| Author |
Message |
    
Reepicheep
| | Posted on Monday, April 07, 2008 - 12:16 pm: | 
|
quote:The stator test showed I had a grounded and working stator
Ummm... the two are mutually exclusive... 
But the stator voltage sounds good.
Does the DC voltage at the battery climb at all with the bike running, versus with the ignition on but not running? |
Rsh
| | Posted on Monday, April 07, 2008 - 12:20 pm: |
|
I know it's difficult trying to go through all the arm chair quarter backing you are receiving and all you want is your bike to function normally. In one of your earlier posts you said you noticed that one of the voltage regulator connector wires "the positive female end looked fried". Was that on the actual voltage regulator connector side or the wire harness connector side? In my case it was the wire harness side of the connector that was melted. The black wire from the 2 wire regulator connector goes to ground and the red wire goes to the main fuse. I would look again at that 2 wire connector ( harness side) and check for continuity to make sure the black side is grounded and the red side is getting to the battery. Since you replaced the voltage regulator that makes it a non issue at the moment and assuming your stator AC output check was/is valid. Ultimately the charging voltage is not getting back to the battery and the way it gets there needs to be checked out so I would start at the wire harness side of the voltage regulator connector.
(Message edited by rsh on April 07, 2008) |
Nautique4life
| | Posted on Monday, April 07, 2008 - 01:44 pm: |
|
Bill,
I will get back to you on the DC voltage tonight/tomorrow AM. I will check this is with my meter by simply holding the leads on the battery? Thanks again for all your input. I owe you beers.
Robert,
Thanks for adding. Yes, it was the wire harness side of the connector that appeared to be a bit charred. I will see how good my little Cybershot camera will pick it up and post the pics here and let you guys make the judgement call. So, when I plugged my nice shiny new connector up, I was plugging it into a potentially bad harness. That makes a lot of sense. Perhaps I was looking through the forest and missing the trees, know what I mean? I will follow the harness all the way back to see if anything looks ot of place. I will also check the connector itself for heat.
I will post back later this evening with results. Provided I get done before jumpball. I have $$ on Memphis! |
Reepicheep
| | Posted on Monday, April 07, 2008 - 03:24 pm: |
|
Yes, right on the battery is best, preferably on the "battery side" of the connectors / lugs.
With the lights on but engine not running, it should be *slowly* discharging. With the motor running, even at idle, it should have a step up (like from 12.1 to 13.2 or something DC Volts).
Thats kind of a "in a nutshell" way to see if the battery is getting power when the bike is running. It doesn't tell you "X is broken", but it helps guessing at what is NOT broken. If you jump to 12.8+ volts when the engine is running, the battery *ought* to be charging. |
Nautique4life
| | Posted on Monday, April 07, 2008 - 03:34 pm: |
|
I understand loud and clear. Eager to see what the results are. |
Nautique4life
| | Posted on Monday, April 14, 2008 - 10:59 am: |
|
I've committed a no no and deserve to be slapped on the wrist. I have left my baby in the hands of HD! After many weeks, probably a month now, of troubleshooting and trying to locate a bad wire, I gave up. Damn, I hate being a quitter. (except for smoking, only thing I feel good about quitting) I just became so frustrated that I couldn't find the problem. I had thought I found/fixed the problem and had my bubble burst too many times. Needless to say, I am VERY eager to hear what they come up with. I will share.
The funny thing is, the day I took it to HD, (Sunday) I was messing around with the connectors and noticed the one that looked a bit messed up or charred, one of the actual metal tabs seemed bent upward and led me to believe that the male tab wasn't making constant contact. I fashioned up a little hook thing out of a safety pin and bent it back to ensure contact was being made. However, once again, I wasn't about to put all my hopes on that being the problem and decided to take it to HD. I drove it, but it was only a 20 minute ride and the batt was fully topped off before I left. I don't think that was long enough to drain the batt. |
Nautique4life
| | Posted on Monday, April 14, 2008 - 11:48 am: |
|
OK. Well. I am going crazy. HD just called me about me bike. The guy I spoke with said the tech is pointing to the voltage regulator. I tell the guy over the phone that I just replaced that part a week ago. I even told the guy that did my service write up that I just replaced it when I was dropping the bike off to them on Saturday. I said Sunday above, but it was Saturday.
