Originally Posted by JOW_103

I have a 2013 Ultra Classic that seems to be having charging system issues on top of which I have Harley dealer who is reluctant to work on my bike.

So here's the story. Bike was purchased new from Manchester Harley Davidson in 2012. They installed lots of accessories for me including, Day Maker headlight and driving lights, lighted floor boards, gear indicator, lighted saddle bag rails, etc. Bottom line, lots of accessories.

In March of 2015 had the charging system fail on me while I was on a ride. American Harley Davidson in Leominster, MA serviced the bike and diagnosed the issue as a bad stater (shorted to ground). They replaced the stater, voltage regular and also installed an upgraded alternator due to the amount of accessories I have installed. Bike was returned, voltage meter reading 14.2 volts and everything seemed to be in fine.

Fast forward to two weeks ago. Low Voltage and Check Engine light come on, notice that volt meter is reading low. Bring bike in for service, voltage regulator needs to be replaced again. American Harley does the service, pick the bike up and dealer says that the bike is charging but volt meter is showing 12.4 - 13.5 volts. Dealer says put it on a charger when I get home. They put a note on the service slip saying electrical system is being overloaded. I do that but notice that when I apply breaks, volt meter drops between 10.3 - 11.3. Volt meter barely gets above 12 volts even when riding and drops the longer I ride.

Last evening, while riding volt meter dropped to the bottom of the scale and would not move. Bike went into creep mode while on interstate 1/2 mile from my home. Bike keep loosing electrical power, speedo and tach would go on and off and then bike died at the end of the off ramp where I live. Pushed the bike to a safe area, got my wife to come down and I was able to jump started the bike. Noticed that the volt meter was at 12 volts, but within a minute, volt meter was again not reading anything. Got the bike home and parked it in my driveway.

Called American Harley this morning, they say I need to talk to someone before they will schedule the service. I have an extended warranty and they aren't sure it will be covered due to my accessories.

So what would you do? Easiest thing is to find another dealer. But finding a good one who knows what they are doing is hard to do. Better question is what's going with my bike. Voltage Regulator? Stater?

Hit me with any suggestions you might have.

Originally Posted by Boomer1143

I had a similar issue with my bike. The charging system never quite kept up with demand. I changed my headlight and driving lights out to Trucklite phase 7 LED's. That helped. I changed out the front running / turn signal bulbs and the running / brake light in the tourpak to LED's. That helped some more. I even upgraded to the high output alternator. What I finally found was this,

There are 2 ground studs on a frame cross member in front of your battery. The ground stud on the right side is the clean ground. This one has the negative battery wire running directly to it. The ground stud on the left side is the dirty ground and this is where the voltage regulator grounds. This didn't make sense to me. I thought the alternator should have a direct route to the battery. I cleaned the ground studs and a ran a ground wire directly from the negative battery post to the dirty ground. My charging system is producing a steady 14.2 volts now.