Rubbermount_EVO Charging issues solved report

[carmine73]

Hi all I am a wrench from N.Y. And I have had some serious headaches with an 04 , 1200 custom I figured I can possibly save some of my friends here a few headaches so I will run it down for ya and if anyone can save a minute or prescious riding time or a dollar im a happy guy.
I got the bike with a dead but brand new battery.
I charged the battery and load tested it and found it to be good.
I started the bike and checked the output at the stator and had over 40 vac
I checked the voltage at the battery and had 11.somthing
I immediately suspected the regulator and replaced it
After replacing the reg/rect I was charging at a little over 13.8 volts alls good .....WRONG!
After less than 2 miles my customer breaks down?
No charge no start, so I ohm out the stator and find it is good brand new regulator and battery what the hell?
Apon further inspection I find that the ground strap on the lower rear mount is no good and corroded,
I also discover my customer has over tightned the negative battery terminal damaging the battery
I repair the stuff I found but no charge still
I got so fed up I replaced the entire charging system stator rotor and reg/rect...... I get it all buttoned up fire the bike and tada it still doesnt charge now im steaming im so tyred of messing with this bike I wanna douse it with gas and light it up! I seperate all the connectors checking all the wires and every thing is good. I start it up and its charging. Great I go for a test ride it stops charging im pulling my hair out here and as I go to check that I have every thing connected right the wire ejects from the connector connecting the wire harness of the bike to the regulator!!! I chopped the connector out and spliced it direct with water resistant shrink splices and viola' no more charging problems. The key here is the connector problem was not obvious and intermittant and it also is part of the bike not the component so even swapping parts will not solve the problem.

[seajay]

Thanks for the insight.

[jharback]

Thanks for the heads-up!

[beano]

thanks man...b.

[wedge]

Thanks for posting this.

It sure seems like this is more the norm than the exception on sportsters. The grounds are all always vibrating loose, corroded, or the lug that the factory crimps on to the cable ends is corroded inside, and the plugs are always failing due to either corrosion, or just popping apart like in this case. The ground from the battery in the rubbermounts is in a dumb place, so many of us have moved it to the back of the primary with the other "harness grounds".

So this serves to remind us all to check the wiring carefully before ever ordering parts. It's not like we could ever expect that it would be good.