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charging system diagnostics??

Started by jmorton10, June 19, 2019, 06:17:24 PM

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jmorton10

My 07 RK was running along at 50 mph today when all of a sudden my Dakota Digital gauge said my voltage had dropped to 11 volts. I had just left my house & turned around & tried to make it home.

Before I made it a mile or so the volt gauge was dropping fast & the bike died before I made it home.  At that point, the battery was too weak to crank it over.  An old dude came out of the house I was in front of & tried to help.  He brought out a jump box & the bike started instantly but died as soon as we disconnected it.

At that point, I called AAA & they flatbedded it to my house.  I just got out my 07 touring bike service manual to run through the charging system testing only to find it's not in there WTF.  You have to have the electrical manual for that (I have the service manual & the parts book but no electrical manual)

Tomorrow I will pull the derby cover & see if I smell a burned up stator (I have a feeling that's what it is) but can somebody help me & post the diagnostic steps to check stator/regulator etc.  I'm a little rusty on this & would like to read Harleys steps to check out the system.

~John
HC 124", Dragula, Pingel air shift W/Dyna Shift Minder & onboard compressor, NOS

Scotty

That is the starter & charging diagnostic pages from the EDM if you need them

https://app.box.com/s/8yxr4d0wrgbjh5ujzjpm0cgy8nytpeno


chaos901

Obviously start checking, but dropping that fast sounds like a dead short someplace. 

Did you get any codes? 

Asking because my friends bike got a High Voltage code and acted the same.  Turns out that code appears when you have 16 volts for more than five seconds and his was caused when the battery shorted out internally.  Something about amps converting to volts.
"There are only two truly infinite things, the universe and stupidity." AE

CndUltra88

I lost the VR  a number of years ago .(02Ultra)
The volt meter on the bike showed it dropping like mad and the speedo was acing odd.
But, I did the tests as per you tube, but see it has been posted up already.
Rob
Infantryman Terry Street
End of Tour April,4,2008 Panjwayi district Afghanistan

jmorton10

I put it on the tender (for Li-Ion battery) overnight & it started right up immediately this morning.  Put the multi-meter on the battery & it read 13.0 volts & stayed at that same reading for about 5 minutes.

I didn't have time to check any farther this morning, but on my way home today I had to pass one of our two local HD dealers & decided to pick up a stator & regulator in case that was what was needed.  I figured I would use them sooner or later even if I didn't need them right now so they wouldn't go to waste either way.

The dealer had the regulator, but had no stator in stock & then checked the dealer listings from all over the country.  I find this hard to believe, but they claimed there was only one dealer in the country with a stator in stock & they only had one.

I will get into diagnosing it tomorrow but what is the most likely thing to be wrong at this point??

~John
HC 124", Dragula, Pingel air shift W/Dyna Shift Minder & onboard compressor, NOS

Hossamania

What is the voltage reading while it is running?
Cycle Electric makes a stout stator and regulator system. Talk to California Phil.
If the government gives you everything you want,
it can take away everything you have.

jmorton10

Quote from: Hossamania on June 20, 2019, 03:18:29 PM
What is the voltage reading while it is running?


13.0 (which is too low)

~John
HC 124", Dragula, Pingel air shift W/Dyna Shift Minder & onboard compressor, NOS

Deye76

Set your meter to AC volts, start the bike, put the meter leads on both ends of the stator plug, (orientation doesn't matter) at 1000 rpm should put out 18 volts, at 2000 rpm 36 volts, 3000 rpm 54 volts. If your close stator is good.
My stator on my FXR went out Saturday. Cycle Electric 3 phase ordered. I'm gettting the kit, stator, rotor, & regulator/rectifier. Pricey, but everyone I know that uses them have high praise.
East Tenn.<br /> 2020 Lowrider S Touring, 2014 CVO RK,  1992 FXRP

Admiral Akbar

Quote from: Deye76 on June 20, 2019, 04:17:21 PM
Set your meter to AC volts, start the bike, put the meter leads on both ends of the stator plug, (orientation doesn't matter) at 1000 rpm should put out 18 volts, at 2000 rpm 36 volts, 3000 rpm 54 volts. If your close stator is good.
My stator on my FXR went out Saturday. Cycle Electric 3 phase ordered. I'm gettting the kit, stator, rotor, & regulator/rectifier. Pricey, but everyone I know that uses them have high praise.

Not really.. Even if you get the correct alternator voltages, if any lead is shorted to ground, alt is bad.

Deye76

"Not really.. Even if you get the correct alternator voltages, if any lead is shorted to ground, alt is bad. "

So another test needs to be done? I probably should have stayed out, I'm not very good at electric diagnostics. Thanks.
East Tenn.<br /> 2020 Lowrider S Touring, 2014 CVO RK,  1992 FXRP

fleetmechanic

Quote from: Admiral Akbar on June 20, 2019, 05:30:10 PM
Quote from: Deye76 on June 20, 2019, 04:17:21 PM
Set your meter to AC volts, start the bike, put the meter leads on both ends of the stator plug, (orientation doesn't matter) at 1000 rpm should put out 18 volts, at 2000 rpm 36 volts, 3000 rpm 54 volts. If your close stator is good.
My stator on my FXR went out Saturday. Cycle Electric 3 phase ordered. I'm gettting the kit, stator, rotor, & regulator/rectifier. Pricey, but everyone I know that uses them have high praise.

Not really.. Even if you get the correct alternator voltages, if any lead is shorted to ground, alt is bad.
:agree:  You can show normal AC output across the the stator leads but if any leg of the stator is grounded all the charge goes there  instead of to the regulator.  Each lead needs to be checked individually for any continuity to ground with engine not running.

jrgreene1968

When my regulator went out, I noticed while the bike was warming up, the voltage was lower than normal, and then by the time I got 1/4 mile away to stop sign, it was down to 12 volts, so I turned around. Weird thing is.. the night before it was working perfect. And that regulator probably didn't have 10k miles on it

smoserx1

QuoteSo another test needs to be done? I probably should have stayed out, I'm not very good at electric diagnostics. Thanks.

Yes that is one of the tests the guy in the you tube video was showing where he measured the resistance from each stator output to ground.  It should be very high to infinite resistance, normally displayed as OL or l on a digital meter.  If you have an analog meter it will have the infinity sign at the far left of the resistance scale.  And if you have an older single phase stator like me the test is the same, you just have 2 wires to check instead of 3.  If a phase is shorted to ground it will probably have a fairly low resistance.

Deye76

East Tenn.<br /> 2020 Lowrider S Touring, 2014 CVO RK,  1992 FXRP

jmorton10

Replaced the regulator, all good now.

~John
HC 124", Dragula, Pingel air shift W/Dyna Shift Minder & onboard compressor, NOS

MikeL

I had a stator that put out the correct RMS voltage. Checked for short to ground yes stator bad. So first thing to do is check stator for short to ground then RMS voltage test. I ended up removing a perfectly good voltage regulator to find out the stator was N/G

                                                                                                      MIKE