2003 Ultra: I bought my bike early last year and it had very low miles on it. I drive it almost everyday to work and now have 22,500 miles on it. The stator just went out and had to be replaced (very expensive!!). In your experience, is this typical for the stator to crap out at only 22,500 miles?

 

A buddy of mine just had his out at 55, 000 so they could go at any time and from I hear they are not cheap on his 05 EG

 

Knock on wood, I still have the original in mine. '00 RKC over 80k miles. From what I hear they can go at any time, I don't know why. Last one I heard about was on a early 2000's dresser with about 85k miles. I'm going to change mine out this winter, just one of the winter bike projects.

 

My bill was close to $900, which included about $600 in parts and $300 in labor. The parts cost was high because my battery would not recharge and had to be replaced. The labor included the stator replacement cost as well as the electrical diagnosis.

 

$900??? Glad I got the extended warranty on my '06. Just hit 13K miles on mine, and my check engine and batt light came on this past weekend in stop & go, in town riding. Speedo showing a P0562, low batt voltage, code. Swung by the dealer, can't get me in until Tue the 1st.

Checked all the connections, and saw battery date of Feb '06 and one side was a little bowed out, so sprung for a new $149 battery since the ext warranty wouldn't cover it anyway.

Light still comes on. Did some of the testing per the shop manual and looks like an "open stator" based on the ohm meter readings. Manual says reading shouldn't be more than 1 ohm, mine was 3.4 on any two of the three pins. AC voltage test and grounded stator test were good.

So she sits until first of next week. Looks like I'll get my $50 deductible's worth if my testing proves correct.

 

Where have you heard this before...."it depends". Like you folks, I have seen them cook-off after a short life and then...run seemingly forever. The ones I have seen cook-off early were usually on bikes that guys had every sort of light and gadget available on the electrical load. Heat also has a lot to do with it. The thing is cooled by primary fluid and in very hot climates, they tend to fry quicker. I run the passing lamps only in traffic areas. Once I am on the interstate, the passing lamps go off. I do run the cruise now-n-then. You may be surprised to realize just how much of a load passing lamps and cruise adds to the system and loads the charging components. I had a new 1996 FLH with EFI and the dash warning light would come on all the time. I took it in and the dealer told me it was a low battery signal causing the warning. He told me that passing lamps should only be ran at speeds above 2500 rpm. That was then, but now they have much better and more powerful charging systems. Point is, this stuff really loads the charging system resulting in more heat and less life. Then again....it is a Harley and things will conk out just because they want to. $900 is mighty steep for the fix...including the battery.

 

The more junk it needs to feed the quicker the death.
Ron

 

I'd have to look it up, but it sounds a we bit high? Did you go with an upgraded high output?

 

76k miles and mines still going strong.