Recently i put on V&H shortshots. Now my check engine and battery light are coming on. I know that i need to get it tuned but will that fix the lights coming on or are they coming on for other reasons. The bike still runs fine when the lights are on.

Is it ok to ride until i get a tune done on it, or should i wait and get a tune done?

 

Check Engine and Battery lights on together typically means your battery voltage is low. That means the battery isn't charging...... which usually means a bad regulator, stator, or both.

Battery voltage - motor off should be 12.8 vdc (12.0 vdc = dead)
Battery voltage - motor running at a fast idle sb between 13.5 - 14.8 vdc.

 

Just called the dealership and i guess this is a common problem right now. It sucks because the parts that they think are bad are on back order for a week. This sucks, but at least its covered under warranty.

 

Just went through the same thing......plain and simple, start with a new battery, the stator and reg are probably going out if not already as well..........easiest 2 tests, fire the bike and do a voltage read at the battery......anything less than 13V ish.......stator or reg........unplug the stator from the reg and run the bike.....with a multimeter see what the stator is putting out in ACV.....should be 26-32 at 2000rpm and should increase 14 or so every 1000rpm's.........mine was reading 14 and never budged.........stator......changed out the reg and battery myself and had a shop do the stator........everything is fine now.....been doing alot of reading and found if you do yourself a favor, just put in a new battery every year.......any battery drain irregardless of it being on a tender will put strain on the regulator and/or stator and prematurely blow those out..........

 

OK, you've posted this BS twice. Do you know what a shunt regulator is and how it works? The stator and regulator operate continuously at 100% regardless of the batteries charge state.

 

spalmer:
You need a voltage meter, check DC at the battery then AC for the stator. Stators can be deceiving, my latest fiasco/failure was this type of issue and it wasn't cheap, moreover it was deceiving.

I checked both regulator and the stator. Regulator put out about 12.3 volts, the stator was checked at idle with result of 27-28 volts so I thought regulator, changing it out had no effect. The stator was failing after warm-up/run-up meaning it needed to run for about 10 minutes before it failed, then after shutting off the bike & restarting it showed normal, run down the road a bit and blink on the lights come!

Stators are not hard to replace but you should be comfortable with transmission work, else let the $tealership have the headache, IMO.

regards and keep it on the rubber,
David

 

Did you disconnect the battery when you installed the short shots? My check engine and battery lights came on and off and it turned out I had a loose connection to the battery on the (-) side. I added lockwashers and tightened them back up and have not had any problems since.

Did you pull the diagnostic codes? You should have a trouble code or codes stored if the check engine light came on.

 

Seriousely check the Ground stud on the back top of the engine houseing right below the batt. Mine was 2 turns loose, took 2 trips to the dealer(the said bike was fine both times, said the rode the bike for awhile, YAH RIGHT! They would have felt and heard what i did. Took me 3 hours of research and made sure all plugs were secure and checked statoe ohms and regolator voltage and then i tightened the Negative, Bike runs LIKE NEW! Screw you Stealership! Unreal.

 

Just stick with CHarley's response's...he seems to be a ****ing know it all........

 

I agree with CHarley. I don't see him as a "know-it-all", some people on here have a lot of knowledge and experience with Sportsters or bikes in general. OTOH, some people just like to say things that they were told and believed it because they don't know any better.