Thought I would add my saga to the collection.

I've always ridden "antiques". "My other ride is a Shovel..." OL says you're club VP now, time to get you a "new reliable bike" so you're not always on the side of the road she says... Okay, cool not often your OL FORCES you to go buy a bike.

Bought a very slightly used 2011 LO.

Problem started on Aug 1 2012- at stop lights the battery light would come on and go out after a few miles. I took the seat off and found two 14g wires that were wedged between the battery and the battery box that had worn through the insulation. Also changed to an Easy Reach seat at that time and enjoyed a problem free ride for several months. Numbers always checked out on the charging system.

Also contacted the dealer but my voltage regulator was not part of the recall.

The problem started again in the new year. Typically I'd go in and tighten everything down and make sure everything was where it was supposed to be. That would fix it for a while. It was hard to reproduce but seemed to happen at stop lights so I would always go back to what was going on under the seat... Checked for phantom draws, charging system, etc... all seems to be in order.

Left me at a burrito place one morning and had to get it trailered home. Recharged the battery, cleaned everything up and she's behaving again. All the numbers still check out. Friend says with these new Harley's you have to keep them on a charger so reluctantly I start doing that.

Lone Star Rally time comes and me and my son are on the way to Galveston and the battery light starts coming on and going out... I figure as long as the light is going out I'm good. Bad logic. We get to Galveston and I stop at a light and when the light turns green the bike shuts off. (The battery light was out and had been for a while)... My son goes and finds the brothers from CMA who always run a bike hospital... They pick me up charge me up and we're all good. I'm still running 14+ V at 3000+ RPM so I figure all is well on the charging system but I'm thinking battery may be an issue.

I still manage to ride the bike a few more weeks till the problem recurs- again, intermittent and kind of hard to reproduce. All my wrench spinning friends are saying it's gotta be a charging issue but I still get 14.6-.8 at the battery...

I'm now hell bent to figure this thing out. I take her out after dinner one evening and ride her till the problem shows up. BUT everything still checks out. It's now dark out and I have the seat off and I decide to fire her up... Arcing on the negative terminal of the battery.... wires are loose (don't tighten your cables with a Phillips head screwdriver always use a socket) Take the wires off and the post is somewhat melted even. So I clean everything up tighten it all down and life is good - I'm happy that I may have finally fixed it and it was something simple and cheap. I'm getting good charging voltage, etc...

But alas that is not the case- a few more rides and the light is coming back on - everything is nice and tight. Only now I'm not getting the charging voltage anymore. WTF? maybe it's a fluke and I try a few more times over the next couple days... Same deal.

Got back into it last night now that our Snowpocalypse seems to be over with. New battery, cleaned connections, coated with dielectric grease, and started it once, battery light came on.... no charging voltage...Checked the stator. That seems to be okay... ordered a new voltage regulator from Cycle Electric. Hopefully that will do the job once and for all.

 

Start by checking your charging circuit and battery. There are two helpful stickies in the DIY Electrical section. You'll need a suitable multimeter.

 

Ummm that's what I did. Mentioned checking all that above.

 

Have you read those stickies?!

 

What exactly is the battery light for? what does it indicate?
I'm not familiar with the newer Harley's.

 

Battery light basically just means the voltage on the battery is low... doesn't say why. BUT on the new Harley's (i.e., EFI) it basically means something is jacked... so pay attention.

You can get away with a whole lot more **** on a Shovel.

 

It probably relates to the charging circuit, in other words the battery is not being charged. Read the stickies I mentioned above, which give a series of checks to help identify the problem.