Soooo. about 2 weeks ago I went out to start my bike in the morning and turned my ignition on and no lights came up so I thought something was out of wack. I did not have my trickle charge plugged (something I dont usually do but probably should)... Should I attempted to trickle charge the battery to fully charged but it would not get to fully charged. A week ago I brought the battery to Advance and they tested it as needing to be replaced. So I bought their battery and followed the directions in regards to adding the acid and charging to fully charged using my trickle. The green light never came on my trickle but the voltmeter read 13.47. At that point I but the battery in and lights came back up and seemed to be ok.

I tried starting the FLSTF and it started like it normally would prior to the dead battery issue. I rode the bike for a day or 2 and on Wednesday morning I wet to get the bike ready to take to work and the battery was dead. I hooked it up to my trickle charge and the voltage immediate began to raise. When first putting the trickle charge on the battery, I applied the voltmeter and it read something around 9.5. In about 10 mins, the voltmeter read 13.47 and would not go any higher. As soon as I take the charge off the new Advance battery, the voltage drops down to 11.04 (or something).

I am wondering if the new Advance battery is faulty and I should return it. Or if my charge system is faulty and needs service. I read you can test the system with a fully charged battery and with the bike running at sertain RPMs, but when I put the Advance battery in I also noticed it swells at the sides when I attempt to start the bike. The bike just makes a click sound and the voltmeter reads around 6.


Any help out there? Hopefully I explained that ok.

 

The battery shouldn't swell when you try to start it. For that reason alone, I would suspect a bad battery.

It also shouldn't settle at 11.4V off the charger.

Take the battery back and hopefully they'll give you a credit for the battery, so you can replace it with an AGM battery. I don't see any reason to use a lead acid battery when you can get an AGM replacement.

 

yea, they let me return it. I was thinking I was having a charging issue so I replaced the battery when it was dead. Since Advanced tested as replace it and I was their, I bought theirs. Hopefully going with an AGM from my local Harley dealer will do the trick.

 

If you have a voltage draw, your battery could have 11.4V off charge.
With the engine running at about 2K, the regulator should put out close to 14V.
If not, you likely have a regulator or stator issue.