well after being stranded with a dead battery yesterday (was the stator) I was thinking to myself "boy it would be nice if this thing had a "battery" light like my sporty"

how is it that my 1975 sportster has a battery light to warn me if it's not charging and my 15 year newer FXR does not??

looking throught the FSM it doesnt look to me like ANY of the FXR (or other models my manual covers) had one....some of them had a "volt" gauge which would be easy to hook up but i dont have a spot for a 2" gauge......

a single LED or 12v lightbulb I could do

now the sportster light is easy to figure out but of course that is a "generator" and NOT a "alternator"

now i KNOW i'm not the first person to think this so what's the deal??

who has a diagram to hook up a single bulb as a "battery" light??

you know...an "idiot" light.......... OFF when it's charging and ON when it's not?

TIA scott

oh BTW 1990 FXR although I would think it would be the same for ANY alternator equipped bike

 

1990 FLHS here! If you have a wiring diagram for your Sporty it should be straight-forward to trace and copy that feature onto your FXR. These are the words of an electrical illiterate, but if I am wrong hopefully some bright spark will be along shortly to help out further!

 

good thinking but the sportster has a generator (separate field and arm wires)so it is a completely different setup the the alternators used now-a-days......

a generator produces DC current whereas an alternator produces AC current which is then "flipped" to DC via the rectifier/regulator

well only one side of the sine wave is flipped but thats a deeper discussion then is needed for this

 

If you want to spend some $$.
http://motors.shop.ebay.com/__?_from...p_id=752529256

 

yeah i know.........

I hate to have to do that tho......

 

Kuryakyn makes a LED volt meter for bikes. It is around 40 bucks, comes in black or chrome and is pretty small. It is simple to hook up. You just tap a hot wire and then ground it. I've had one on my Road King for years.

 

Besides having an aversion for Kuryakyn stuff since a footpeg totally disintigrated and fell off in about 2K miles, something like that voltmeter would be about ideal. You could also go to radio shack and buy a 12V automotive electrical tester thing that plugs into a cigarette lighter and has LED's that display the status of your system. Wire it up under the seat or in a saddlebag, etc., and check it occasionally.

I have a volt meter on my bike. Not that it is accurate, as it measures the voltage after it's been around the bike 2 or 3 times and through a couple dozen electrical connections, but as a reference, it's handy.

 

Same thing happened to me last weekend. It just died. 1991 FXR-SP. Gonna look at it this weekend, How did you determine it was the stator? Will you replace rotor also when you get in there? Please keep this thread updated
1990FXR, thanks Dennis

 

read your FSM...there's several tests in the for measuring the 2 different parts of the charging system

my stator showed continuity to ground which means no good

I havent had a chance to pull mine apart yet since I'm out on the road trucking.....

if my magnets etc look good on the rotor I'll probably just replace the stator but want to pull it apart first to make sure

 

I replaced my stator in the spring. I used the same rotor. I went with a HD replacment from Zanottis. I have a 32amp system. I think the stator was like 79 + shipping. Dr Hess posted a charging system check. This should help.
I printed it and put in in my manual for easy fast reference. Thanks Dr Hess!

https://www.hdforums.com/forum/evo-c...ease-help.html