10 miles from home yesterday and the engine light and battery discharge light came on. Voltmeter showed 10v. By the time I pulled into my driveway, volt meter was at 0 and lights were very dim. Bike is an 07 FLHTC with 60k with the original battery. Any thoughts on how to proceed with this problem? What would you do? Thanks, Bill Going to garage to take battery out of bike now.

 

Sounds like a charging system issue not a battery issue to me. Check and see what voltage you are getting with the bike running, as it should be much more than 10v's.

 

You likely need a new battery as well, but your stator could be burnt up, or your Voltage Regulator could be shot.

 

Your bike voltmeter is not very accurate, so use a multimeter to check the voltage across the battery terminals. If the bike will start check again with the engine running at 2,500-3,000rpm. Should be around 14.8volts. After that there are various other checks for identifying the culprit detailed in the DIY Electrical section.

 

6 years on the stock/original battery is a pretty long time.

 

At the very least you're gonna want to replace the battery. After installation check the voltage at high idle. It sould measure about 14.2 to14.5 volts.. If 12.9 volts or lower you have a charging system problem also!

 

The problem with testing like this (with the old battery) is that you might get a false voltage reading. You need to fix what is broken first before testing further. Seeing that he ran the bike until it died (lights grew dim), probably the case. Agree on the bike gauge not being accurate enough.

 

I had a 06 ultra and was on a trip and was two hundred miles from home and mine did just whay you are sayingMy brother was with me on his ultra so we were going to take his voltage regulator and put it on mine to see if that was my problem in the process I discovered the the plugin under regulator where the wirew come into it were loose and that was the problem so check that it is very easy to check and it is a trist to tighten so easy to fis Hope that is your problem

 

I can spell better than that just not good at typing

 

Don't overlook the possibility that the connections need cleaning and tightening. That said, six years is about the expected lifespan of a battery. Proper testing must be done at the battery terminals with a proper meter if you want accurate readings.