Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[ColdRain]

Bought the bike 1 year ago. Heated seat did not get more than warm. Blew it off after having dealership check it out. They said it was working as intended. Called BS and walked away. Wasn't charged for it. They checked again in Sept, Same answer. Fast forward to now.

I picked My Bike up from having instrument cluster replaced Friday. Saturday while out riding the seat got hot! Was surprised and happy to feel it since it was only 26 Deg F in the morning when I left. Come to find out the Tech did not reconnect the headlight . Voltage While bike running at warm idle. was 14.2-14.3 VDC @ Battery reading bouncing back and forth With everything off and headlight still disconnected. Harley Spec I read was 14.3-14.7. When I Turn on front heated seat and heated grips on without the headlight its 14.2 steady. Reconnected the headlight 14.0 VDC while Grips and front seat heat only turned on. Turn on passing lamps, rear seat and radio it drops to 13.8 VDC. Only added voltage draws on the bike is my LED Lights on the windshield Trim and matching in the vent. Rest of if the items causing draw came with the bike from factory.  Tuner has voltage reading that matches my calibrated work meter. 13.9-14.0 With just grips and seat on while headlight is connected going down the expressway at 75MPH around 3000 RPM

Dealership says charging system is good. Had them recheck it again in Sept when weather started cooling off.  So they replaced the seat and the grips. New Stock CVO seat installed same result as last seat. Grips finally got warm though. Seat is Just above Luke warm while on high, Cant tell its on when on low. Front seat is warmer than back.

I checked the Following today:
Load tested Battery that was new when I bought the bike 1 year this month. Load tested great with my load tester. Only dropped a small amount into the high end of good reading while Under load. Before load test and after taking Surface charge off with load tester, I was at 13.2 VDC. Came back to 13.1 VDC After load test.

Stater Resistances 0.3 and 0.4 between any variation of the 3 pins. Infinity to ground all 3 pins. Voltage while running: 1000 RPM = 24 VAC, 2000 RPM = 35 VAC, 3000 RPM= 52 VAC, 4000 RPM = 69VAC.

Regulator ground test = 0 ohms.

Did not do the diode test due to getting cold again and already did a lot today with both trucks and daughters car before starting on the bike. Just wanted to get bike back together. 32 Deg when I wake up.. I'm riding to work in the morning!

I did make sure the Ground to chassis was tight. Both posts. under seat in front of battery. Bear to get to them.

Is it normal for voltage to drop that much with stock stuff? How do people run with heated gear and the high wattage sound systems and not have a problem with their heated seats working? What else can I check?

[bakon]

Normal. Also the voltage meter on bike and your multimeter are averages for reading. The circuitry is quick but every millisecond it changes. You display will change half or quarter seconds at best. Tuner reading are taken from bike circuit so also an average. The dive in turning on load is all normal. Battery is the shock absorbers to entire system. Good battery will keep average about 12 and running fine. Seats and grips have huge current draw over led lights.

[ColdRain]

What would cause the heated seat to work great with the headlight unplugged but not run hot when  headlight is running? Something is not normal but I don’t know what.

[grc]

Peculiar, because the 2014 FLHTKSE comes stock with the high output charging system upgrade as standard equipment (54 amp @ 4000 rpm).  As Harley kept adding more electrical equipment, the stock charging system couldn't keep up.  Their answer was the high output system they sell in the catalog AND install as standard equipment on 2014 and later CVO Limited models.  The issue you describe is the issue that caused them to upgrade the charging system.  Check the output current to factory specs, if it's OK then the only thing I can think of is to start doing current draw tests on all the electrical equipment on the bike to see if you have an unusually high current draw.  If you don't have one, an Electrical & Diagnostic Manual would be a good investment.

Jerry