Hi, I have a 2003 flhtci and have one hell of a stumper on my end. I have done a amperage draw test and found that it is drawing 4 amps and draining the battery quickly. So I started with my meter set on amps and in series with positive cable to to the battery and started pulling fuses one at a time and the draw never went away. Next I took the starter out then the voltage regulater and still there. Then I started unplugging the connecters one at a time and still there. Then I pulled all the relays and still there. Then I started chasing wires and found the battery tender wires melted to the pipes thought great this has to be it nope took that out and still there. Then I found the wires for the tour pack had been rubbing on the tire took them out and still there. Those are the only wires I found to be bad. Then I pulled all the fuses and it went away. I found that the radio memory, ECM,and turn signal/security are causing the problem. If I plug any one of them in the draw comes back and it doesn't matter which one i plug in the amperage is the same for all of them. The bike runs great and the charging system is working fine also it's just draining the battery as it sits. I checked to see if there were any codes stored that would help and nothing.

 

At help here would be greatly appreciated. I don't want to start throwing parts at it.

 

Unhook the three wire plug between the stator and the voltage regulator at the bottom of the regulator. If the stator has a problem it can still charge and such with 3 phase 36 AC, but can be like a big resistor heat sink drain if it gets to a ground internally and not pop a fuse or kick out any breakers. I was trying to read and ponder by all you have done weather you have broke this connection, but do not think so. The most you should have is 2.5 mA (milliampere), 5 with alarm. Carb bikes are 1.5 and 4. Remember to not get confused if you have an alarm that when you key off, it pulls 16-25 mA for almost 30 seconds. Creates a heck of a spark when you hook the battery up. You are saying amps but do you mean milliampere?

 

I forgot to include that I also disconnected the stator. As of right now the voltage regulator is unhooked from the stator and from the breaker including the ground. Unfortunately I mean amps not milli amps. With just the computer plugged in its drawing 3.7 amps and with either the radio or turnsignal/alarm it's drawing 4.2 amps. I've been studying the wiring diagrams trying to find a common connection between them that would cause any of the 3 to draw on my battery. I consider my self pretty good with wiring. I've been an electrician for 21 years with lots of DC experience. This has me very stumped. As far as the alarm amperage I have left my meter connected for a couple of hours while I keeped checking it thinking I was waking it up every time I checked the amperage. It would drop a couple of milli amps but that's it.

 

Well you know (hopefully anyway) that it is not all three radio,ECM and TSSM. Has to be a common harness wire supplying the power to them. This is only my hobby,and wire diagrams are like my chest moves, only a few layers deep. Sometimes, I just give up and un-tape it.

 

That's what I've been afraid of. The one common wire they do have is the positive supplying them and I opened the harness up and chased it all the way throu the bike and it seems fine. I really appreciate your input.

 

Ok so I ran some more tests on the voltage regulator and found that evn thou it putting out the correct voltage the diode is shot with I think is there to keep the voltage from fluctuating. Now is it possible that the regulator would have taken the ecu,tssm, and radio to were they now have shorts in them causing them to draw so much current.

 

So what you are saying is when you unplug the two wires coming from the regulator, it goes away?

There is 3 large diodes in the regulator among other smaller ones. The 3 large ones are one way valves for the 3 phase 36 volt AC coming from the stator. Once thru it, it is the 18 volts DC that the regulator trims to 14.8-12.8 DC to charge battery. Sure any solid state stuff can do that from heat but I would have though the bleed back would need to go thru a shorted stator. When you normally touch any of the three stator wires to the frame, if correct it should show open. The regulator is one part that except for checking battery voltage at apx 14.8 volts at 2000 that is hard to test without special equipment. It may not be the charging part but the regulating part going to ground. Hope you found it. Let me know for sure.