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Charging System Learning experience

HarryB737

Junior Member
I'm writing this in an effort to help someone else possible head off a problem and express the importance of a gauge & die-electric grease... here's the story... About 10 months ago I invested in a Kuryakyn voltage gauge. Here recently I've noticed instead of 2-green lights solid, I had 1 & 1-flickering. Having some trips coming up & not wanting to get stranded I did some trouble-shooting last night. (Using this valuable self-help section) I checked both stator & volage regulator and did not find any problems... upon reassembly I cleaned & used die-electric grease on the 3-pin stator & 2-pin Ground & power connectors... then put it up for the night (Late) This afternoon I hopped on the bike to go get some gas for the week-end & guess what... Now I have 2-good solid green lights again... Lesson: A little corrosion starts small & then gets worst. I think had I not discovered this it would have led to bigger problems... I hope this helps someone else.
 
Now I have 2-good solid green lights again... Lesson: A little corrosion starts small & then gets worst. I think had I not discovered this it would have led to bigger problems... I hope this helps someone else.

Do the 2 solid greens stay lit the whole time or does one go out, say at a stop light with brakes on, then once moving again the second green starts flickering and then becomes solid again?
 
The gauge is monitoring DC voltage on the system at all times, when the ignition is on. As the system puts out varing voltage and amps to keep the battery charged (Depending on need) the gauge is letting me know if the voltage is too low, OK, or over charging. Recently I have noticed only 1 of the lights on solid & the other either off, or flickering. this I believe was due to slight build-up of corrosion in one of the connectors. To answer your question... No they don't both stay on all the time, but there was a definate difference from when I first installed the gauge as to the 2nd green light. The gauge is composed of 10-lights total on scale 2-reds,2-amber,2-green,2-amber,2-red. So when everthing is working properly I have from left to right either 5 or six total lights on 2-reds,2-amber & either 1 or 2 green. usually the brake light by itself does not cause me to loose the 2nd light. The voltage regular is fast acting to compensate for need.

Battery Gauge is an array of L.E.D.’s indicating the operating voltage of the bike’s electrical system.
Green L.E.D.’s represent the normal operating range of your charging system, 12.5v to 14.5v. Amber L.E.D.’s warn the rider that the bike is not charging. If the reading drops below 10v or exceeds 15v, a flashing red L.E.D. will alert
the rider of an impending stall or the possibility of damage to the battery &/or sensitive electronic components on the motorcycle.

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The gauge is monitoring DC voltage on the system at all times, when the ignition is on.
Battery Gauge is an array of L.E.D.’s indicating the operating voltage of the bike’s electrical system.

I can see that being a very valuable tool. A quick heads up to a "no charging" situation can save you some added expense. If you knew your charging system went to zero, you could immediately stop and unplug the stator from the regulator thereby saving you from toasting your good stator. I would bet in most cases of bad regulators combined with toasted stators, the regulator was the 1st to go which quickly will take out a stator.

Not saying it is impossible but a stator taking out a regulator has to be remote at best.
 
The guage physically mounts to the master cylinder, available in black and chrome (no surprise here). Stator is in a very harsh environment, dipped in and cooled by gear oil, and under constant voltage generation, spinning in a strong magnetic field. The Regulator while outside, is way up front where cooling air can blast by and ony real danger is betting hit by a rock or being abused by dead battery (constantly receiving) charging current from stator.
 
Where did you mount the voltage gauge?

Here's where I mounted mine... on the handle bar mount. I took some 2"PVC angle, trimed it up, heated the PVC to form the proper angle so while riding you have a good view of the gauge.

HPIM0396.jpg
 
I have a 2000 fatboy and i repaced the battiery last year and everything has been gret up until last week. I went to start it and it just clicked, so removed battiery and notice the cells were dry. Took the battiery back and got a new one. Tonight i went for a ride and shut off the bike and went to restart and it did the same thing. removed battiery and the cells were dry. so could you help me out here?
 
The guage physically mounts to the master cylinder, available in black and chrome (no surprise here). Stator is in a very harsh environment, dipped in and cooled by gear oil, and under constant voltage generation, spinning in a strong magnetic field. The Regulator while outside, is way up front where cooling air can blast by and ony real danger is betting hit by a rock or being abused by dead battery (constantly receiving) charging current from stator.

Im guessing you mean the Magnetic field is spinning.Aren't the windings fixed?:D

The thing that ALWAYS gets me about the Harley charging system seems to be it's frailty.
Take a Transformer.110kv to 11kv;33kv to 415v;11kv to 415v.Dosen't matter what size.Lots of copper windings in close contact separated by insulation and resins.Induced voltages.Works in an extremely hot,oil and air cooled environment for up to 40 odd years with NO maintenance;maybe an oil change if it's lucky.Operates at 100% efficiency and in overload conditions every day(at least ours do!)And does this for ever.With ever variable voltage and current fluctuations.

I know they're different animals,but they are SIMILIAR animals.
Harley could make superior windings if they so chose:better wire,better insulation,better resins,better and longer performance.Cost a few bucks extra and provide more reliability.

How about those "Cycle Electric" stators? THEY look the goods.
 
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