Good Morning!

I have a 2012 Ultra Classic which I bought fresh off the showroom floor. While riding last night with my wife, my Speedometer and Tachometer lights went out, the voltage meter pegged right at 16. When I pulled the clutch in to stop, the lights would come back on and the meter back down to 12. After about 5 minutes of this, it went back to normal working order. Other than what was mentioned above, no dimming of headlights, or radio occurred and the bike ran without any hiccups.

Any ideas what might be happening?

 

Did you have the voltage regulator changed during the recall?

 

I had it changed before the recall

 

I just checked and the recall replacement expired last year

 

1st things 1st,check to ensure all connections to battery,grounds,v-reg (plug-s & pins) etc are all clean ,free of rust /corrosion & are tight.

Use blue loctite on battery terminal connections so they dont loosen up due to vibration along with a little wheel bearing grease
on top of terminals / battery cables to keep them free of corrosion.

Next you should charge battery to ensure its at full charge.

Then if you check the battery right after being fully charged it should show roughly 13-13.5v , but if battery sits a while like 6-8hrs after being removed from the charger you should see approx 12.7v which would give a decent indication battery is ok .

Note , you should see roughly 12.6-12.7 maybe 12.8v ,but 12.7v is what your shooting for with a fully charged 12v battery thats been off the charger for approx 6-8hrs or so.)

But thats not 100% because the proper way to fully test a battery is to test it under load which is the only way to show if the battery in fact has a weak cell / cell thats gone bad so keep that in kind in case you hit issues later that could be battery related.

If battery voltage shows low voltage post recharging i'd replace it & if thats the case try to get selling shop to replace it for free,but if they wont cover it for your then pm me so i can send you a link to same type factory act type agm battery as HD oem repl battery that has little more CCA thats $75-80 cheaper then the Hd repl battery it.

Then after battery is fully charged & tests ok by itself with ign off & motor not running i'd next do a quick test running test using your own volt meter on the battery with motor running at approx 2500rpm to see if charging system (Stator & V-reg) is working properly.

You should see approx 14-14.5volts at the battery & if thats what you get all should be ok with charging system,if not then v-reg or stator (or both!) could be bad & in that case is time to take right back to dealer you just bought it from for repair on their dime IMHO.

But if you do all i rec and charging system & battery seem to chk out ok at this time i'd still call dealer to let them know what happened and ask them to document it on your paperwork so its on record you had mech/elec issues right off the bat in case they return showing it was in fact a mech / electrical issue you had with the bike the 1st day you left the shop.

Scott

 

To see 16 V on the Meter makes me first think of the Voltage Regulator. You said the headlight did not dim but is there a chance it got brighter?
On the Electrical Forum https://www.hdforums.com/forum/elect...ting-alarm-43/
There are 2 Sticky's that explain how to check the charging system. If you have a meter you can do a quick check.
This is from the 2015 manual: