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[WFP]

Went out for an hour ride at lunch and noticed odd behavior of my voltmeter.  It would be up at 14.5 when riding but would drop to 12.5 2 seconds after coming to a stop and idling.  Is it the Battery or the Voltage Regulator or something else?

Hope it starts when I leave!

/Bill

[hd-dude]

As long as your at 14.5 when off idle (around 2000 rpm) you should not have a problem. It is normal for the voltage to drop a volt or two when at idle. The slow response of the guage could explain the 2 second delay.

[Twolanerider]

Went out for an hour ride at lunch and noticed odd behavior of my voltmeter.  It would be up at 14.5 when riding but would drop to 12.5 2 seconds after coming to a stop and idling.  Is it the Battery or the Voltage Regulator or something else?

Hope it starts when I leave!

/Bill

That sounds normal Bill  [smiley=nixweiss.gif]

[WFP]

OK, let me add the missing info.  I was led to watch this gauge due to one of my accessories.  The HD GPS was shutting down when I would come to a prolonged stop (> 30 sec.)  It has a 30 second countdown.  It would then reboot when the voltage would return.

When I got home, I checked the "off" battery voltage, 12.96V.  I then plugged in the tender and it is charging.  I am watching the tender to tell me when it is charged and turns green.  In the past, when I plugged in the tender, I thought it went green within minutes as the bike charged the battery during the ride.

/Bill

[Coolbreeze]

  ...  gged in the tender and it is charging.  I am watching the tender to tell me when it is charged and turns green.  In the past, when I plugged in the tender, I thought it went green within minutes as the bike charged the battery during the ride.

/Bill

That's what mine does if I come home from a ride and plug in the tender.  On, charging, for maybe a minute and then it says it's charged....  It sounds to me like something is not right...

[Twolanerider]

When I got home, I checked the "off" battery voltage, 12.96V.  

That battery voltage is obviously just fine for a battery that is just setting there.  That voltage level would also at least suggest that the charging system is performing ok.  Your gauge readings suggest the same thing.  Do you have a meter that will not just check the battery at rest but also put it under a load?  Given what you've described if there is a problem that would be my first guess.

Actually.....  I'd have one other guess first.  Just because it's easier, cheaper and because I don't believe in coincidence.  Especially coincidence involving a Harley shop.

While I don't remember what for (throttle cable?) I do remember you just had that bike in the shop.  Double check they got the cables good and tight if there was any reason they might have disconnected one or both of them.  Even if there wasn't any reason, clean and tighten them anyway.  Stuff that is easy and free is always worth checking first  [smiley=thumbsup.gif]

[WFP]

40 minutes and the tender just turned green.  Check voltage, 13.22V.  Don, I can't check it under load.  Will take your advise and check connections...the fact that I just got it back from the shop has not escaped my mind (yes, throttle cable).

Also, after first starting the bike and leaving work, I had to sit and idlee a couple of times in the first 5 minutes...during that time the voltmeter stayed up at 14.5V.  Not untill 10 minutes into the ride did I see the Voltage drop occur at a red light.

Still investigating.

/Bill

[WFP]

and I had done the QUEST update last month:

June 14, 2005
Harley-Davidson has identified a condition where the GPS unit indicates an intermittent loss of power resulting in a visual pop-up window on the LCD screen and audible tone. To improve the power management of the device, a software upgrade for the Road Tech Quest (Quest Ver. 3.50) has been released from Garmin's customer support department. It can be downloaded from the Garmin Web site. Owners should follow the instructions provided at this site to make the update to the GPS unit. Any additional questions about this update can be directed to Garmin's customer support department by telephone at (800) 408-7419 or by e-mail at harley-davidson@garmin.com.

[grc]

Also, after first starting the bike and leaving work, I had to sit and idlee a couple of times in the first 5 minutes...during that time the voltmeter stayed up at 14.5V.  Not untill 10 minutes into the ride did I see the Voltage drop occur at a red light.

Still investigating.

