the pink wire. No. This will not work. You need *POWER* (measured in watts - not volts) to charge the battery and power electrical loads. Power is voltage multiplied times current. There is so little current available from that wire you might as well consider it to be zero. One million volts times zero current is still zero power. Forget it -it won't work.

I've seen 11 pole stators advertised, and I've seen many complaints about them not working up to the claims advertised. Do you have links to the specific stator you are considering?

Here's another approach to think about: If all you can get is 35 watts from the stator, and you want a lot of light (measured in lumens), then what about considering getting lights that put out a lot more lumens per watt then ordinary incandescents? Incandescent bulbs waste most of the watts in heat. Very little of those watts actually go into making visible light. I'm thinking LED techology. It's a lot more efficient, but perhaps a bit pricey. I haven't researched this, but it seem to recall I've seen some web pages on adding really bright LED lights on quads...

 

Thank you for the information. Yes those voltage readings were with the engine running but the wires were disconnected. Last night I measured the AC voltage between the pink & yellow wires while connected and running. When they showed around 9.2VAC I was getting around 14VDC on the battery, but as soon as I turn on the stock lights, it starts dropping to the 12VDC range, and the wires would drop down to around 8.5VAC. I do not know the watts on the lights that I added. I'll have to check. But they are on a separate switch and I can leave them off. It is a relief that I probably haven't damaged anything and it sounds like everything is normal. The stock engine just does not provide much electrical power. The 11-pole stator, flywheel, and regulator I found are at scrappy dog scooters = 125/150 4-STROKE PARTS. I think I will take your advice though and search for some LED lights to replace the ones already installed.

 

Measuring AC voltages from the stator with the regulator hooked up is meaningless. All regulators affect the voltage coming from the stator, and two different regulator topologies affect the stator voltages differently. I know this flys in the face of common sense because we all are used to AC voltages from our local power company which go to great lengths to maintain the same AC voltage regardless of load. Stators aren't that way, and we have shunt regulators and series buck regulators. Both work equally fine, but leave drastically different AC voltages at the stator even though each method is working fine. Don't give to much credence to AC voltages from the stator when the regulator is hooked up. Concentrate instead on the DC voltage on the battery with the engine running at speed under the various loads. You need 13.5 volts to 14.5 volts DC on the battery terminals (on average over time and typical engine speeds) to guarantee the battery is getting charged up.

This is really important info...

There is a huge lack of data on this stator at that site. How many watts will it put out? Do you need to change the regulator too? What guarantees do they offer? Do they have technical support?

Do you also realize that the flywheel (with it's embedded magnets) must also be changed? The magnets in the flywheel must line up mechanically with the poles in the stator - so that the all the magnets pass in synch together past all the poles in the stator simultaneously. So if you have eight magnets in your old flywheel it won't work with an 11 pole stator.

 

It was up to 14.5 VDC on the battery while idling last night. I put it back together & ordered LED lights. I have two identical buggies to work with. When I originally found that both of them didn't provide acceptable (what I considered) charging when idling, I figured we must of damaged something in the charging systems when adding the lights. That is when I started troubleshooting it. I realized after your first reply that both buggies are actually operating normally.
Thank you for the advice on the stator too. I was aware that the flywheel and regulator have to be changed too. They do have an email question service and were prompt with their replies. I'm betting on the LED lights being the best solution though. If not, I may go back to considering the 11-pole stator. There is an extra wire between the regulator and the stator which makes me think (guessing without an internal schematic of the circuitry) that I'm getting at least one extra coil in the charging system to help produce more current.

 

Hmmm, I bet that the difference is that the 11 pole stator is a three phase charge system instead of the stock single phase system. A three phase system needs three wires from the stator to the regulator instead of two. Three phase is *much* more efficient than single phase. To give an example, look at the size of a 2 horse power 3 phase electric motor, and compare it's size to a 2 horse power single phase motor. It's tiny by comparison. Motors convert electrical power into mechanical power. Stators convert mechanical power into electrical power. There's symmetry here. A three phase stator that is the same size as a single phase stator should put out a lot more power.

Still I would ask for specs first. Single phase eight pole stator = 55 watts at speed. Three phase (I suspect) 11 pole stator = ??? watts at speed. I would get the ??? part filled in (and compare it to your lighting load) before buying....

LED lights still sounds like the best course to me on the surface. I haven't thoroughly researched this though. If you're successful (or not) please report back. There are others wanting to do what you are trying to do...

 

I have this buggy the wire ing is all messed up and cut I have new cod box new coil new everything I just need help to to wire it up right also how to wire the ignition switch and also how to wire the fan the hole thing needs nes I just don’t know we’re to begin I just put a new carburetor also

 

First posts in this thread mention some are AC and some DC so you need to know which and have the right CDI for it. Also in those early posts is a DC wiring diagram. If you want the full works, lights etc, make a new loom up using that diagram. If you just want ignition, starter and charging circuits, follow a "bare bones" diagram, though the full one on here isn't much more complex.