Anyway. Yea, the tech is saying everything else checked out and is wanting to put a new VR on there. HD said the part I got, NIB could be bad. I know things can be bad from the factory. But, come on. People were telling me I shouldnt have even replaced it to begin with, but I did, just to rule it out.
Has anyone ever experienced something like this? Obviously, if HD puts a new VR on, and the problem persist, I don't have to pay for a new VR. But what if it does rectify the problem? Chances of me getting my money back from the other dealership?
Damn the luck. |
Reepicheep
| | Posted on Monday, April 14, 2008 - 11:58 am: |
|
If the current dealer replaces the VR and it does not solve the problem, are you obligated to pay for it?
That connector being bad could look very much like a bad voltage regulator when they do the test by the book.
Tell them you want the old regulator back so they don't just throw it away... easy enough for somebody here to buy it and test it (honor system) if they believe they have a bad regulator. |
Nautique4life
| | Posted on Monday, April 14, 2008 - 01:58 pm: |
|
Bill,
Yes, if they put a new VR on there, I owe for it.
They said the tech not only did the test from the book, but also hooked it up to the computer and claimed the VR was not putting out anything. 
So as it stands now, I am letting them replace the VR. There are a few scenarios in play here:
1) The VR I replaced myself was dead/bad/faulty when I got it. Chalk that up to bad luck.
2) There is something bigger going on. The VR I replaced was in good working order, BUT something is happening with my bike to cause it to short my VR out.
So now, HD is going to replace it, I have to pay for it because, again, the tech claimed it was not putting out anything, and no matter if that(a new VR) fixes the problem or not, I needed a new one.  |
Reepicheep
| | Posted on Monday, April 14, 2008 - 04:05 pm: |
|
Well, fixed is fixed, so lets just hope its fixed...
Hopefully it was scenario number 1... and you just got a DOA voltage regulator. As bad luck goes, it could have been a lot more expensive then that... |
Buell_bert
| | Posted on Tuesday, April 15, 2008 - 12:54 pm: |
|
Not much to do with your problem but years ago (I think it was an ign. module for a Chevy) when I worked as a mechanic the module was bad so I replaced it. Well it still did not work and after a lot of cussing and head scratching I had the parts house send another but had them test it before sending one. They found 2 bad ones out of the box before they found a good one and sent it which did fix the problem vehicle. And this was a major auto parts supplier. |
Nautique4life
| | Posted on Tuesday, April 15, 2008 - 01:42 pm: |
|
That's not very comforting. That is top notch QC right there . My neighbor took a couple cracks at me the other day. He suggested that the problem with my bike is that it's made in America. |
Nautique4life
| | Posted on Thursday, April 17, 2008 - 02:26 pm: |
|
My life. Someone could and should write a book about it. Oh the yarns that could be told.
I called H-D earlier to check the status of my baby and whether they received the new VR yet or not. They had. And they had already put it on and claimed the battery was charging! I shit myself! Twice! I was not expecting to hear that. I had little to no confidence in a new VR (2nd) being the ultimate fix. My new motto: "If it can happen, it will certainly happen to me"
So, for now, this is the end to this story.
Stay tuned BaDWebbers, I assure you there will be more to come.
Some final notes: The place I bought the 1st VR from didn't want to budge on taking the part back, or any type of reimbursement. After some polite conversation and negotiating, I managed to get them to give me half of my money back(~$40). I should be thankful, or so I am told. Some places will take it back, some wont, on the basis that it is electrical equipment. I haven't sent it back to them yet, so if a badwebber wants to test it out, let me know.
I can't wait to ride tonight. 75 deg. Sunny right now, 5% chance of rain. It's been a long time since I had some saddle time!
Thank you all for contributing your valuable input. You guys are like my support group. |
Newbuellertoo
| | Posted on Friday, April 18, 2008 - 12:39 am: |
|
N4life.