/Bill

Mine does the same thing - for the first 5 to 10 minutes after starting the bike, the voltmeter stays above 14 volts at idle.  Afterwards, it drops to approximately 12.5 volts at idle.  According to the tach, the idle speed in both situations is around 900-950 rpm.

[WFP]

Mine does the same thing - for the first 5 to 10 minutes after starting the bike, the voltmeter stays above 14 volts at idle.  Afterwards, it drops to approximately 12.5 volts at idle.  According to the tach, the idle speed in both situations is around 900-950 rpm.

Thanks for the Comparison info!  That is the type of info that helps greatly.  Never paid attention to it before but when I started having the GPS reboot, it brought my attention to the voltmeter...now, it appears the the version 3.5 upgrade may not have fixed the gps problem.

/Bill

[WFP]

OK, new info...

I was at a Dealer saturday waiting for some buds from CT.  I got to talkin' about my concerns and got some good info.  The guy came out and took a look.  It looks like my bike's idle drops too low once it is warmed up.  When it does this, it stops charging the battery.  I thought my tach was just off but I have seen rpms in the 600-700 range.  It idles at 1000 when just starting out.

So he suggested I get the Race Tuner(I have the Power Commander) and adjust the idle a little higher.  He mentioned they had to do this to a lot of Police Bikes that sit and idle with their strobes on.

oh yeah, he turned out to be one of the owners of the shop.

/Bill

[grc]

OK, new info...

I was at a Dealer saturday waiting for some buds from CT.  I got to talkin' about my concerns and got some good info.  The guy came out and took a look.  It looks like my bike's idle drops too low once it is warmed up.  When it does this, it stops charging the battery.  I thought my tach was just off but I have seen rpms in the 600-700 range.  It idles at 1000 when just starting out.

So he suggested I get the Race Tuner(I have the Power Commander) and adjust the idle a little higher.  He mentioned they had to do this to a lot of Police Bikes that sit and idle with their strobes on.

oh yeah, he turned out to be one of the owners of the shop.

/Bill

If it is actually idling at 600 - 700 rpm, there is something wrong.  Warm idle should be 990 rpm +/- 50 rpm.  The lowest it should idle is 800 rpm in heat management mode, and anything lower should set a code in the ECM.  This is directly from the electrical diagnostic manual.

If your bike is still in warranty, have the dealer check it out.  Installing a Race Tuner seems to be a lot of dealership peoples answer to fixing something that should be fixed without it.  My dealer tried to pull the same thing on me when I complained about starting problems and hesitation / stalling.  First blamed it on EPA (not), then offered to sell me a Race Tuner.  Never once offered to perform any diagnosis (much easier to just blame EPA).  If there is no underlying cause, the dealer can reset the warm idle speed in your original ECM using Digital Technician (their computer system). By the way, I watched mine a little closer since your original post, and after starting the voltage remains around 14 at idle for anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes.  After that, it drops to between 12.5 and 13.0 at idle.

[Twolanerider]

OK, new info...

I was at a Dealer saturday waiting for some buds from CT.  I got to talkin' about my concerns and got some good info.  The guy came out and took a look.  It looks like my bike's idle drops too low once it is warmed up.  When it does this, it stops charging the battery.  I thought my tach was just off but I have seen rpms in the 600-700 range.  It idles at 1000 when just starting out.

If you're idling that slowly it is worth getting it bumped a bit for more than just the nuisance of not keeping the charging system energized.  The oil pump isn't going to work too well that slow either.

[kbiforce]

My bike also drops down a volt or two when idling warm.  Seems normal to me. Had a problem driving back from a trip in May. Speakers would distort @ low volume and would cut out. Voltmeter was jumping all over the place. Thought the stator was going out! Tightened the battery cables and that fixed all the problems. Must be the extra shaking from the stroker!

[grc]

FYI
With regard to the time for the Battery Tender to switch to full green - I noticed that mine was taking a rather long time to switch to full green also.  Checked and found the connection from the Tender harness to the bike harness had loosened with use (same Tender for past seven years).  I cleaned the terminals and then slightly spread the male ends with a tapered awl until they felt tight when inserting and removing the connector.  Now the Tender switches over to full green within 5 minutes.