I decided to change my original battery this spring before a trip. Since then that battery died and now its replacement is dead as well. The first battery burned up the trickle charger.

Ideas?

 

Voltage regulators are known to fail on the 12's.
It might well be a re-call.
Check with your dealer.

 

Rev. 111015
Some electrical 101 and a little more..

Remember, the best made brand new battery that has been on a maintenance charger for 3 days that has a loose or bad connection is no better then a boat anchor with a loose rope. The connection can get loose after one ride if the battery is not anchored and the wires are short and get tugged in a direction that can unscrew the bolts.

After a good 24+ hour maintenance low amperage charge, with the charge light in the solid green and the battery has set about 24 hours off charge, voltage should be about 12.8 volts.
12.8 = full charged
12.6 = 75% charged
12.3 = 50% charged (Lot of new modern cars with system protection will not even click at this point but will have good headlight beams showing)
12.0 =25% charged

Always check both the terminals at the battery lead and also at the terminal on the wire. That helps to verify connection. With a DC volt meter (one that has a feature to lock high and low reading is best) hooked across the battery terminals and reading 12.8 or so, crank motor and while its cranking it should not drop below about 9.6 volts and as soon as it starts and throttled up to 2000 rpm, voltage should read around 14.8 volts. The 2000 rpm is the bench mark standard. Ignore idle output. Ignore output above 2000rpm unless it exceeds 14.9 volts. That is a sure indication that regulator is bad.

The crank check shows a rough check of the reserve amperage capacity of the battery while cranking with a 150-200 amp load on it. The 14.8 shows a good alternator and if you leave it on a while as the regulatory will drop the voltage a little showing itself working. However, with the lights and stuff always on, it will never drop back much. If you have a lot of options, most modern bikes will not show 14.8 charging volts at idle but stock newer bikes will be close. Older bikes with lower amperage output not so much. However, 2000 rpm is the bench mark for the standard 14.8 volts.

If you think battery is good and something is draining it sitting, now would be a good time to check for drain problems. Go to Harbor Freight and get you a AC/DC meter for under $25 or so. http://www.harborfreight.com/ac-dc-d...ter-37772.html Make sure it has DC amps draw, DC voltage, resistance and AC voltage. Key off. Remove the negative cable off the battery. Set meter on DC amps. Hook the meter lead to cable and the other to battery. How many milliamps (mA) is it drawing? It should be no more then 6 mA which is the ECM (1), speedometer (1), tac,TSSM (1),HFSM (1) and voltage regulator (1)

When a battery wears out, a good charge will show fairly good voltage, but the battery can still have very low amperage capacity which will show in the crude crank test above, but it really should be checked after a good charge by removing it from bike and getting a free check at a place like AutoZone that has a fancy load meter check that gives you a print out of the battery health. Battery MUST BE CHARGED to check it. Be sure they set their meter to correct cold cranking amperage stated on the battery. Never charge the AGM absorbed glass mat battery with a regular car battery charger unless it is a newer one that says safe with this type of battery. Also, by taking battery out you now know you have good connections. Vibration tends to loosen the connections or a little corrosion will prevent charging or cause starting problems. Be forwarned, these checks quite often are incorrect due to the low amperage of these small batteries and junk checking equipment. If bike is charging , no load on battery when key is off and you are still having problems…REPLACE THE BATTERY. If battery is more then 3-4 years old.. REPLACE THE BATTERY.

Using the maintenance charger can get more years from a battery but be careful here. You do not want the last start 5 miles from home. If it still grunts when you first hit starter or kicks back with a bang, replace it. After a few years, charge and pull battery and have it checked for cold cranking amperage ever spring. Even then, if it grunts most ever start, I would replace it. Most battery checkers at AutoZone and places like that do not do really well on the low amperage setting on small batteries. Not sure why but they tend to say they are OK when they are weak. If they have one that fits your bike, Wal-Mart's AGM absorbed glass mat battery is just as good as any for one third to half the money of a Harley Battery. Do not put an old fashion one with vent tubes on a modern TC Harley. Do not jump, push start or run bike with a half dead battery except in a real emergency. If a bike battery is down and you jump it, throwing all that amps to it from a big car battery especially one that is running can wreck a bike regulator or charging system. Charging a worn out battery can kill alternator stator or the voltage regulator or both. Probably ending in a big dollar repair in parts alone.

