I have a 2013 Electra-Glide Heritage Classic. No engine mods no aftermarket pipes, pure stock. 103 Engine.

The stator burnt out in it, so I bought a new stator and rotor for it. I also had to change out my automatic chain tensioner. It was looking fairly worn, not bad but I felt better replacing it.

I also purchased a new Voltage Regulator for it. Again, it made me feel better about having it replaced. I did the work with my son, and it was a Level 2 job out of 5 Levels.

We cleaned everything out in the primary, reassembled everything with New Gaskets ($$$) etc...

We started the bike, and tested that our stator was working ok. At an idle, we were seeing 35-40 volts A/C on all three leads. Cool. We also checked it for continuity to ensure that we didn't pinch any wires.
That was fine as well. We reconnected the Stator side of the Voltage Regulator, and then restarted the bike and checked the DC output of the Voltage Regulator. We got 14 volts at an idle, and we saw a spike of 16 volts for a short period, and then it went back to 14.

We plugged the DC side of the Voltage Regulator, started the bike and we are only seeing 12volts at the battery. WTH? We pulled the DC side of the plug back out and measured it again. 14volts. Plugged it back in, and tested at the battery, still 12.1 volts.

We took our test meter and pushed a probe into the wire just past the connector, and there we are seeing only 11 volts. WTH!!!

We grounded the voltage regulator up against the bike using two alligator clips at either end of a 16 ga. wire, and tested it again. Still 11 volts just past the connector. Pulled the connector out checked the VR pins again 14+ volts. Is it possible that the plug on the DC side of the regulator is bad? Does this even make any sense to anyone?

I know my way around bikes and cars, etc... I was a line mechanic for GM in a former life. But, my electronic sucks a little bit (I'm color blind).

I welcome any and all advise.

Thanks in Advance.

 

Sounds like the wires in the harness (after the connector) may be corroded inside the insulation.
That corrosion will add resistance to the wire, which will drop the voltage at the other end.
Connectors often corrode internally as well.
Look for any green-colored residue on the connector pins.

 

HD voltage regulator is shunting type, so bad ground to frame/back to battery, can cause shunting problems that will lead to high voltage.

Think this,


So does sound like you have either a broken or corrosion problem in the wires, with positive side of the DC loosing too much voltage before it hits the battery, and same going on with the negative side of the wire, where is can not shunt the excess voltage over 14.2 to ground as well.


So pick your posion, but does sound like you need to replace cable 8 if its the problem child.
8 74115-06
DC LEAD ASSEMBLY, VOLTAGE REGULATOR (FROM MAIN WIRING HARNESS) 14.99

https://partsfinder.onlinemicrofiche...davidsonmc/933

Also to point out, cable 8 is going to main fuse breaker, and its negative wire is going to frame connection point, so would clean the ground point up to the frame when you replace the cable, and may even want to replace the main fuse (heat type) that protects the charging system if it tries to over amp to the battery.

Also, Would do a double check on the bike as well, since way stator burns up, is charging system is being over worked, such as battery diying, too much added electronics on the bike that is over taxing battery and charging system, or one of the positive wires that is grounding out isntead.

I bring this up, since the lads love to throw huge stereo amps on the bikes, where the charging system was never designed to keep up with such demand, and stator burn up, are kind of the norm now due to such.

 

Hey man, I dont have anything to offer in the way of advice, but I wanted to comment on how well you diagnosed your troubleshooting techniques. With that level of diagnostics, Im sure you will get to the root of it. Half of the problems recently posted on this website seem to be 'Help, my bike wont bike, I tried to work but it wont!'.......So kudos to you for taking the time to post such a well thought out post. Best of luck!

 

Thank you to all those who responded to my thread. Once we get the correct cable, I will update my post so that you all will know how it turns out. Just doing a continuity test, it was giving us all kinds of weird readings on our test meter. We cannot, thank you all enough. You all are great!

-Regards and Respect!

Rick/Alex

 

What brand of regulator did you get?

Myself, I would rev it up, not just look at idle output. Volt regulator should not exceed 14.4 at the battery Should get 80 or so volts AC out of stator.

I have never grounded one. Not sure what that does.

Cycle electrics do not send current to ground.

When the voltage drops could be corrsion, could be your leads are not on good,

 

Harleys are not unique to texas. You don't have to tell us why in Texas we.....

 

I see Texas is still living in your head rent free.

 

They just make me laugh. They can't go 5 minutes without telling you thy are from Texas, regardless of the topic.

 

It's because we've never been to Alaska. Can you tell us about your Alaska trip again?