Anybody got any good ideas as to what i should start checking first? hoping it was just a bad battery. but im sure as heck gonna run every test we can com up with so this doesnt happen to me on the highway again.

 

Well you certainly finished that off! Check all your fuses, including the main one. If that is intact but one of the others has blown that may give a clue to a failure in the bike's circuitry. Hopefully an electrical expert will call by soon - it's more normal to do checks with a live battery.

 

figured it out last night, the regulator went bad. it was dumping 17v back into the battery at 2k. at 3k it was over 18v.

installed a new regulator, it maxes out at 14.35v back to riding.

 

Yup, that'll do it. Not a common failure mode of a regulator...but it can happen.
Just out of curiosity...was the regulator the OEM battery?
I would have thought the regulator should have a built in overvoltage protection circuit,


Oh yeah, you probably need a new battery too.

Make sure to wash don the bike, and battery compartment very well.

 

Wow, if that's all that happened you pretty lucky... Ride safe....

 

geezer, i dont think it was original, at least it didnt look like the one i got from the MoCo.
and yeah, got a new battery as well

 

Ya think?

 

i personally enjoy the untarnished "made in china" logo

 

Wowzer! That could have been pretty disastrous!

Glad you got it sorted.

The regulator on my FLHTC went out a year or so ago. I noticed when the volt meter would intermittently peg out to the right. I was lucky that I caught it before the over-voltage smoked anything.

 

Well done for diagnosing the fault. Up up and away!