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Old Apr 21, 2009 | 11:15 AM
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west texas's Avatar
west texas
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Default charging system

I have a 2000 road king c with 27000 miles on it. Yesterday It was kind of hard to start but it did and I took it for a ride. Well i noticed it cut out some when I was pulling into the station to get some gas. When I went to start it nothing. Being away from the house I got it started with a jump, I just touch the jumper for a sec whin I hit the starter and it kick right over. It was running good until I started to ride off and it ran like crap. It stop running on the road so I caught a ride into town and got a new battery and it ran good till I got it home.

My question is should it not have ran good after I got it started even if I had a dead Battery?can anyone give me any thoughts on this? Thanks.
 
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Old Apr 21, 2009 | 11:21 AM
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Buddy's bike (carb, no FI) had a dead cell in the batt and wouldn't run good at all, especially at idle, until he got a new one. Different buddy's bike wouldn't run at all (FI) with a dead battery. We could jump it, but as soon as the cables were removed it would die. Had to wait for it to charge up before it would run at all on its own.

Did you put a meter on it while running just to make sure your charging system hasn't taken a crap on you?
 
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Old Apr 21, 2009 | 12:41 PM
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If the battery is totally dead it will not run right
 
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Old Apr 21, 2009 | 01:40 PM
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No I havn't put a meter on it, But I was going to try it. I guess I just stick a volt meter to it and rev it up and should I see a increse in the volts?
 
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Old Apr 22, 2009 | 05:56 AM
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number 12 on link should give idea of testing.
http://www.expertvillage.com/expert/...page=1&index=0
 
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Old Apr 22, 2009 | 06:17 AM
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Should see a slight increase on battery voltage when charging ....
 
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Old Apr 22, 2009 | 08:45 AM
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These modern machines won't run with a bad battery. Hell, back in the day, once you were fired up you didn't even need a battery. That was true on a car also. Not any more though.
 
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Old Apr 22, 2009 | 08:53 AM
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Originally Posted by TheShrink
These modern machines won't run with a bad battery. Hell, back in the day, once you were fired up you didn't even need a battery. That was true on a car also. Not any more though.
Absolutely right. I remember starting a car, then taking the battery right out. Wrap the positive cable in a rag and drive away. Now the electronics needs to see a good battery there.
 
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Old Apr 22, 2009 | 09:38 AM
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It has been said a few times no juice it dont run........and you do need to check the charging system to make sure it is working correctly.
 
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Old Apr 22, 2009 | 09:41 AM
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I have a 2000 EGC a few years ago I had about 20 K on my bike and noticed the volt gauge on the dash board slowly rolling down. I ended up changing the stator and rotor. ( i know your rkc doesn't have a volt gauge) I think a couple of quick tests will show if it's the battery or the charging system.
 
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