"panfried" please help

53panmatty

Hello.. I recently was left a 53' panhead from my dad. This is a bike that i've always wanted, having grown up with it like it was a brother. It has been sitting since 2004 and has taken me a long time to get it running. Partly cause' im trying to do the bike justice and wrenchin' on this old bike is new to me. Thats why im hear. I just installed a new regulator, everything seemed fine, then my battery quikly died. There were no sparks or arcing in the regulator. After a quik once over i noticed i hooked up the regulator wrong. With a quick change and my battery fully charged, i tried again. This time with the pos. cable on as i touched the neg. terminal i got sparks, and cannot hook the battery up. Did i fry my battery or maybe the generator? ( did polarize the gen the first time i tried.) help me Im lost...

softailsteve

sounds like something in the charging system is shorted to ground use an ohmeter to check continuity from the pos cable to ground if it is grounded you may want to disconnect the regulator and see if the ground dissapears if the ground is still present check the gen and look for burned wires good luck

Stoney61

If you hooked up the regulator incorrectly, the points inside may be fused together. Pull the cover off of the regulator and see if this is the case. If you can get them apart, you can clean them up and reuse the regulator. If you need to buy a new regulator, heres a little tip..... go to a tractor repair/farm supply shop and they will be able to hook you up with a regulator - same product, less cost. Good luck.

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ride safe,
Stoney

markwari

i agree with panfried... take the + lead from battery and measure resistance to ground. Then a matter of search and destroy......

jody7734

Pictures of your progress on that great old bike would be greatly appreciated.