'04 FLTRI, 24k miles, stage 1, 95". Intermittent screaming/ squealing noise coming from primary. Radio quits working, voltmeter drops to 10v. Bike still running, obviously not charging, everything else seems to work...not goingrun it enough to test all of the electrics. Popped open primary to investigate, perfect, nothing wrong that I can see, everything is clean, no scratches, bolts where they're supposed to be, splines intact, nothing is blue, insulation good on windings. No evidence of anything wrong. I really hate to put it back together til I know whats causing it. Got any ideas?

 

Smell i, if it stinks bad it is a bad Stator. Sounds like it is anyway but could be a voltage regulator...or both. About 400 bucks for the stator at the dealer. I don't recall what the regulator cost, seems around $250, I would bet on the stator only. This is not something you should try and change yourself unless you've been wrenching on bikes for awhile and have some specialty tools.

 

No smell and I should have added, it only did it for a few miles at about 40mph.. did not change when I changed speed or pulled in the clutch and let it idle. when it stopped screaming.. the radio started working again and its charging 14 volts as usual. Rode it 40 miles to the house without it happening again. One more trip to the store since with no noises. Not arguing with your diagnosis.. thank you much.. just thought of a couple variables that might make a difference that I hadn't mentioned.

 

It's probably screaming "replace me, replace me!". With the exception of the screaming, yours sounds just like mine when my stator went out. You can check it like Newhog said, if it smells really bad in there, it's probably toast. Also, you can unplug the regulator and check the wires coming from the stator with an Ohm meter for a short. Sounds like you may have something getting in between the air gap causing the screaming maybe. You can also check the wires for voltage, I don't remember what the values should be but a search will probably tell you exactly how to do it and what the volts should be.

Maybe you'll get lucky but with thenoise and low volts, it doesn't look too good. I was lucky and mine was still under warranty when it failed otherwise,I would have done it myself!