So I recently replaced my battery because the old one would not hold a charge anymore. Left me taking the truck to work. That sucks. So this morning I go and jump on and it's dead again. It has a little juice, but not enough to crank it over to fire. I checked my connections and all are good. It has started everytime for a week since I put the new one in. Are there any know issues with a draw in the electrical system? What are the common things to check for? Not too familiar with HD's at all, so help would be great.

 

Need a few answers first. Year and model of your bike. Did you fully charge the new battery? Have you checked to see if your bike is charging the battery when running? I would start there first before digging any further. There is a possibility that you got a bad battery when you purchased the new one. Check the easy stuff first.....

 

stator possibly

 

When you take your bike to work, how far is work. You may not be providing a deep charge to the battery. Short drives will put provide a "surface" charge. I live three miles from work but I manage a longer drive to and from work. Strongly suggest a smart battery tender for the battery. Also doing a charging system test wouldn't hurt either. We just rode Door and all the multiple stop starts gave the battery a work out. Nice riding country.

 

1995 superglide. When I got the battery I charged it per the instructions. I did check charging when at idle and rev up-13.2 at idle and raised when revved up. I didn't notice any lights being dim or popping like some do when the regulator goes out. I'll charge it and check the charging when I get home from work. I'm thinking the ignition switch might not actually turn off, but no odometer comes on when sitting, but I suppose it wouldn't need to be to have a draw. There would have to be a draw, but there isn't anything on these carbed bikes that could do that, right?

 

Sounds like either a bad battery or you have a draw in your electrics somewhere. Could also be an alternator took a dump on you.

I'd locate a battery tester somewhere, charge the battery up and put a load on it. See what it sez. If the battery's good, test the charge while the motor is running (don't put a load on it while it's running fer pete's sake). Should be between 13.5 and 14.5 volts. If it's all okay, then put a tester on that tells you whether or not there's juice being drained out of the battery when it's sitting.

If it's got a dead short in it, you gotta track it down.

Good luck.

 

stator would be my bet as well but the bike would run funny when started if it was that

 

Have you added anything at all electrical?
Sounds to me like your charging system is working based on your readings.
Check the quality of those cables, not just the actual connections. A week for a new battery is about right if it is not charging fully, so i suspect you have a draw you are not mentioning, or the cables have a problem somewhere along the length of them.

 

Put the battery on a tender (trickle charge) overnight and see if it happens again. What type of battery did you get?

 

I was at my brother's house (who is a full time mechanic) and somehow we got to talking about the charging system on the bike. He said he has replaced 3 rectifiers on harley in the past 6 months. He also said that when it started going bad it would discharge the battery.

Don't know how to test it out but just something else that could be the problem.