Day 04 – Oklahoma to New Mexico

Today started out a warm and humid 75F. With the forecast predicting thunderstorms and hot temperatures by noon, Tom and I left a little early. We were packed and rolling by 6:30am. We made our first stop just east of Wichita Falls. I had been tracking a line of thunderstorms that were near our route and kept the fuel stop quick as there looked like a break in the line may allow us to slip through.

We lucked out. As we rolled through Wichita Falls, Texas, we experienced a few sprinkles but the storm didn’t really form until after we had passed under it. With the line of thunderstorms behind us, we had clear skies all the way to Tucumcari, NM.

On our way out of Wichita Falls, another rider on HD Ultra pulled up behind us and found us on the CB. We spoke to each other for a few miles. He was a house inspector and on his way to a job site so he rode with us for about 20 miles or so to Vernon, TX.

We stopped for lunch in Childress, TX for a quick bite to eat and to top off our gas tanks. The winds had been steadily increasing out of the west, southwest and our fuel mileage was suffering from it.

Our next stop would be Amarilo,TX before we made our final push to our day’s destination in Tucumcari, NM. Except for the stiff 30mph winds we were battling, we were making really good time. Here’s a short video of one of the little dust storms we encountered in Texas.

All in all the day was going well; that is until approximately 60 miles from Tucumcari, NM.

Tom radioed that “Uh oh. I think I have a charging system problem.” Tom’s volt meter was indicating that his bike was using more electrical power than it was generating. He turned off everything he could and made it to the hotel.

The suspect was the aftermarket stator had failed. The stator creates electrical current to run the bike’s electronics. Without a stator, you have only the battery to run on. And without any way of charging the battery while the bike is running, you aren’t going to make it very far…certainly not the remainder of our trip.

Tom had brought his original stator with him just in case. Unfortunately, we lacked some of the tools needed to make the switch. So off to the local Napa we went to pick up the needed supplies (soldering iron, solder, shrink wrap, multi-meter, and gasket sealer). When we returned, Tom realized that we needed a 9 volt battery for the multi-meter and neither of us had a 9 volt battery. Tom ran next door and picked up a 9 volt only to discover that we needed a very small screwdriver to get the back of the multi-meter off so we could insert the battery. We both had screwdrivers but nothing small enough.

Off I ran to the local Kmart to pick up a set of screwdrivers while Tom started disassembling the bike. Screwdrivers in hand, we got the multi-meter running and discovered (as Tom had suspected) that the stator was putting zero current out. It would have to be replaced. Easy enough as Tom had done it before and we had everything we needed to do the job….or did we?

Tom remembered the difficulty of getting the stator out of the case last time. He had needed to us an impact driver to remove three large screws. We attempted to remove the screws with a regular screwdriver and had no joy. We needed an impact driver. Tom called up Napa again and caught them just before they closed up. Turns out they did have an impact driver and would stay open so we could buy it.

I quickly rode off to the Napa store again and Tom set to switching out the plug from the faulty stator back to the original Yamaha stator. By the time I had returned with the impact driver and a hammer, Tom had completed the soldering work and we set out to try and remove those three screws.

Tom banged on the first screw and after 5 or so strikes, it broke free! One down, two to go. Tom then moved to the second screw. This one might be a problem. The head had gotten a bit stripped from when Tom had replaced the Yamaha stator with the now broken one. After 3-4 strikes, our worst fears were realized and the head of the screw stripped out the rest of the way. How do we get the screw out? Tom switched bits to a more pointy philips bit. It looked like just the upper part of the head had stripped. Maybe the pointer bit would be able to bite enough on the head to break it free. With deep breath, Tom gave the impact driver 2 good whacks and the screw broke free!! PHEW!

The last screw came out easily enough with the impact driver and Tom swapped out the defective stator for the original Yamaha one. We went back out to the bike (laying on its right side so that no engine oil would escape with the left engine cases removed) and put the engine cases back on, reconnected the stator, and put the bike back together enough so that we could put the bike upright. When the bike was started, the voltage meter immediately provided the feedback we had hoped for….the electrical system was working.

Tom finished putting the bike back together, cleaned up, and with a collective sigh of relief, we headed over the hotel’s restaurant and had dinner.

Tomorrow we ride to Tempe, AZ where we will wait for Michele’s flight to arrive on Friday. The ride to Tempe will be almost 600 miles and should take us about 11 hours.