Hello all....I bought a 2004 Ultra classic this past summer and put quite a few miles on it...This fall I was on a fall colors ride and on our way home from mackinaw city the charging system went out on my bike and had to be trailered home....I did my homework and figured out it was the stator....So bought the entire charging system stator and regulator and changed it....Pretty EZ job took the bike for a ride ..It was charging just like it did before the old one burnt up and about 30 minutes into the ride the new system stopped charging.. Made it home and did some tests and discovered the new stator took a crap....The company I bought it from found it faulty and replaced it...I now have the new one installed but am a little gun shy now and want to make sure there is nothing else causing the stator to fry....I pulled the battery cables and did a continuity test on them and found cont throw the pos cable....Should there be cont throw the pos cable ??? (Battery end of cable to the frame) also does in matter Im open to any thoughts on the matter...
Thanks for any info on this .

 

What ohms did it measure at that point? A dead short from your positive cable (disconnected from the battery) to your frame doesn't sound right. I would expect that of the negative cable though. This might be one of those positive vs. negative ground scenarios. I will be interested to hear what some of the pros say. Seems like mkguitar is pretty savvy at this stuff...

 

I think Ill do some calling around today and see if I can get some info on this....Yeah I wouldnt think there should be any cont on the pos battery cable either..Maybe there is a bad spot on the cable that...Not sure yet...Thanks for the post....

 

I Believe You WILL Find CONTINUITY Unless You DISCONNECT The Other End Of The cable. With ohms you have to have both ends of cable disconnected from the source.

 

Depends. There would always be a slight current draw as you have some things that require voltage all the time. The radio memory and clock to name a couple. Security system?

The usual way is not to use your ohm meter but to actually insert an ammeter between the pos cable and battery and measure the draw. Should only be 50 to a couple of hundred mil amps or so.

 

The thing is I just replaced the stator and didnt get 30 minutes out of it and now I am kinda worried it will happen again ....Just want to make sure there isnt some thing else causing it to fry......
Thanks...

 

I'm pretty confident that you just got a bad stator but I agree you should do some more checking. Usually when a stator goes the regulator is the culprit. The regulators often intermittently stop charging prior to complete failure. I usually replace both if the stator quits. And riding for 30 then the failure? That really sounds like the regulator to me. After it heats up it quits. Use the FSM for trouble shooting both stator and regulator. Just be aware since it's intermittent it will probably check good when cold.

 

Thanks jdvorchak......I did how ever change both stator and regulator at the same time with brand new items...I would have thought that would have salved the problem but There must be something I'm missing...I did read some where that a guy was having the same problem and come to find out it was the battery cable shorted out...Not sure what the FSM is for trouble shooting is but thanks again .

 

Welcome aboard.

 

Took it out for a good long ride today before the rain started and everything went smooth ...all but the gauges fogging up on me....That's going to be the next fix on this bike.....
Thanks for the welcome Woodman .....