I need help......I have a 93 Dyna WIde Glide and I'm buring through batteries. Last year one day one of a 5 day ride the battery quit. I should mention that before the trip I have the bike throughly checked out and was talk the connections were loose but not to worry. After three hours at Harley dealer they finally decided nothing was wrong with the bike but it would need a new battery (the current one was about 8 months old). This past Saturday, I stopped for a few minutes and when I tried to start the bike, nothing but a clicking sound. I push started the bike, took it to a local bike shop, again after about an hour of checking the bike, voltage, battery etc, it was decided that I need another new battery. Today, Monday, I was ready for a ride, tried to start the bike and nothing but the famous clicking sound again. I put a quick charge on the battery, started the bike and off for a day of riding.....wrong. about an hour later, in a remote area of NJ the bike just quit. Not power, no light, nothing. This time I called the tow truck to poick up the bike and bring it home.

In the past several years I have replaced the battery several time (maybe 8) this is the third time in five yers that the bike has just died. Each time they check the voltage regulato, battery connections etc and end up replacing the battery and I wait for another adventure of being stuck on some back road or interstate highway to call the two truck to take me somewhere to replace yet another battery.

If any of you Dyna riders have had similiar problem and found the solution please let me know. I'm leaving in a few weeks for a 8 day ride and sould liketo feel a little more secure.

Thanks,

BIll Ranney (Sails)

 

I had a 93 Wideglide with the same problem (it drove me crazy) I changed the voltage regulator and the starter relay and it did not fix it so I changed the Stator ond bam it was fixed.
I also kept the bike on a battry tender and it was allways ready when I was.
Long story short the stator is probably bad.


Goodluck
Craig

 

Yer a one man lead-acid wrecking crew! While it is certainly possible to happen upon a bad battery, and maybe even two of 'em, the odds of running on 8 bad batteries in a row is simply too far into the realm of the impossible. After that many batteries, I'd have replaced at least the regulator, probably the stator, plus all the wiring between the stator, regulator, and battery.

None of these shops has found a problem with anything except to say the battery is bad? Good grief, that's like paying a doc to give you aspirin for the pain when you really need yer appendix removed. If these shops know what they are doing, and have followed the recommended troubleshooting procedures, and have still found nothing, then it is definitely time to look for another shop.

OK, I've vented!

What did they say was wrong with the batteries? Did they have shorted plates? Were they "cooked" from too high a charge being applied? Did some of the plates separate, or break connection with each other (open cell or cells)? Did the batteries discharge so far they reversed polarity?

Do you have any mechanical experience? There are several relatively easy checks you can make with nothing more than the typical multimeter. They are outlined in the service manual.

 

I'd be willing to bet that if you disconnected and wire brushed the connections on BOTH cables POS & NEG at BOTH ends of both cables and the connection points on the battery, your problem would go away. When it comes to diagnosing electrical problems, some or most of the dealers wouldn't see the problem if it jumped up and bit them, they just sell you a new battery.
Your click when you go to start is a high resistance circuit (bad connection) You will usually see indications of a battery failing ( not charging) as you start, it will sound sluggish more and more till it finally doesn't start.
You can verify a bad battery if you are mechanically inclined by using a jumper cable from the POS on the battery to the large terminal on the starter.(BE VERY CAREFULL DOING THIS) This will crank the engine even with the key off so make sure it is not in gear. If it cranks when you do this, your battery is OK and you more than likely have a bad battery connection or ground connection in the circuit. At least you will not go broke buying batteries.