Looks like I have a stator that has gone bad. I rode to work yesterday morning and before I turned it off I saw the check engine and battery lights on. They must have just come on before I pulled into the parking lot because I didn’t see them prior to getting to the parking lot. At lunchtime I borrowed a volt meter from the maintenance shop to check the battery. The battery had 12.82 volts with the bike not running. I then started it and ran it up to 2000RPM and the volts didn’t go up. I then decided I would deal with checking the stator when I got home with it.

I rode it home the 17 miles from work hoping it didn’t die on me. It made it home with the check engine and battery light on the entire time. I got it in the garage and turned a fan on it to cool it down while I went into the house. When I got back to it the battery was drained down to about 11.5 volts so I removed it, cleaned the battery posts and put it on a 6 amp charger for about an hour. While it was charging I cleaned all of the cable ends and check the terminal ends to make sure they were good. After charging, the battery was back up to about 12.6 volts. I put it back in and made sure all connections were tight. I started it up to make sure it was charged enough before checking the stator. I disconnected the regulator from the stator and connected my volt meter to it, started it and the stator output was only 2 volts AC. I checked to make sure the volt meter probes were getting good contact and the volts never changed. I then turned it all off and connected the battery tender up to it to charge the battery back up. So it looks like I need to replace the stator. Is there any other tests that I need to do to make sure the stator is the problem? If it needs replaced I’ll use one of the Cycle Electronics stators as many of you have suggested to others to use. Sorry for the long read but I wanted to make sure I included everything.

By the way it’s a 2006 Sportster 1200C with just under 34,000 miles.

Thanks for your help,

Earnie

 

Yep, sounds like the stator is bad. With the bike running, it should read between 20 - 70 VAC, with the voltage increasing as the RPM's are raised.

You've done well at 34,000 miles, as most fail in the 20 - 25K mile range.
I recommend replacing with an aftermarket stator from Accel or Cycle Electric. The HD stators are junk. I had 3 fail in the first 62,000 miles.

 

cHarley,

Thanks for verifying the stator is bad. I've been reading a lot of threads about stators since yesterday and the information about the Cycle Electric stators. That's the one I want to replace the Harley one with. I just had the primary cover off in July to put some helicoil's into it to fix some stripped out derby cover bolt holes. Now it looks like I get to do take it off again.

At least this didn't happen on my trip out west at the end of July while I was on the road in the middle of nowhere. Six of us did 4000 miles in 9 days and I was the only Sportster in a group of 2 Ultra Classics, an Ultra Limited, a Road King and a BMW 1800. Going up Monarch Pass in Colorado none of them were able to keep up with the Sportster. That's the first time I was called Bat **** Crazy and by the end of the day they were all saying "Sportster is Boss".

If anyone has any tips on trouble areas when removing the stator I would appreciate the heads up. Now all I have to do is get all of the parts together to get this fixed.

Thanks,

Earnie

 

I want to thank you both for the heads up on this. My Sporty has not reached those miles yet but when I get that trouble light I will know where to start the troubleshooting.

 

I went to Deals Gap in Tennessee in May with a couple of guys that race Ducatis. As we were loading our bikes on the trailer, one guy told me that my Sportster was going to fall apart before we reached the other end of the Dragon. Well, we rode the Parkway, Tail of the Dragon, and the Skyway and I kept up right up with them. At the end of the ride at dinner there was much respect for my bike the rest of the week.

 

My stator went caput in June of this year. Thanks to the wonderful people on this forum I was able to diagnose the problem and repair it myself. Replacing the stator isn't too hard, just time consuming and messy.

 

Gpsjr10,

I like proving people wrong about my little Sporty. The first day of the trip we rode from Rolla, MO to Gallup, NM for an Iron Butt Ride, a total of 1023 miles in about 18 hours. When people found out that we were planning on doing an Iron Butt they thought that I was crazy to do it on a Sportster. The most miles that I had done at one time was about 450 miles. When I got back from the trip everyone was amazed that I did the Iron Butt and a total of 4000 miles for the 9 day trip. I'm looking forward to doing a similar trip again next summer on my little Sporty.

Earnie

 

mpaquette,

I agree, there are a lot of helpful people on the forum. I had to replace the clutch last September at 25,000 miles and the information from the forum along with the service manual made it much easier to do. Hopefully since I've had the primary off before that it will make replacing the stator a little easier and quicker.

Earnie

 

Ramboamt,

I hope this information and all of the other information available here on the forum helps you as much as it has me. I'll keep this updated as the work progresses. I've got to order parts tomorrow to get this done. We're having some really good weather and I'm not able to ride until I get this fixed.

Earnie

 

On another note, tonight I called my brother who also has a 2006 Sportster 1200C to tell him about what was going on and he told me he is having an issue with his bike. After it has been riden for some time and turned off, when it is started up the check engine light comes on and then a few seconds later the battery light comes on but they don't stay on very long before they go out. The lights don't stay on long enough to get a volt meter on the battery. He has checked the DTC's and it's showing a low battery voltage code, the same code I have with mine. He's not sure what to do to try to get this figured out. Is this a symptom of the stator going bad or a bad regulator? Has anyone had the same problem and how did you get it fixed?

Thanks,

Earnie