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Hello all. I have an 89 Tour Glide Ultra Classic. Since I've had it (about a year) if I hit the brakes, turn the blinker on, or the headlights. The voltage gauge will drop to 8 volts and all the instruments dim. I've done the following troubleshooting but can't for the life of me figure out what could be causing it. WHen it's running and without any lights on, or brakes depressed, the volt gauge shows 12V
Had battery load tested - good
Tested stator for ground short - good
Stator voltage 20 VAC at idle
Voltage at battery does not drop when this occurs. Shows 13.8 V at idle when running.
Voltage at 30A relay near batter is only 11V and some change. Seems this is a wire coming back from the ignition.
Voltage under instrument cluster is 11.5 volts
Tried taking a wire and grounding the fairing ground to a known good ground - no difference.
Tested various grounds to one another all show 0 Ohms.
If anyone has any ideas it would be greatly appreciated.
I should also note that a lot of things intermittently work. The cb will come on sometimes, the radio comes on but the speakers intermittently work, the cruise only works sometimes.
There are 2 sides to the main 30amp circuit breaker side 1 is battery and voltage regulator side 2 goes out to the ignition.
What side reads what voltage? Sounds like your 30 amp main breaker needs to be replaced.
Just a guess.
No voltage drop between where the regulator hooks up and the red wire that goes up front. Checked on the block under the instrument cluster, no drop on the red wire.
The first place to check (with those symptoms) is the grounding block under the instrument cluster. It's mounted at top of the left fork and has at least 3 wires terminated with spade connectors. Likely one of them is damaged, loose or corroded. One is ground for the anti-dive valve, the others are grounds that feed thru the harness to various places.
Won't promise that's where the problem is, but have seen that exact same issue a few times. Can't see the wires in this photo but that's the grounding block and the wires are brown with non-insulated female spade terminals.
The terminals and spades are bad to corrode at that block. It's tight in there, but pull each one off, clean each male spade on the block and try again. Serious, seen this exact same thing several times and problem has always been "right there" but stranger things have happened
Next place to check is the ground strap that bolts from the frame cross-member to the inner-bottom of the inner primary. It's a flat braided ground strap and if loose, they'll do all kinds of strange things.
Pulled em and they all seemed free of corrosion. Ground strap is tight. It's this where the ground cable from the battery is supposed to connect? It's on a bracket connected to the starter.
Yes, and my apologies. Ranger said something that caused me to go back and read more carefully...
"................... Voltage at battery does not drop when this occurs. Shows 13.8 V at idle when running. Voltage at 30A relay near batter is only 11V and some change. Seems this is a wire coming back from the ignition.
Voltage under instrument cluster is 11.5 volts
..................."
Are you speaking of the breaker or the relay. You should have battery voltage on both sides of that breaker. So either a bad connection or wire from the starter to that breaker, and or a bad breaker if full voltage on one side only.
That relay is the starter relay which also feeds/interrupts the ACC circuit. It does not have anything to do with the headlights. So if voltage is low at that relay, problem is from the main switch back (toward breaker/starter connection or main switch itself).
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Voltage jumping on gauge, lights dim
