The first indication that I had an electrical problem occurred last Sunday. I walked into the garage that morning and noticed that the indicator light on the battery tender was still red, even after having been connected to the bike all night. It should have turned to green once the battery was topped off.

I spent most of last Sunday morning trouble-shooting. I removed the battery and attached it to the tender - the tender light went green. I placed the battery back in the bike and re-attached the POS/Neg cables - the tender light went green. I replaced the fuse that I removed from my tach circuit (I had just installed the tach the previous weekend, and I had pulled its fuse in order to determine if there might be a short somewhere in its connections) - tender went green. Finally, I re-attached the tender's pigtail (the one permanantly hard-wired to the battery) - the tender went green.

I rode the bike to work last week without incident. However, I noticed that on several occassions once the bike cranked, the signal light indicator lights in the console came on and flashed simuntaniously about three times.

I dropped the bike off at the dealers last Thursday to have new tires and brake pads installed on Friday. When I picked the bike up Friday afternoon, they told me that my battery was dead. They had put it on a charger and wanted to leave it there overnight. They had installed a loner battery in the bike for me to use.

The service manager tested the battery yesterday morning while I waited. He said that it checked out fine. Once back in the bike, he spent a considerable amount of time checking for any pull on the battery that would indicate a problem somewhere. Everything checked out. I left and rode for several hours.

After having been connected to the tender for several hours yesterday evening and not having fully charged the battery (still red) I disconnected the tender from the bike. This morning, the battery was once again dead.

I removed the battery from the bike and charged it again this morning while it sat on the workbench. Once re-installed, it turned the motor over seveal times before weakening again, followed by clicking sounds. I was able to finally start the bike after using the jump start feature on my charger. I rode the bike around a little. When I shut the motor off, it didn't have enough juice for me to restart it.

Sorry for being so long. But, what's going on, here? It it the battery after all? Why did it check "good" yesterday? I'm sitting here on a beautiful Sunday afternoon writting this when what I really wanted to be doing was RIDING. I'm stumped. I think that I have looked at everything. Help!

Update: Both battery charger and tender indicate that the battery is once again fully charged. I place it back into bike, connect cables. Bike chuffs a couple of times before clicking begins again. ?

 

You didn't say how old the battery is, but your problem is either the battery, the stator, the voltage regulator or a current leak somewhere. My guess is it's the battery. It's easy enough to find out. How'd the loaner battery do? If it held a charge and worked fine, then I'd say it's pretty good evidence that the battery is the problem. If the loaner would stay charged either, then test the stator, the VR, and test for a current leak.

Uncle Peepers

 

Battery. Just doing a standard load test with the equipment at Checkers can show a good test on, and kill, a bike battery at the same time, if the tech don't know what he's doing. I'd assume your Harley tech knows what he's doing, but stuff happens. A weak battery will also show green on the battery tender, when all its getting is a surface charge. But check all your battery connections for looseness or corrosion- either one will cause too much draw on the battery when starting/running and cause the battery not to recharge properly while the bikes running, contributing to an early death.

 

Thanks, guys. I didn't really have the loaner battery long enough to tell.

I charged the original battery up once again and took it buy an Advance Auto late yesterday. In about two minutes I was told that the battery was bad.

I dropped it off at the dealership early this morning and asked that they test it again. I really can't think of anything else. I've checked and rechecked all the connections that I can find/reach.

BTW, the battery was in the bike when purchased about 18 months ago. I understand that the warrently period for a HD motorcycle battery is only 12 months.

 

For those of you who might be interested enough to follow these posts regarding my problem, it appears that the battery is the culprit. As mentioned, I had Advance Auto test it late yesterday - no good, they said.

I dropped it back off at the dealership this morning and they did a followup test - no good (this time).

New battery - $81.26

The sound of my Deuce coming to life - priceless!

 

That's how electrical problems can be - intermittent until they give up the ghost. Only the lucky ones have a black-n-white failure.

Similiarly, my 05 Ultra had a failing regulator - took to dealer and could not find anything (said it was a bad connection), died again a few days later (was wrose with heat) and that time they replaced the regulator - been fine since.

 

The saga continues!

Yes, I thought the problem was finally solved. The battery tested "bad" both at AA and the dealership. New battery went into the bike on Monday afternoon. Vrooooooom - started right up.

On Wednesday afternoon I decided to take a putt. Rolled the bike out of the garage and hit the starter button. Yeah, you guessed it - dead battery!

I phoned the service dept. and told them I was on the way if I could get the bike started. I used my charger to jump-start the bike. I rode it in to the dealerhip and left it. I didn't hear anything, so I called them Saturday morning (beautiful riding day, BTW! [:@]) I was told that a part had to be ordered - the ECM was bad! I don't understand all of it and what relationship the ECM had with the battery, but I'm no tech. Anyway, its a warrently issue, however, I wonder if that includes a stage 1 download, AND, is my SERT now just so much junk?[]

 

Dealer will need to flash your new ECM with your old VIN number - I beleive that will allow you to use your existing SERT (which has already been married to the VIN). Hopefully, someone has the SERT map that was used on your old ECM - if so, just download it onto the new ECM. Would think the dealer can do all that. The ECM has a "constant power" connection right to the battery - so, I guess it's possible that something haywire in the ECM could be draining the battery - would think though that there would be other "symptons". Any case, let us know how you make out.

 

I just got off the phone with the service tech. (I have to say that Harley-Davidson of Lynchburg's service dept. has really been great on this.) ECM on order. Second bad one for them in a week,it seems. I'll be taking my SERT interface by this week so they can flash the new ECM. VROOOOM, VROOOOOOM (soon, I hope)