A few weeks ago I put a new battery in my 2001 Road King. The last one was three or four years old. I've been using the AGM styles and they are pretty expensive. The old battery worked fine but the starter was getting pretty draggy when I would crank it and I didn't want to get stranded.

Well...this morning on the way to work I noticed the lights were kind of dim after I got off the interstate, then it started to lose power...then I lost my speedo and turn signals...then it up and died. Wouldn't crank after that.

Got a truck from the ambulance garage....jumped the bike (in the rain no less) and managed to get the mile to the garage before the previous sequence of events played out again...it was close though. Had Mrs ten ring bring my battery tender to me and thats where it sits now. It's charging but when I started it this afternoon the idle was WAY high.

My riding buddy says he thinks it's a bad battery since it wouldnt have ran the last few weeks if the charging system was totally shot.

How do I solve this. I have a volt meter at home but am unsure if just connecting it to the terminals to the battery will show the voltage that my stator/charging system is putting out.I can take the battery back and probably have it replaced for free or close to it if thats what it is.

I'm on the tail end of a 24 hour shift and have quite frankly had my ass kicked tonight. I dont want to be stuck by the side of the road on my way home so I guess we will see how that goes.

Any input would be appreciated. First trouble this bike has given my in 10 years of riding.

Make sure the meter is switched to D.C. on a scale that measures at least 15 volts.

Put the red lead on the + terminal of the battery and the black lead on the ––  .

The meter will read the battery voltage.  It should be about 12.5 volts.

Start the bike and the meter should increase its reading if the charging system is working.

How much it goes up is dependent on the system and the RPM of the engine.  As the engine is reved, the voltage should climb a bit.

If this does not happen, you may have a bad regulator / rectifier or a bad stator which is the device in the engine that produces AC voltage that is converted to DC to run the bike and charge the battery via the regulator / rectifier.

There are ways to check the stator and the voltage regulator.

Do you have the manual?

Check out http://www.hdforums.com/forum/index.php

Checked it with the meter....battery was right at 12 volts....with it running it was slightly less than 12....looks I have a little work in front of me.Thanks for the help. My mechanic buddy was at my house this morning...woke me up actually. He helped me check it and will be my right hand man on getting it fixed


Thanks again.

a bikes charging system does not work at idle, it works from around 1500 rpm and up  so start the bike with the meter hooked up and bring the rpm's up to 1500 and than check the voltage should be around 14.5 to 15 volts if less you have issues.