I 've been hearing for years about the early Reflex stators going bad and it finally happened to my 01 model at 25k. When I disassembled it to remove the stator it showed now telltale signs that normally occur such as the dark spots or totally brown color from heat or shorting out. As I was removing the metal bracket which harnesses the 3 wires connected to the stator I felt the casing on the wires and it was hard and brittle. Upon closer inspection I discovered that the ferule like connectors and wiring was burnt and no longer making contact. I cut the wires back to reach good material and reconected everything and it now works fine again. I'll bet a lot of people replaced expensive stators and didn't have to.
Interesting, thanks for the post (as an owner of a 2002 Reflex). How big of a deal was the work that you did (to repair the electric leads)? I don't suppose you took pictures so you could post a write-up on the entire procedure, did you? With the dark spots and brown color, I wonder how much longer that stator will continue to work as it obviously has some damage. Hopefully, for you, a long, long time.
I stated that there were no dark spots on the stator and thats what raised my suspicion that it was something else. Upon disassembly I saw the burned sheathing that covered the wires where they attached to the stator. They are not soldered from the factory as the heat from the process would damage the fragile coating of the stator windings,instead they are connected with tiny crimped connectors that over time must have loosened causing arcing and thus the heat that eventually caused the wires to get brittle and eventually break. I simply cut the yellow wires back as much as necessary to reach good wire and pulled what was needed thru the grommet to make up for what I cut off. The wires from the windingsonly needed a small trimming and new crimp connectors were used to make the connections. I used a double layer of shrink tubing on all the connections to insure sealing.Very simple straight forward repair.
Excellent post baloney! This is what forums are about; people helping people. And saving dollars too. If you had taken the Helix in to the shop they probably would have replaced the wires AND the stator! Bend over... Thanks again.