It is also a good idea to always check your battery at 2000 RPM with your meter set to AC. If by chance, the regulator goes bad, sometimes it will let AC come thru. That is a sure sign of a bad regulator. The older stators with two wires are a two phase AC system. Lot of people call it a single phase but it is two phase. The AC voltage you see appears single since you check it AC across the two wires since there is no earth ground. If you were to check one wire to an earth ground, it would show one half the voltage that you would see when you check the two wires together on the bike. Same with the other. Together they double and are two phase. The newer three-wire system is a 3-phase AC system for the higher amperage output.

Also remember, when starting a Harley, hit the starter and hold it in till it is firing on both cylinders and running before letting up. If you let up before it’s running, quiet often, it actually take an FI motor longer to start. There is a fraction of a second more for a long stroke Harley then a multi-cylinder car for it to get going. If you do not do this, it will kick back with a bang, sneeze thru the intake or crank a lot longer the second time or shame on you the third time. Also, if you have a habit of doing this, the starter solenoid switch contact will only have half the life it could. You cannot hurt the starter. The starter gear has a sprag clutch. There are drive pins in it that as the gas motor catches and run, it outruns the starter motor drive and disengages it from the electric motor. If you hold it in a little too long and listen carefully, you will hear the sprag clutch run up the ramps and slip. Makes a sizzle hum. This will show you your starter sprag clutch is OK.

 

HD site says VIN does not have any recalls

 

Check your charging system, to see if there are any faults. We have Stickies at the top of this section, although I'm not sure if they apply to recent bikes. Check them out - you'll need a multimeter.

 

The recall was on 2012 Sportster models

 

How far away from your bike are you storing the fobs?

 

Adding a ground to a Phase wire does not make it 2 phase. I think you are confusing a center tapped single phase with 2 phase. The typical house is serviced by a 240 V single phase that is center tapped to give you 120 V to neutral or ground.

 

When you read about two and three phase AC in Wikipedia, I though my term was correct. So you do not believe the older stators with two wire separate wiring is a two phase system or the newer system with 3 is three phase? Is the 'phase' word incorrect here?

Is there a term for the two and three separate wires in the AC stator side of the system?

I know most older books refer to the old Sporty two wire as a single phase. No wires coming off stator are a ground.

Think what your are saying is they are the same single phase AC and kept separate. Then when they go thru diodes in the regulator to make DC, are combine on DC side to add up to the correct DC voltage.

Know on the newer systems, the alternator rotor has smaller magnets but a lot more of them. How does that affect the AC voltage?

 

Ripsaw below I'll try to explain the best I can. I enjoy reading your posts and believe you are here representing what his Forum is about, helping people try to have the best experience they can with their motorcycles. So in that spirit I'll try to explain what I know and if I make a mistake please correct me so we can all learn and better understand the way our bikes operate.



When you read about two and three phase AC in Wikipedia, I though my term was correct. So you do not believe the older stators with two wire separate wiring is a two phase system( I believe they are single phase or the newer system with 3 is three phase?I do believe they are 3 phase Is the 'phase' word incorrect here? No, phase is correct

Is there a term for the two and three separate wires in the AC stator side of the system? Phase wire or Conductor but when you talk about 2 of them together 1-2, 2-3 or 3-1 then you are talking about a "coil" that when it passes through a magnetic field produces a current. Each one of those coils produces a phase.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-phase


I know most older books refer to the old Sporty two wire as a single phase. No wires coming off stator are a ground. The stator cannot be grounded, the first thing to look at when checking the condition of a stator is output wire to ground, if there is continuity the stator is bad. So if you have the bike running and you check a stator wire to ground it should be zero.

Think what your are saying is they are the same single phase AC and kept separate. Then when they go thru diodes in the regulator to make DC, are combine on DC side to add up to the correct DC voltage. Three phase is basically 3 single phase outputs 120 degrees apart. Here are a couple diagrams of a 3 phase rectifier and single phase:






Know on the newer systems, the alternator rotor has smaller magnets but a lot more of them. How does that affect the AC voltage? The output of a single or three phase alternator could be the same, lets say 40 VAC at 2,000 rpm. What is different is the output of the rectifier. Lets say the Alternator put out 1 hertz, 1 cycle per second, (AC in our house is 60hz), in the single phase system the rectifier would receive 1 ac input every second. The 3 phase system would deliver 3 AC inputs of the same magnitude in the same 1 second,120 degrees apart. The output of a rectifier is pulsating DC and in our example you can see the 3 phase would be a smoother output. Wiki shows it better than I can describe.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rectifier

Clear as mud?