I'm glad we are nearing the end of this saga, and that you are riding again. It has been an interesting and informative read. But, I am getting tired of hearing that song from The Wizard of Oz in my head everytime I read your thread title!! All I can picture is Munchkins dancing around your bike, pointing and singing "Ding Dong The Stator's dead"!
I got my bike out for the first time this season taday too and it was great. Good luck with the new V.R.
 |
Nautique4life
| | Posted on Friday, April 18, 2008 - 09:05 am: |
|
NB2,
Thanks. Rode to work this morning and guess what? I made it!!!The whole way! I have perma-grin right now, plus its Friday!Picked up Betsy from HD last night. Made it home ok. I took the bike to them pretty naked. I had all the panels off from when I was working on it and took it to them like that. So I went straight home to button her up. Then went out last night for a somewhat lengthy ride with out problems. Sweet.
 :::::CAUTION:::::!!!!!!
STOP READING NOW IF DON'T WANT TO HEAR MY RANT!!!!
 Ok, you've been warned. First, after telling them I wanted the bad VR back when I dropped it off, they couldn't find it yesterday. +25 minutes looking for it.
Then, and this is what really chaps my ass, I go outside to leave and inspect their work before hopping on. 
Let me preface this a moment. Total bill was $218 and some jingle. $78 for VR, 2 hours labor....2 HOURS LABOR!?!? It took me maybe 10 minutes to swap out VR's. I understand HD had to do all the test (that I already) did for themselves to properly diagnose Betsy. I expected as much. 2 hours though? I thought that to be a bit of a stretch. Ok preface done.
So, upon inspection, I notice a couple things that made my blood boil. I'm already anti HD service at this point. The tech didn't even bother to route the wires the right way. He simply just bolted it up and ran the wires the easiest way possible. NO zip ties keeping everything neat. So what I have here is this big ass wire just hanging out the side of the bike. (remember I left panels at house) It was so sloppy looking. The connections were just dangling all about. 2 hours labor for this half ass job?
So I went home and re-routed the wires the way they should be, zip-tied everything nice and proper and here we are. One more thing: my open air box kit was loose, meaning the washers that held the shafts in place were missing. I can not directly point my fingers at HD for this, but I don't recall it previously being like that. Previous as in the day I took it to them.
I want to call them and express my thoughts on the techs lack of attention to properly mimick the installation of the previous VR. Will it do any good? Probably not. They will probably laugh it off. But, I feel as though I took it in the shorts a bit on the money.
Wow, I am tired of standing on this box, I will step down and catch my breath.
Again thanks for all the helpful insight everyone. I learned a great deal from what I am dubbing "The Voltage Regulator Experience" |
Reepicheep
| | Posted on Friday, April 18, 2008 - 12:49 pm: |
|
Thats pretty annoying, particularly as there was some dispute regarding the earlier VR (that seems to have failed out of the box).
In fact, how are you to know they replaced it at all? How do you know they didn't misroute the wires, clean up the old VR, and bolt it right back on? I'm not saying they did that, just saying you now have no way of knowing they didn't.
Unfortunately, there probably isn't a way to pursue it without antagonizing that dealer... at least not if you want to try and get some labor or parts costs back.
At least the bike is fixed... if that was not the case, then things would be *really* fubar. Ultimately, the bike is fixed like you paid to have it fixed, and you are only out the partial refund for the old regulator, which was kind of a stretch anyway. I understand why dealers don't returns on electrical parts, but also understand that the result of this policy will be that .X% of consumers get screwed when they get a bad VR out of the box...
Lucky you ;)
Nothing a nice long ride won't fix.... |
Nautique4life
| | Posted on Friday, April 18, 2008 - 02:48 pm: |
|
Your closing sentence said it best Bill.
I have been mulling over calling them.
I'm calling.
I want to let them know that their techs, at least one in general, takes absolutely no pride in his work.
If only I was asked to fill out a survey concerning my service experience..... |
Rsh
| | Posted on Friday, April 18, 2008 - 11:42 pm: |
|
What happened with the original voltage regulator did it end up being bad as well?
At least your bike is fixed thats all that really matters. Go ride!!!!! |
|
