I have an '02 Ultra Classic EFI that I just changed out the stator, rectifier and battery with stock Harley parts from the dealer. My issue is after a single 100 mile trip the battery is no longer charging and I'm only getting 11.2 volts from the rectifier. I know new parts can go bad, or be bad from the factory, but this is ridiculous. 2 years ago put a cheap lead acid battery in, an aftermarket rectifier and that was good for 2 years. I knew those wouldn't last but it got me through the trouble-shooting stage at that time. This year when I started having charging issues again, I retested the system and found my stator was fried. Since I put cheap parts in the last time, I went to the dealer and ordered the Harley parts. Anyone else have issues like this? I haven't seen any threads that are similar to my issue so I started this one. I do my own wrenching on the bike, but thinking of paying the stealer to figure this one out.

 

If you do need new parts, go with Cycle Electric. Whitehall, NY? Assume you use McDermotts if so, yes?

 

Yes, McDermott's. Getting frustrated with replacing the same parts.

 

http://cycleelectricinc.com/. Their stuff is available through Drag Specialties, Dennis Kirk, etc. It could be only the VR that needs replacing. Test the system to see which is the likely culprit.

 

Agree on the tests. There are tests to determine if the problem is the stator, regulator, or battery. And I whole-heartedly agree about Cycle Electric. I bought my stator/regulator kit directly from them. Good people with a good product.

 

My 1998 Ultra use to always eat stators....about two years was tops. Always used factory regulator and stator plus rotor.

Went with Cycle Electric and upgraded to 3 Phase.....

No more issues

 

Couple of things, and what burns up a stator is really a battery going dead to start with. So although the older bikes do not draw power when the battery is off, short rides with lot of restarts will drain the battery down, causing the charging system to work harder to charge it back up. So for this reason, if you are not going to ride the bike for a week or more, put the bike on a tender. If you did a lot of short rides and think that you have not road the bike enough to charge the battery back up, through it on the tender until the battery is charged back up.

Next we get into batteries and tenders.

So on the tender you pick up, make sure it for the battery type you have. Most tenders will charge up lead cells no problem, but if you have a AGM battery, need to have a AGM tender. Hence lead cell tender on a AGM kills the battery quickly, and then your back to the stator working over time trying to charge up a dying battery.

Now the lovely one, and why using the tender become important, a AGM battery does not start to charge back up until it sees 14.1voltage or higher. So on the older two wire stator/voltage regulators, this means that until the bike get up to around 2K to bring up the charging system to 14.1 volts, the battery is not being re-charged yet.

So really, if you need to replace the stator, above is the reason that your burning it up, and it may be time to switch over to the three wire stator and voltage regulator isntead. Hence three wire system gets up to 14.1 Volt a lot lower in the Rpms that the two wire system, so for the most part, keeps the battery fully charged even for short rides with a lot of re-starts.

One last thing, and keep in mind that most charging system are only around 45amps, and if you are running a sound system that is drawing say more than 30 amps, the charging system does not have the needed amperage to keep the battery charged, the bike running and drive the needs of the sound system. So this means the battery is being kept in a drawn down state, it being drawn down/charged back up more them normal, and why you are only getting a short life out of the batteries.

 

Bike is an '08 FLHT. All led lighting, no stereo or amp. Battery tests good, new stator ( cycle electric) installed last December. New regulator installed this February. Also a C.E. product. Start the bike, and sometimes the volt meter would only read a little over 12 volts. Shut it off, and restart would usually bring it up to 14.5. Tested good across the battery with a multimeter. Very seldom do "short" rides. Usually a short ride is at least 50 open road miles. Most rides 100 miles or more. Okay, earlier this month, on a 300 mile ride, about 70 miles from home, the volt meter started reading just over 12 volts, with no codes tripped. Was able to make it home, barely. Reading was just over 10 volts when I got there. Doing the AC volt output test, I couldn't get a single reading from the stator. Used two different multimeters. No readings for volts or resistance. Kinda scratching my head over this one. Next up is the remove, clean, apply dielectric grease, and re-install all components on the fuse panel, and test the VR. And yes. the rotor itself checks out fine. Any realistic suggestions appreciated.

 

It was known issue the EFI bikes from 1995-2005 went through more stators than usual. It was single phase and put out full power all the time. The stator would get much hotter and would melt/short out much quicker. Didn’t matter what you did....they just had a shorter lifespan.

Cycle Electric came out with the three phase for these bikes. The stator was built better and did not get as hot. The output was just as good or better.

Single phase on the older carburetor bikes were fine....didn’t have all the electronics required to run the bike.

Heat is what kills the stators. The rubber coating melts away and then the stator shorts out.

I don’t recommend single phase on those bikes.

 

Not buying that, since both the three wire and the two wire stators get static charged as the same rate, and the coils do not get hot until the Voltage regulator demands the draw when it sees the system under voltage to begin with. Hence reason that the older two wire systems can be brutal on the stator, is when the voltage regulator is not seeing the correct voltage of the battery instead. So it not a problem so much between the stator and the voltage regulator since you just have just the two wire connection point, but from the voltage regulator back to the battery itself.


Short of corrosion problems at connection points, take a good look at what is going on between the voltage regulator leads and the battery, and always be suspect of internal corrosion problem on the 50 amp main breaker. Hence voltage regulator wants to hold the voltage around 14.1 volts, and if it can not sense the battery at 14.1, then is going to pull full draw from the stator at all times to burn it up quickly instead.

So on the ground side, voltage regulator connector connects to the ground post, that leads back to the battery.
On the positive side, voltage regulator connects to the 50 amp main breaker box, other side of the fuse box to the starter terminal, then back to the battery on the battery cable connected to the same solenoid post.

And again, always be suspect on a old 50amp main breaker, since it can internal corrode to not allow a full clean current flow through it, to cause the voltage regulator to not see the actual voltage of the battery. Hence check voltage at the battery with say 10 amp draw, then check voltage on the voltage regulator side of the 50 amp main breaker with a 10 amp draw as well, using the grounding post nut as your negative point. If your voltage is not the same between the two checks, you found your problem.

Note, difference between the two and three wire systems (stator to regulator wiring), is the three wire system puts out more amperage at lower RPMs that two wire system. Hence gets the charging system up to 14.1 volts at less RPM's. Why is this important, AGM batteries do not start taking a correct charge until they get to this voltage. So enough voltage below 14.1 for the bikes needs, but until AGM is seeing 14.1+, is not being fully recharged correctly yet.