the dreaded chargin problem

[ol skool rules]

i hate electrical crap. i can wire a bike but can't tell you why or how it works lol. this is actually a evo sporty question, its a '94 883. but i'm askin it here cause us shovelheads are the smartest bunch in the group by far, well atleast more experienced lol and the charging systems are basically the same.
but anyways, my buddies old lady's sporty(its badass!!) kept blowin out the rectifier/regulator late last spring so we was checkin out the wireing and we found one of the wires from the stator was rubbing against the frame and worn thru. long story short he got a new stator and rect/reg all was good for about 3-4 months of riding. then poof  takes a dump not charging we checked the stator out with multimeter all was good according to the book anyways. was only a few weeks of riding left til cold weather so they parked it. he calls me friday n says he takin it to the dealer up the street mon morning. they got some deal goin on $40 diagnosis something like that. so they being the rip off artists they are just start replaceing parts without his approval. he calls them up mon afternoon to see whats up and the guys says well we replaced the reg/rect and the stator but still doesn't seem to be working. we think you need a new rotor, oh and btw your bill is up to $400 dollars would you like us to continue repairing it? so he flips out refuses to pay, wants his old parts back, of course they can't find them. so after a little yelling and threats of a lawyer he pays the $40 bucks and gets his bike back with the new parts installed. so my question is, can a rotor go bad? i've never heard of one going bad. i mean its just a buncha magnets on a piece of steel. maybe i wrong. edumacate me

[hdbikedoc]

rotors can go bad but worked at hd dealer for over 20 years and most failures are the splines stripping or not there (1986 blunder) have seen magnets come off but generally if the stay where they were installed the rotor is good ,sometimes magnets get week but a screwdrive sucked in to magnet tells if they are good, , its been awile but on that year sporty there is a metel plate that retains the wires from the stator to the inside the primary sometimes rubs and shorts the stator wire usually on relacing these I modify so it won't happen again can check stator for resistance should be around .2 to .4 ohms and check each terminal to ground

[dirtywhitewalls]

make sure rectifier/regulator is grounded good to the frame, may not be your problem, but i was eating batteries and blowing headlamps on my shovel, changed the regulator with a new one but same thing happend. of course it mounts on that kick stand/foot peg mount thing, i guess it wasn't grounded good. i made i ground wire from regulator to engine frame mount bolt and no problems in two years since.

[baldoldfxr]

rotors can lose some of their magnetism if they are knocked hard or repeatedly for example whith a air hammer.

[IBARider]

You checked stator with multimeter by the book.  I don't know what all that entails cept maybe continuity.  Did you put meter on A/C and check rotor with it running?  Unplug the stator and put meter leads on stator wires.  Start it up and A/C voltage is kinda low at idle but significantly increases with RPM.  Can't remember exact #'s but maybe 20-30 volts A/C??  Anyone know?  Anyways, if it's putting out A/C voltage, your stator and rotor are good.  If your rotor had loose or broken magnets you think they would have seen that.

With no old parts, it sounds like a straight rip off and they didn't do anything but park it.  He got ripped off for $40 cuz they obviously didn't diagnose it...

[kiwidave]

Anyways, if it's putting out A/C voltage, your stator and rotor are good.

Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzt.

I have to correct ya there. Sorry.

It's a very common red herring that one. A grounded stator can STILL show correct AC voltage output (yeah around 20AC V per 1,000rpm depending on model) but it still won't charge your battery

the RESISTANCE tests are what you must go through.  This happened to me last winter, I was getting around 22volts AC out of the stator pins, but the battery was not charging. I pulled the stator out and it was stuffed...frayed wiring at the plug and elsewhere, worn-out and bent magnets....

A few years back, having had some charging failures, I wrote down what I knew, wrote down what I didn't know, cribbed some "Potty mouth" from people smarter than me, then just tried to put it all down and pass it on in really simple terms .....you might find this useful. Or it might be teaching you egg-sucking.

http://www.harley-davidson-hangout.com/forum/hdrcgb-tech-tips/42341-troubleshooting-your-charging-system.html