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New Problem: Alternator?

Rod Stewart

Rod Stewart

Active Member
Hi All,
My 2004 Classic looks like it's having some sort of alternator or regulator issue suddenly. At idle the voltmeter reads a little over 14 volts like always. But when accelerating thru the gears the needle swings back and forth between 14 and 10 volts. Otherwise it seems to run fine, but as soon as I noticed this I came straight home.
The local dealer says it could be alternator, regulator, or maybe the battery.
Anybody got any ideas?
Thanks, Rod
 
Well the dealer is right, any one of the three could be it.
If the battery has a bad cell, it can make a alternator or regulator look bad.
If the battery has enough power to crank the engine as normal than I would lean towards the regulator. They are in a location suseltible of oil contamination when removing the filter and the oil gains access by way of wicking thrue the wires.
 
You may want to use an external meter to check the readings as well, could be your volt meter gauge is going bad.
Just a thought.
 
What Jeff said. Harley gauges have never been something to lean on to hard, just a trendicator.
 
Breeze, good suggestion on checking connections! Gonna try that today. Failing that I guess it will go by trailer to the stealership tomorrow, and pray they don't bankrupt me. (Haha, just kidding)
Rod
 
FOLLOWUP: I love problems that end happily!
I did a quick check and found that one battery terminal was maybe slightly loose, and tightened it up ever so little. Nothing else looked out of whack anywhere. Took her for about a 50 mile ride today, and voila, worked just as good as new. No flakey voltmeter at all.
So I am cautiously optimistic that for whatever reason maybe all is well now.
The only other unknown is I had the battery tender on it for the last 2 weeks prior to noticing the problem, but no tender for the last 3 days since discovering the problem. No idea if this has anything to do with it at all?? :rolleyes:
Rod
 
It was most likely your problem. When running down the road the loose wire you found would probably vibrate causing a come & go connection, thus needle swing at gauge. Glad you found it.
tourbox
 
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