Intruders-Alert

Fully charged, a battery should settle to a value between 12.6V and 12.8V; remaining at 13.7V, and then dropping to 11.6V under load indicates you may have toasted the battery. Charging Voltage should never exceed 15V, as it starts to bubble over about 14.8V. Take that battery in to be tested; I suspect you will come home with a new one. You may want to get a separate meter to verify the one you used isn't off, too. The next issue is, why does your charging system go so high? It could be dirty connectors, fooling the regulator into 'thinking' the battery has less than the values you measured.

In any case, that drop under load indicates a high resistance from the battery, which could cause the engine to die due to loss of Voltage. As has been said by others, these engines run on battery power, and that big V-twin is there to keep it charged.

Once you have tested the battery, checked your meter against another, and cleaned the connectors, you may find the regulator is going bad. Bad news, it you have a limited budget.

WintrSol wrote:Fully charged, a battery should settle to a value between 12.6V and 12.8V; remaining at 13.7V, and then dropping to 11.6V under load indicates you may have toasted the battery. Charging Voltage should never exceed 15V, as it starts to bubble over about 14.8V. Take that battery in to be tested; I suspect you will come home with a new one. You may want to get a separate meter to verify the one you used isn't off, too. The next issue is, why does your charging system go so high? It could be dirty connectors, fooling the regulator into 'thinking' the battery has less than the values you measured.

In any case, that drop under load indicates a high resistance from the battery, which could cause the engine to die due to loss of Voltage. As has been said by others, these engines run on battery power, and that big V-twin is there to keep it charged.

Once you have tested the battery, checked your meter against another, and cleaned the connectors, you may find the regulator is going bad. Bad news, it you have a limited budget.

By regulator, do you mean the cdi unit or the rectifier? Could a faulty rectifier be causing this?

Regulator rectifier or RR is the unit that converts the stators AC voltage output into DC voltage at 12 volts.

Sounds like your one is faulty if it is throwing out 18 volts.

This has nothing to do with the CDI or Ignitor.....although running 18 volts through the CDI is not the best either.

Well thanks to the wonders of amazon prime i got a new RR thr next day. After installing, the battery was still registering 13 volts with the bike off, but with throttle @3000RPM, volts never went above 14.4. Is the 13 volts possibly because of damage already done to the battery or will it return to normal after riding with the new RR?

Was any charging done before measuring that 13V, or had it sat before you put in the new R/R?
If it sat, you may still need to have the battery tested, or your meter reads high. Some meters are only good for 5% accuracy, and that reading is only about 2-3% high. Try the meter on another battery, like one in a car or truck; if it also reads about 13V, it's the meter.

WintrSol wrote:Was any charging done before measuring that 13V, or had it sat before you put in the new R/R?
If it sat, you may still need to have the battery tested, or your meter reads high. Some meters are only good for 5% accuracy, and that reading is only about 2-3% high. Try the meter on another battery, like one in a car or truck; if it also reads about 13V, it's the meter.

Oh glad you said that, I have another bike that's been sitting and I tested it on that. That bike battery was reading 12.6 sitting. And as for the intruder... I believe the installation was after I got home from riding it.

D98vs1400 wrote:

WintrSol wrote:Was any charging done before measuring that 13V, or had it sat before you put in the new R/R?
If it sat, you may still need to have the battery tested, or your meter reads high. Some meters are only good for 5% accuracy, and that reading is only about 2-3% high. Try the meter on another battery, like one in a car or truck; if it also reads about 13V, it's the meter.

Oh glad you said that, I have another bike that's been sitting and I tested it on that. That bike battery was reading 12.6 sitting. And as for the intruder... I believe the installation was after I got home from riding it.

So, the battery was still coming down from being overcharged; with luck, it is only bruised, and will give a few more years of service. Time will tell ...

WintrSol wrote:So, the battery was still coming down from being overcharged; with luck, it is only bruised, and will give a few more years of service. Time will tell ...

I see. And being "bruised" wont do anything to the new RR will it? Wondering if I should just outright, get another battery.

D98vs1400 wrote:

WintrSol wrote:So, the battery was still coming down from being overcharged; with luck, it is only bruised, and will give a few more years of service. Time will tell ...

I see. And being "bruised" wont do anything to the new RR will it? Wondering if I should just outright, get another battery.

Far easier to just take it to a place that sells batteries and have it tested, then go from there. Since it now appears the new R/R is working properly, the battery shouldn't cause problems for it. The biggest risk is it going flat when you are 100 miles from home.

WintrSol wrote:

D98vs1400 wrote:

WintrSol wrote:So, the battery was still coming down from being overcharged; with luck, it is only bruised, and will give a few more years of service. Time will tell ...

I see. And being "bruised" wont do anything to the new RR will it? Wondering if I should just outright, get another battery.

Far easier to just take it to a place that sells batteries and have it tested, then go from there. Since it now appears the new R/R is working properly, the battery shouldn't cause problems for it. The biggest risk is it going flat when you are 100 miles from home.

Understood. Thanks for all your [and everyone elses] help!

Well, i'm still dealing with this problem, and its been sitting for a while, [not my primary bike, i have a 16 GSX-s1000 that i ride regularly] so figured id do some maintenance and get back to troubleshooting. in the middle of an oil change and before i refill it, i wanted to check out the stator to see what shape its in, in the event, its a contributor to this issue. I'm not really sure by its appearance so i figured i'd post here to get a majority of opinions...

does it look shot, or on its way out? i.e. should i replace? thanks in advance!

