Check your meter first. I would hazard to guess it's not too accurate.
A battery at rest (not right after coming of the charger) that reads 13.5-13.9V sounds wrong and should be nearer 12.0V. Now if your meter is out by, what I expect, 1.5V you could be cranking at just over 10V which is on the low side.

 

Good point! In fact the gauges on the bike are only useful for guidance, not accuracy. Use a multimeter when doing battery and charging circuit checks.

 

I'm leaning towards the battery being bad. I'd like to hear your results either way. JR

 

Let me tell you what happened to my 09 SG, when the bike was 18 months old the battery went bad and Harley replaced it using the warranty. 18 months later it happened again, the dealer checked it out and put a battery in it and found out the starter was bad, because of the compensator. Seems in 09 they were having problems with them. What my point is ....the compensator was dragging the starter which was killing the batteries. Thankfully I had a good mechanic at the dealer find the issue. I had all three replaced at the dealer under extended warranty for fifty dollars. Now it starts good, no kick back and the battery is holding up fine.

 

Compensators started in 2007 with the 96 ci.

 

ok, don;t tell my evos....( maybe you left something out of the post?)


compensating sprockets go way back, I think 1970.

my 53's and 63 don't have.
the 84 Shovel, 88, 95 and 2009 do.

Mike

 

Sorry My mistake. I understood that until 2007, it was a solid one piece gear.

 

it was the battery , held the voltage test at 13.1 off the bike , but would not pass the load test , batteries plus had a 400cca size 30 for $140 with a two year free replacement warranty vs the steelers $197 with a 1 year PRO RATED warranty so I went with the batt plus

 

tested my volt meter at the batt store against theirs and mine was right on with their reading , so mine is not off