Hopefully i am posting in the proper place.

I have a 2000 HD ultra classic

I had a problem last night with my charging system - The engine light came on and I noticed the voltage meter said 10-11 volts - i quickly lost battery power and my lights faded. I was able to drive home but the battery was completely dead.

I charged the battery overnight - I am still reading 11 volts however - the bike started on its own without battery charger hooked up - it ran for 5-10 minutes with lights on and did not get a engine light.

1) Do you think the voltmeter on the dash is accurate?
2) The battery is 8 months old - is it possible for a dead cell already?
3) What else do i need to look at?



Geedub

 

You should get a voltage reading across the battery of between 13.5 - 14.8 VDC with the motor running and reved up to 1500+ RPM. If you don't get that, the charging circuit has a problem. Either the regulator, stator or both have taken a dump.

I would check the voltage with a separate, decent volt meter.

 

The stator looks difficult but is the regulator pretty easy - looks like bolts on at the base of the motor?

I am getting 11 volts but thats even with the cycle not running or running

 

Open the inspection cover on the primary, if it smells burnt it's the stator.
Good luck!

 

You can check the stator by unplugging it from the regulator. The voltage from the stator should be between about 24 vAC and 90 vAC with the motor running. The higher the RPM the higher the voltage will be. Measure across the 2 pins coming from the stator.

 

The 11, running or not, is that on your dash meter? If so, pretend it does not exist for now. They are called idiot gauges and lights for a reason. They are not always accurate, but will indicate if something has changed. IE, you may have more or less than 11, but what you do know, is you had, say 14, and now 11, something has changed. Make sense?

First - Check fluid level in batt, unless you have a gel batt/glass mat batt. Top off with distiled h2o if they need a shot

Next - check all the battery terminals, clean, I coat with dielectric grease, and tighten. Check your ground cable to frame/engine. Again, clean and tight.

Charge batt to full charge. It should read 12 or li'l higher. If not, replace batt.
I do ALL these steps, each time, B4 I go on to trouble shoot the rest of the system. Have trouble shot scoots, only to discover bad batt, ya learn, sometimes the hard way.
Now, All that good?

Now, take your multimeter, set it for DC volts, scale high enough to read 20 or more. Red to +, Black to - on batt. Start motor, run at 1500 or so, voltmeter should read 13.5 to 14.7 or so. IF it goes higher than that, reg bad, over charging: if no change, next step.

Now you know it isn't charging. Reg or Stator bad.
To check stator -

First, shorted - find plug on front of motor. Set multimeter to OHMs, lowest setting. Motor OFF, check between the 2 pins or holes in block, should have continuity, and if you have a decent meter, somewhere about 1-4 ohms. Continuity, it passed this part.
Now, switch meter to highest OHM setting, like 100K. Touch one probe to a pin, and the other to the motor block or a bolt. Meter should not move, do the other pin, same way. IF you get a reading on either pin, stator is shorted. NO reading, next step.

Second, ouput - Set meter to AC, 'NOT' DC, over 100v setting. With plug on motor unplugged, start motor, touch the probes to the 2 pins/holes, either way, not polarity sensitive here. At idle, 'bout 20v-25v or so. As you rev the motor, goes up to 60 or more. IF you have this, stator is okay.

At this point, you know you have a good batt, good connections, and now a good stator.
Replace the volt reg, and you should be good to go.

If the tests showed your stator shorted or not putting out, need to pull the primary to get at it. If you do not have the tools, or are unsure, may want to take it to the stealer or an indy to have stator replaced, but with the manual, posting here, and tools, you can do it.
Save yourself some $$$, and learn more 'bout your ride.

If I screwed up, and forgot something here, SOMEBODY post over, Please.

Good luck.

 

I have a 2000 classic ultra - i am having a little trouble finding the plug on the front of the motor - i have faring and other nonesense covering up too much. Is the plug directly behind the regulator?

 

Typically it is under the regulator. On the left front of the block, there is a round grommet with 2 heavy gage wires leading to the connector. Not to be confused with the sensor which is retained with a allen screw.

 

Sounds like a possible bad stator to me since the batt voltage is low (11 volts) with the engine running and not running, if indeed you don't have a bad volt meter in the dash, strange that you charge it overnight and it's still 11 volts,, pull out the multi-meter as suggested to rule out the dash voltmeter.

One thing extra to add to some already very good advice and how to trouble shoot your problem,, is if everything checks out,, you may have a power drain going on with the bike not running. You said you replaced the battery 8 months ago, have you added any lights etc or had any work done on the bike recently??

 

On the voltage issue - i bought a new electronic readout voltmeter to verify - it says when the bike is not running that i have 12.40 volts - when the bike is running it drops to 11.90 volts at 1k but 11.99 at 3k.


I had the battery tested just to rule the problem out and they said its fine.

To rule out the power drain I have left the volt meter in place and have been periodically checking to see if its draining. So far it stays at the same voltage 1 hour after initial test.

It looks like its either the stator or the regulator ( i do get a small bump in voltage if i rev to 3k but its only .09 of a volt increase.)

Thanks for suggestions.