| Author | Message | ||
     Fireboltguy |
So here's the quick and dirty (I will expand on the details in a second post): My bike dies during long rides, anything over about 30-45 min. According to the shop manual diagnostics, the charging system is all working, and the battery is brand new and has been tested, there is no drain on the battery when the bike is off. But for some reason, the battery is drained when riding. I mentioned the 77 plug to them and they said they checked that. Could it be that the charging system is not efficient enough? Or that there is a short or something somewhere while running? Any ideas would be greatly appreciated | ||
| Fireboltguy |
Here's the detailed version: A month ago, I was riding my 2003 XB9R for an overnight camping trip. On my way back in the morning, which was a little wet and rainy, my check engine light came on and there was a burning electrical smell going on. I pulled over and turned off the bike. Then it wouldn't start again. I had it towed to the Harley Dealer and they have been working on it for over a month now. First they ran the diagnostics and everything checked out except the battery, so they replaced it and said it was good to go. I picked it up and 30 min later I ended up dead on the side of the road AGAIN! I brought it back and they ran all the tests again. Charging system checks out and the new battery checks out. There is no parasitic drain on the battery when left sitting, but after short rides, the battery comes back with significantly less charge. The dealer has no idea, but has suggested I pay them $1200 to replace the whole charging system (regulator, stator, and rotor). Is it possible that even though the charging system checks out during diagnostics, it doesn't supply a sufficient charge while riding??? Recent mods to my bike include a Hawk exhaust, K&N air filter, reprogrammed ECM with race map, OEM LED tail light, and breather re-route. I have been on a couple long rides since all these mods, but could one of them be causing the problem??? I am losing a lot of money through this. The dealer already charged me $300 the first time around for diagnostics and the battery. Clearly that didn't fix the problem. Now they want to charge me for all the time they have sunk into it again, including all the same diagnostic tests they ran the first time, but nothing has been fixed on the bike. Is that fair??? To top it off, I've paid $400 in towing and lost a month's worth of insurance costs in the process. Please help | ||
| Froggy |
They claim they checked the 77 connector, but check it yourself, it is under the front pulley sprocket cover. | ||
| Sparky |
This sounds like a situation where a voltage monitor like the kind that American Sport Bike sells could be used to identify particular circumstances where the system voltage starts going anomalous. | ||
| Fireboltguy |
I went in to the dealer and checked all the connections myself. They all looked good. No melting, no black area, seemed like contacts were pretty clean. So I left it with them. They would like to open up the primary and take a look at the stator and rotor. I would have done it myself, but they are crediting 1.5 hours that I paid for towards more work if I leave it with them. We'll see what they have to say. | ||
| Fireboltguy |
Thanks for all the tips | ||
| Mesozoic |
I would run EcmSpy or TunerPro RT with XOpti's plugin and datalog the bike. See what the sensors are reading and check for anomalies. This is how I found that I had a bad ground for my ECM on my '08 XB12. The battery voltage will be datalogged with either option, so you'll be able to tell if the stator stops producing voltage when it gets hot or something, etc. Good luck with it. |
