Okay, probably a noob move, but I had a dead battery and used a car charger late one night. By morning my house smelled like rotten eggs and it was the battery with a little water on the ground under the bike.

I pulled the battery and picked up a new one ($120!), when I reattached the new battery I had no power at all. The fuse on the positive line is fine.

Sooooooo, what did I **** up?

 

That egg smell was sulfur because you fried your battery AND your rectifier !!! (ooopsie ...)

Go get a new one or let 'em know what silly thing you did to your bike... don't ever "jump" your bike off a car either..

 

Fantastic.... I've been trying to find information on replacing the rectifier; but coming up short. Is that it on the lower front frame (black?).

 

...at least NOT while the vehicle is running. You can potentially fry wires and/or electronics if the vehicle is running.

 

This is your voltage regulator:



And yes, on a stock bike it's located between the front lower frame down tubes.The voltage regulator also contains your rectifier. Basically the voltage regulator (as a unit) does two things. The rectifier part of it changes the AC current produced by your alternator into usable DC current. The second thing the voltage regulator does is reduces the amount of the current (ie. the voltage) your alternator produces. It bleeds off that excess voltage by turning it into heat that dissipates into the air by way of the fins on the voltage regulator case.

It sounds, initially, like you used too many amps to charge your battery for too long. Ideally you want to use only about 2 amps to slow charge a motorcycle battery and most car battery chargers put out more amperage than that. Now with that out of the way let's get into your specific issue . . .

You put a new battery in and the bike won't turn over. I wouldn't jump right to the conclusion it's the voltage regulator that's the problem. (Although that may be a secondary problem.) With a battery that's properly charged you can actually remove the voltage regulator plug from the crankcase (effectively taking the entire charging system offline) and the bike should still start up. Of course it won't run very long as all the juice needed to power the coil (and thereby fire the spark plugs) is being supplied by a battery that isn't being electrically replenished.

So in your case I would go with the idea you fried something (besides the battery) between the battery and the ignition switch. The first thing to check is your 30 amp circuit breaker. I've no idea what make and model Harley you have but you'll find this breaker somewhere between your positive battery terminal, your starter lug, and your voltage regulator and it looks like this:



You can't visually check this breaker (like you can a fuse) so you need a multimeter to check it for continuity (it's ability to pass current.) In lieu of that these breakers are just a couple of bucks in any auto parts store so just swap it out for a new one. And buy two while you're at it and carry the other as a spare.

Now try to start the bike again.

If it still won't turn over you are going to have to check the wiring (follow the power) up through your ignition switch (including the battery cables) looking for an open short caused by the heat from the overcharging. This would be a good time to get familiar with the ohms function of a multimeter. (If you're not already.) Most multimeters come with basic instructions and it's worth the effort as over the time you own a Harley it will save you hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars of shop time.

If any of the above works for you (and you get the bike started) we can get into how to check if your charging system, ie.alternator and voltage regulator, are working correctly.

 

Yep, I P.M.'d him telling him to ohm it out (if he has a mutlimeter...judging by his question..he may not.)

You don't know what MAKE or model it is ?

hmmmmmm.... IT'S A HARLEY.... Oh and judging by the "2008 fat bob" in his sig... I'm gonna go out on a limb and say it's ...ummmmmm... a 2008 fat bob ?

I sent him microfiche with a part number and pricing ...(it's $102.00)


Let us know how it works out...

 

Yes, it's a 2008 Fat Bob. I've googled the hell out of this stuff but most of the links are worthless as technical resources. The deal wants about $100 to tow the bike, $95 to diagnose and then whatever the parts are to fix. I'm out the battery already and the idea of another $300 isnt very appealing. I'll pick up a multimeter since my 5 year old seems to have hidden the one I had - I'll try testing the breaker and see if I can get an idea of where the disconnect is before I do anything else (and report back).

Oh, yeah, I left the car charger on the 12V high setting overnight - just wasnt thinking when I did it. I had charged it on the lower 6v setting the week before, but only had enough juice to turn the headlights on - not enough to crank it over. So I went for the higher setting overnight thinking that would do the trick and I over cooked it.

 

LOL, I actually meant "year" and wrote "make" by mistake as I'm not all that familiar with the electrical systems on newer stock bikes. And I wasn't entirely sure the MOCO still used that same type of 30 amp breaker.

 

I stopped by the dealer during lunch and picked up the 45amp main breaker - its actually a fuse now. I was told its located directly under the opposite cover on the other side of the bike. They felt this was most likely the problem; so I'll check it out tonight.

 

I'll wager you're on the right track now. With the ignition and the kill switch off (?) I'd think the battery and the charging system should be somewhat isolated from each other.