You can't really tell by looking - you need to run the bike and check the AC voltage on each of the 3 wires. Anything over 70v at 5k rpm is good.

hillsy v2 wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 17, 2023 5:47 pm

You can't really tell by looking - you need to run the bike and check the AC voltage on each of the 3 wires. Anything over 70v at 5k rpm is good.

Well oddly enough, i couldnt get a steady reading from any of the 3 wires. I disconnected it from the R/R then plugged 1 probe into 1 wire and the other probe in another wire. Multimeter set to AC voltage. And even in idle it was erratic just bouncing all over the place. No different when i revved to 5K RPM. bikes run tho no problem. What does that indicate? FWIW, other data includes battery at rest: 12.8 volts. With ignition on but bike off, volts go to 12.7. Drops to 10.5 with the starter hit then up to 13.5 with bike running. Up to 14.5 with bike at 5K rpms. Its just the Stator itself that i cant get a steady reading.

I also checked R/R and it was steady similar numbers in reverse bias and no readings in forward bias.

Also to note, i had LED headlight, and led rear turn signals with load resistors to eliminate the hyperflash associated with led flashers.

D98vs1400 wrote: ↑

Mon Aug 21, 2023 2:59 pm

hillsy v2 wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 17, 2023 5:47 pm

You can't really tell by looking - you need to run the bike and check the AC voltage on each of the 3 wires. Anything over 70v at 5k rpm is good.

Well oddly enough, i couldnt get a steady reading from any of the 3 wires. I disconnected it from the R/R then plugged 1 probe into 1 wire and the other probe in another wire. Multimeter set to AC voltage. And even in idle it was erratic just bouncing all over the place. No different when i revved to 5K RPM. bikes run tho no problem. What does that indicate? FWIW, other data includes battery at rest: 12.8 volts. With ignition on but bike off, volts go to 12.7. Drops to 10.5 with the starter hit then up to 13.5 with bike running. Up to 14.5 with bike at 5K rpms. Its just the Stator itself that i cant get a steady reading.

I also checked R/R and it was steady similar numbers in reverse bias and no readings in forward bias.

Also to note, i had LED headlight, and led rear turn signals with load resistors to eliminate the hyperflash associated with led flashers.

The important reading you have is the DC voltage at the battery with the bike running. 13.5 at idle and 14.5 at revs are good figures. In other words it's working - don't worry about it.

[/quote]
The important reading you have is the DC voltage at the battery with the bike running. 13.5 at idle and 14.5 at revs are good figures. In other words it's working - don't worry about it.
[/quote]

The thing is, i still have the original issue of the bike shuttimg off randomly at idle and many times initiated by turning on turn signal. 🫤

D98vs1400 wrote: ↑

Mon Aug 21, 2023 8:03 pm

The thing is, i still have the original issue of the bike shuttimg off randomly at idle and many times initiated by turning on turn signal. 🫤

That sounds like some sort of short as opposed to loss of charging.

You should check all the wiring to see if there are any breaks or damage - especially in the area where the wiring goes into the headlight bucket.

D98vs1400 wrote: ↑

Mon Aug 21, 2023 8:03 pm

The thing is, i still have the original issue of the bike shuttimg off randomly at idle and many times initiated by turning on turn signal. 🫤

To help you narrow down your search for a possible short in the Wiring,...let me ask;

When the bike cuts off at idle, have you ever noticed that this happens when you turn the bars only?...even slightly?

And when you noticed that it coincides with the activation of the turn signal,...which one was it,...left or right?

Also, what do you think you did to make it so the bike runs again?

[/quote]
To help you narrow down your search for a possible short in the Wiring,...let me ask;

When the bike cuts off at idle, have you ever noticed that this happens when you turn the bars only?...even slightly?

And when you noticed that it coincides with the activation of the turn signal,...which one was it,...left or right?

Also, what do you think you did to make it so the bike runs again?
[/quote]

Well thats the odd thing. It sometimes happens just on its own when coming to idle. I just notice alot of times it happens right after i turn on either turn signal. And even with that, sometimes its not even instantly after activating turn signal. There can be a second delay and then it happens. So i.e. when the shut off occurs, its always in the idle state whether rolling to a stop or not. And most of the time it occurs right after hitting a turn signal.
The shut off happens whether bars are straight or not.
As for your last question... im not quite understanding it. Thank you for your help thus far btw.

Well... problem solved! Oddly enough it seems it was the load resistors i added to the rear led turn signals i installed. I noticed that even with the load resistors they were still hyper flashing and not only that, but i noticed that the turn signal, high beam and pil pressure cluster of lights under the speedometer would dim with each flash when i activated the turn signals. So i removed the resistors since they wetent working anyway. Upon removing them the cluster lights werent dimming anymore and the bike wasnt shutting off anymore. Weird!! But happy this is over. Its been a nightmare of an annoying problem to troubleshoot and try to fix. Thanks everyone for their help.

Great News to hear! Nice sleuthing there.
I was on the track of narrowing down your search for an intermittent short in the Wiring Harness.
I didn't know of the dimming as the Turn Signals were flashing. That is a Telltale indicator.


Now,...go out and RIDE that Bad Boy of yours!