Harley Voltage Regulator

QuestionSomething is dragging my battery down. How do I tell if it’s Harley voltage regulator or starter?

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Answer If you are losing voltage while your bike sits, you can test your voltage regulator for bleed bye. Your voltage regulator is only supposed to allow voltage to travel in one direction. From the stator to the battery. If voltage is leaking through the regulator, toward the stator while the system is at rest; your battery will “leak” voltage. It is easy to test for this condition. Simply clip your test light onto the negative terminal of your battery. Unplug your regulator. Touch the test light to each of the regulator terminals, one at a time. If the test light illuminates, the regulator is no good. Battery voltage is not supposed to be present on this side of the regulator. You should also test your charging system.




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7 Responses to “Harley Voltage Regulator”

  1. Thomas Caudill

    Hi I am Having Problems with my 73 Superglide!! Bike runs good when idling as soon as I take it for a ride it starts popping and backfiring!! Dies out then I wait a couple seconds starts up then does the same thing over again!! Starting to get Frustrated!! Hope you Can Help!! Tried…

  2. Lonnie

    My 2006 ultra classic has charging issues,sometimes it stays on 14 on my volt gauge then it will slowly drop, it has gone down to 10,it then starts to go back up to 14 again I’m afraid to go any distance afraid of breakdown any help would be appreciated.

  3. Wade

    Something is causing my battery to get so hot the plastic and lead melted on the terminals. This was not caused by overcranking. Could this be caused by a faulty voltage regulator allowing too much current to go to the battery? How do I text the regulator for that possibility?

  4. Jon Spellman

    Can the stator supply too much voltage to the regulator?

  5. Wayne

    how do you check a charging system on a 2015 roadgluide

  6. Michael

    I recently had to replace the battery and voltage regulator on our 2011 Softail Classic, this all happened while out of town of course so i did not have the needed test equipment to check everything once the battery light came on, battery did die and verified bad, end result the regulator was bad. with this being said I was told to expect the Stator to fail soon. I am not one to believe what others throw out there like this, is there anyway to test the stator to see if it going bad? i am getting 13.5 to 14 volts to the battery with the new regulator, this tells me everything is fine thanks

  7. Roy Maxwell

    I have a 2009 FXDL Dyna . When servicing the air filtet I discovered a fair amount of oil in the filter. It wasn't to the point of dripping but was some oil present. Is this normal?