It is good information about the health of the battery. I wouldn't mind knowing it, but not enough to tear my dask apart, and even then you need key on. I installed battery tenders so I could easily check voltage.

But do you want to keep this back and forth up? Doesn't help him. You just want to go on about stupid bleep.

 

Wow, there’s a lot of info on this thread. My suggestion (a few pages back) about trying a cheap plug in (eg to the cigarette lighter) volt meter was to address the OP’s 16v readings on his original volt meter. It would be an easy and cheap way to confirm whether the installed meter was telling the truth or not. If it is actually 16 volts I would be really worried that I’ve been damaging some of the electronics. As another poster mentioned, he’d expect to see bulbs burning out more quickly.

 

That's what I thought, but it morphed into a lot more!

 

It would be plenty accurate for this task, relatively cheap, and require no effort. And you can see it why riding. I would have to have you run into a bus, looking down at one mounted off the battery.

I know I am wrong for these opinions. Be cool little toy to have if you think having battery issues in a vehicle without a gage too. I can see this being a tool in the tool box. My sxs too.

If it spikes through all those connections and miles of wire, you know you got an issue.

 

And a lot of it is BS..

For 1, the dash volt meter is not calibrated all that well but is can be close if you how far off it is by comparing it to a DVM at the battery.. Everyone says it not accurate but if off it'll be off in a linear fashion. 14 volts might be 13.8 volts for instance. Don't mater. If the voltage spikes, the voltage spikes, the meter ain't gonna spike by itself. FWIW the damping on the analog meter is pretty slow so if the voltage spikes it has some duration to it.. If you want to monitor spikes, a DVM might be better but from the cig lighter it could lie to you.. For one the brake lights are on that line. If you got a bunch of brake lights and you hit the front brake it's going to create a negative drop. Now you are thinking something is wrong when it ain't.

If you want to add a DVM to the cig lighter, you won't get motor off readings.. Also as Flounder says. he read 0.3- 0.4 volts low on one bike.. OK if the meter reads say 14.7 running down the road you might think everting is kosher when the batter is seeing 15.1volts. If you are a short stop poser, you might be OK. Put hours on the bike and the battery lasts 6 months.. It would be better to check what the dash meter reads with the battery fully charged and the motor running then use that as a reference point. The dash voltmeter has it's own power wire with all the other instruments load is not going to charge on that much.

At 16 volts, bulbs won't burn out quickly.. Heck my FXDX had a regulator go overvoltage and I didn't loose any lights. Speedo and ICM complained and It killed a LI battery tho..

IMO, if you are adding a DVM, make it accurate.

As usual Flounder helped to make this thread over 150 posts.. Got the OP buying a new stator when all he needed was a connector and probably a new regulator..

I do wonder what the original failure was.. Was it always the frayed connection at the stator to regulator connection? Why wasn't it noticed when the first regulator was replaced. If it was OK then OP didn't route the wires away from the front motor mount..

 

I agree with all that. My $.02 worth was just a quick and cheap way of cross checking the installed volt meter reading, especially when it was reading very high numbers. Certainly not a good permanent solution.

 

I admittedly didn't check for broken wires as well as I should've. From what I was reading it was most likely a bad stator or VR. So that's what I focused on. Being completely useless with electrical work i wasn't really sure what I was doing but as time went on I got better with it and that's when I noticed a broken wire. Now that I'm in the middle of changing out the stator I'll do all the tests with the multimeter to see where I'm at, and then a test ride. Unfortunately if I'd have noticed that broken wire early on it may have helped diagnose what the actual problem is but I kind of feel like right now I don't know what the actual problem is yet. After I taped up the stator and went for a ride, that's when I noticed the voltmeter on the dash going up near 16v when I reved the engine high. I'll get everything put back together as soon as time allows and then see what everything reads and post that.

 

I am the one? You are such a blow hard. Have you actually hooked a digital volt meter on a bike, to see it drop when applying brake lights? I have my doubts at speed. Some people used to like analog meters because it will catch deflection. But I have not seen one in many years other than meggars, and I think those have gone digital.

Problem with electrical threads is guys like to sound smart. Your area of electrical is piddly little ****. And you accuse me of dragging the thread out.

I think the plug in meter could be an interesting tool, you won't know how accurate it is until you plug in and compare to meter. I suspect way over thinking the draw from the connections. This aint some time little electrical filter you are monitoring with an oscilloscope. its not like it is a lot of money, and you can have more than one tool in your tool box.


I personally would be very careful about riding a bike that I thought might be spiking. You could damage electrical components. which is why I keep asking if bulbs are burning out, that can be a sign.

 

Personally, a DVM volt meter check for the cal of the dash is fine. IMO if needed, the voltage measurement should be done at the battery..

 

By the end if this you'll be an expert.