When a shovel starter seems to be pulling hard the brushes are about gone and the thing is heating up bad . You can get then rebuilt at any auto electrical R&R shop .

 

subscribed - no charging here either

 

Artlee,,
I'm interpreting your comments above, "no charging here either", to mean you have a similar problem. If so, read (shrice51) comments from 4/27....great troubleshooting steps. I followed those steps and found the voltage regulator to be bad....swapped it out, and now have around 14volts across the battery when the old shovel is running. nice!
hope that helps, as that's what this web page is all about.
marion..

 

Hi Marion,
Thanks for the encouragement.
Yes, I have been using shrice51's most excellent instructions.
I am at the point where it is either the rotor or regulator. The vac output from the altenator has been 60+ and 50+ plus the two times it checked it at 3K rpm.
The HD manual says that the rotor is bad ( V<60V@3K rpm ) but, not all the figures in that manual are completely correct. And I did see 60+ Vac on one of the two tests
I'd like to slap my evo regulator on the shovel for testing purposes, but, it seems that theses regulators are very model ( or generation of model ) specific. I'd hate to have two bikes with frigged up regulators - lol.
Anyway, I am thinking ( and hoping ) that it is the regulator that is bad.
That's it for now, off to the music fest - cheers!

 

Let me ask this, if anyone cares to answer.
Can you unhook the output cable/wire of the regulator and measure voltage on the wire? Or does the regulator need a load? In my case the battery ( on the 83 FLT and modern FXRs, this wire goes to the solenoid, sharing the same connection point w/ the batt ). I found the output wire from the regulator broken ( where it goes by the starter, on it's way to the main breaker ), just hanging by threads. Cleaned this up, still measuring just the battery voltage level w/ the motor running, no matter the RPMs. I'm sure the regulator is kaput and I have one coming soon.
In the various T-shooting threads, nobody says to unhook the wire from the main breaker and measure voltage. Curious about this.
Thanks

 

hmm,,,
this question is best answered by the experts, however, I'd like to guess that the difference of potential, (voltage), does not require a load. So I'm guessing you should be able to measure the regulator output voltage with out being connected to the battery. however the amount of current draw would be load dependent.

Will be interesting to get the real answer from someone who has done it, and really knows...

 

As a rule, the battery is used to start the motor. The regulator is used to maintain the battery and run all other systems on the motorcycle. Make sure the output wire from the regulator is in good shape, and connected to the battery.

Start with a known good battery. Note the standing voltage of the battery without any cables connected. Install cables and note voltage when ignition is off. There should be no voltage drop. Turn on ignition and note voltage with no other load on the system, no brakes, no lights, no accessories. There may be a slight voltage drop. Start the motor and idle at 1300 RPM. There should be a momentary drop in voltage during the cranking, however, the voltage should come back up 1 to 1.5 volts over standing voltage. Turn on lights, step on brake. The voltage should maintain 1 to 1.5 volts over standing voltage. If it doesn't either too high or too low, the regulator is suspect.

Krome-

 

So, new regulator fixed my problem. As noted earlier, original regulator output wire had worn through, causing drop off in charging voltage and killing the original regulator.
Thanks to all that replied and provided great troubleshooting suggestions.

 

hi got a question on the same line, got a 1979. battery not charging reading 12 volts dc running or not. getting 30v ac out of pins on the case ups to 50v when rpm increases. metering between the two pins shows a closed circut which means the windings are good. now the question. I read you need to need to check each pin to ground and should get no reading. however I can check both pins to ground and both show continuity to the ground. from what the other site said if you do get a reading between the pins and ground the system is shorted out. but if both the stator and rotor are shorted out why would it still be puting out the correct ac voltage when running??