Hello. I'm looking for some advice. My 95 Vulcan 88 (A9) is having charging problems stemming back to last riding season. I need to get 'Ol Bessie back up and running before spring. She has 53,XXX miles on her. Last fall I ran into the charging problems. First problem I noticed that I had to keep charging up the battery every few days to get her going but she would get me to my destination for a while and then one day she died coming up to a stop light. I was on my way to have a friend weld the kickstand mount back on the bike as it had broken. We charged her up while he worked and I almost made it back home before the bike died again. I played hell trying to get it home, had to jump it repeatedly until we could park it.
When I got the chance to inspect it, the stator wires and the connector going into the reg/rec were melted. I replaced the reg/rec with a new one and replaced the melted wires/connector as well as the old junk battery with a new AGM battery. At this point, all seemed well. The system seemed to be charging fine at around 13.5V at idle and up to 14.5V at higher RPM's. I rode to another state and did a fair amount of riding over the next month and then she died again as I came to a stop sign. I thought maybe the battery is defective and put the bike down for the season and figured I'd get another new battery this spring but before I do that I want to make sure the charging system is doing it's job. I did take the battery in for testing and O'Reilly's said it failed two tests.
I charged up an old battery and fired up the bike to see where I stood. Now the bike wants to run on battery power at idle but will charge up around 14.5V at higher RPM's. I was told that this is still normal, that at idle battery power is common and if above idle it charges around 14.5V then it should be charging ok. I looked into the stator, as if that could be the problem. I seem to get a decent AC voltage out of it at higher RPM's (about 50-55VAC through the yellow stator wires disconnected at the reg/rec) but here's the rub, when checking for a short in the stator I was getting a reading from any of the yellow wires (disconnected at reg/rec) to ground at about 1.5M ohms. According to the manual I should replace the stator but here's where it gets interesting. I disconnected the stator wires at the bullet connectors and I get no reading to ground from the stator wires indicating that the stator itself is NOT causing a short. Now, on the other side of it only one of the yellow wires (from the bullet connectors to the harness that goes to reg/rec and junction box) shows a reading of 3.10M ohms. This appears to be the wire that goes to the junction box, through a diode to the headlight relay. Is this normal? Am I reading a resistance across the relay coil or is there something wrong here?
I will say this; I did find that one of the stator bullet connectors seemed very dirty and the plastic shielding around it looks burnt. There is small hole in the shielding and I wonder if maybe that was grounding somewhere. I know that I need a new battery but I want to make sure that I'm not just going to destroy another one because I don't know for sure if the battery I purchased was faulty or if the charging system is to blame.
I hope that someone here can help me out before I start throwing more parts at it. Thank you for any advice you can give in advance.
When I got the chance to inspect it, the stator wires and the connector going into the reg/rec were melted. I replaced the reg/rec with a new one and replaced the melted wires/connector as well as the old junk battery with a new AGM battery. At this point, all seemed well. The system seemed to be charging fine at around 13.5V at idle and up to 14.5V at higher RPM's. I rode to another state and did a fair amount of riding over the next month and then she died again as I came to a stop sign. I thought maybe the battery is defective and put the bike down for the season and figured I'd get another new battery this spring but before I do that I want to make sure the charging system is doing it's job. I did take the battery in for testing and O'Reilly's said it failed two tests.
I charged up an old battery and fired up the bike to see where I stood. Now the bike wants to run on battery power at idle but will charge up around 14.5V at higher RPM's. I was told that this is still normal, that at idle battery power is common and if above idle it charges around 14.5V then it should be charging ok. I looked into the stator, as if that could be the problem. I seem to get a decent AC voltage out of it at higher RPM's (about 50-55VAC through the yellow stator wires disconnected at the reg/rec) but here's the rub, when checking for a short in the stator I was getting a reading from any of the yellow wires (disconnected at reg/rec) to ground at about 1.5M ohms. According to the manual I should replace the stator but here's where it gets interesting. I disconnected the stator wires at the bullet connectors and I get no reading to ground from the stator wires indicating that the stator itself is NOT causing a short. Now, on the other side of it only one of the yellow wires (from the bullet connectors to the harness that goes to reg/rec and junction box) shows a reading of 3.10M ohms. This appears to be the wire that goes to the junction box, through a diode to the headlight relay. Is this normal? Am I reading a resistance across the relay coil or is there something wrong here?
I will say this; I did find that one of the stator bullet connectors seemed very dirty and the plastic shielding around it looks burnt. There is small hole in the shielding and I wonder if maybe that was grounding somewhere. I know that I need a new battery but I want to make sure that I'm not just going to destroy another one because I don't know for sure if the battery I purchased was faulty or if the charging system is to blame.
I hope that someone here can help me out before I start throwing more parts at it. Thank you for any advice you can give in advance.