It was on.


I went for a ride on my Fatboy yesterday. First ride of the season and it felt great. I noticed the battery icon thingy in my tach was lit up RED. Does this mean I need a new battery or a electrical problem ?

FWIW it's the original battery. 3 years old.

This is what the Tach looks like. The battery icon thingy is under the 0 mph and left of the yellow display that says 500

 

That light usually indicates under charging or overcharging. The battery may be good, especially if you keep it on a tender, but you should have the charging system checked out, along with the battery.

 

What Nevil said. Most likely the regulator. It's the easiest to change if you are gonna shotgun it. If you can measure the voltage, it should be over 13.2 and less than 15.5 running. (dependent on engine speed). A dead/bad battery won't likely throw a light.

 

This right here. Check it at the battery terminals. Check the voltage of the battery before you fire it up though... if your battery is going dead, maybe it will have enough to get you to the stealership/indy if you can't do the work yourself.

 

I had a bad stator seal once that caused that to happen. Only did it now and then but when the light was on it wasn't charging.

 

Thanks

Battery is not going dead. I have it on a Battery Tender over the winter. I do remember that light coming on, on the last ride of the year last year. It came on in the middle of the ride. We pulled over to a restaurant and ate. When I came out the bike started fine and I drove home. The light didn't come on again.

I quess I'm gonna have to have it looked at uggh. I do oil changes and regular maintenance stuff but I don't electrical stuff. I was gonna buy a battery but I quess that would have been a waste cause I'm questing that light would have come on again ?

 

It takes 5 minutes to check the voltage at the battery to see if your voltage regulator or stator have gone south.

 

I think I can do this ( I'm at work now tho )

Let the bike run and take my trusty voltage meter and check the volts on the battery across the positive and negative leads and see it what it says right ?

 

And how would I know if it's the voltage regulator or the stator from that reading ?


I know where the voltage regulator is ( next to oil filter ) but I have no idea where the stator is ?


I'm at work and I don't have the big ole Shop Manual with me.

 

Stator is at the inner primary. You'll have to pull the primary cover off, then the compensator nut, and the rotor off to get to the stator. It takes a while and a few beers.

Check the voltage across the terminals on the battery. Should be about 12.80 something, fire the bike up, idle it to 2k RPM's. Your voltage across the battery should be anywhere between 13.2-15vdc. Anything over 15VDC and the voltage regulator is going out and is allowing the battery to be overcharged. If your voltage doesn't rise, and the battery reads low, then it's not charging. Check your stator and see if it's grounded out to the bike. Set to Ohm's, stick one probe into the stator plug, and then on to a bolt, or something bare metal on the bike. If you get a reading the stator is fried. IF you pop your primary open and you smell burnt oil, like an electrical fire, there is your answer anyways.