YamaDuck

I thought all HD went for high book or high book +

Alright the green 2001 is back together. I had a bad R/R (see attachment). It has a white spot on the back that evidently something inside shorted out and I assume overheated. I am not getting the erroneous reading bouncing all over the place when the R/R warms up like I was. I don't know if these numbers are good or not but this is the voltages and loads. NOTE I have about 200 LED's that come on whenever you crank the motorcycle. They are wired into the lighting system. They are tail lights and side running lights. I will consider those as load load. Here is a breakdown of the voltages. Note that I had the battery on slow 2 amp charge but I took these test before the green light indicating a fully charged battery came on but it also has a needle and the needle showed a pretty complete charge. 1) Low Load @ Idle 13.84 volts and revved 13.73 volts (remember 200 LED's) 2) High Load w/o Flashers @ Idle 13.75 volts and revved 13.35 Volts 3) High Load w/ Flashers @ Idle 13.60 volts and revved 13.25 volts 4) High Load w/o Flashers but w/Green LED lights (a lot) @ Idle 13.45 volts and revved 13.25 volts 5) High Load w/o Flashers with two 55 watt driving lights @ Idle 13.40 volts and revved 12.75 volts 6) High Load w/o Flashers w/ Green LED's and w/ Two 55 watt driving lights @ Idle 13.05 volts and revved 12.80 volts High Load is with radio, CB, and High beams on plus everything in the description. The battery is 2+ years old and was bought here from Earl (I think might have been someone else). As you can see I pull a lot of juice with everything on. My main riding configuration is #2 above which is 13.75/13.45. I must have been riding with this configuration for quite a while before my R/R blew without any problems as long as I kept the bike on a trickle charger. Well I hope that this is the end of my charging problems. Harry

You did real well. That HD dealer must have needed to sell a HD to pay bills.

Thanks PUC. I think I have the problem solved. The battery in question while still sitting on the table is holding the voltage pretty well. At 4:30 pm yesterday the voltage was 13.71 right after the slow charge. 4 hours latter it was at 13.25 volts. 15 hours later (this morning at 11:30 am) it was still at 13.21 volts and now at 3:30 pm (23 hours after the charge) it is at 13.20 volts. I will post a picture of the R/R. I think it was the problem. Not knowing what the R/R was suppose to look like I did not know what to look for visually. This on (see picture) has a suspicious looking white spot on the back. It does not look like it was put there intentionally. After replacing the R/R I checked the voltage. Although lower than the cold R/R from yesterday I was not starting with a fresh fully charged battery. It started out at 13.6 volts and as I revved it the voltage dropped to 13.4 volts. After several minutes of warming up I checked and it had gone up to to 13.7 volts and after revving would go down to 13.5 volts. I expect to see those numbers improve with a fully charge battery. The important thing to notice here is that the voltage did not drop and get erratic when it got warm as it was doing last night. It was staying constant and increasing as the R/R was charging the battery. When I checked the DC voltage across the stator plug I got 1 ohm on all three wires. I'm not sure if I did the AC test correctly or not as I cranked the bike and got 2 volts ac across all three of the white wires and I got 12.8 volts DC on the red and black wires. So I will check the voltage at the battery by running the same test as before only with a fully charged battery. The battery that is in this bike now is the one I got from Earl a few years ago and is not the same battery that was in this bike when it broke down on me. That battery is the one above that I have bench testing.

I slow charged the battery in question yesterday. I tested the battery as soon as I took it off the charger. At 4:30pm it measured 13.71 volts. 2 hours later it measured 13.29 volts, 2 hours later (now 8:30 pm) it measured 13.25 volts and now 15 hours later it measures 13.21 volts. This is with the battery completely out of the bike sitting on a table. I will put a new R/R on and test it again. If it passes the test hopefully I will have ID'd the problem. If a new R/R does not solve the problem then it will not be much trouble to put the old R/R back on. If it fails the test then I will start looking at and testing the stator.

Alright here is why I thought it was testing good because when you first crank it up all the numbers are good. 14.02 volts at idle and 13.98 revved. I took the other battery out and put it back in the 2001. Same reading whoever I let it warm up. At some point when I checked it had dropped to 12.25 volts. So I thought I would just watch it. It mostly stayed around the 12.25 volts but would fluctuate a little then you would get a hit around 13.13 volts then back down to 12.5 the up to 12.75 then back down below 12.5 the a hit over 13 volts then back down to around 12.25. It is all over the place but mostly down around 12.25 when it after it warms up. So R/R or stator? Since I have a new R/R (aftermarket) I will try it and do the test again tomorrow.

Yes I do mean shifter seal. Thanks for the tip on the drywall screws. I will be very careful. I went ahead and ordered 4 exhaust doughnut gaskets just in case. They were only $16.92 for all four and $5.99 shipping and handling. If I need them I have them and if I don't need them they go into the parts box for later.

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY! Thanks for all the GREAT help and suggestions (and comments). All the information is of great help in trying to figure out this problem.

I have not visited very many (if any) HD dealers that did not have the Holier than Thou attitude. I have a couple of friends that wanted an up to date touring bike so that automatically eliminated the Venture. They bought HD's and kept their Yamaha's and it may well be for the very reasons you mentioned.

I will order a battery from Earl and for the fun of it just have the battery tested again and ask them to leave it on there a little longer just to see what happens.

One of my batteries came from someone on the site. It may have been Earl I'm not sure.

Yes this is the procedure I am going to follow. First without anything connected and then with then post connected and finally with the extras connected. All the extras are LED lights. It is an "Extreme" battery I believe and is a maintenance free battery sold by Advance Auto Stores.

We had a charity ride a few weeks ago and on the way home from that event is when the MM battery died. We started at a HD dealer and I was hoping a HD salesman who ask if I wanted to trade I was all prepared to say okay I'll take that one there but your going to have to throw in some cash. But no one asked me.

I have a new R/R and after I test everything again and if I still have the problem I will put the new R/R on.

Well I know it is higher than 11.16 volts as that is what the battery tested when I got home. It has been charging since I got home about 3:30pm yesterday. So I am going to test it when it is fully charged and then check a few times later without anything connected. The I will connect the + & - and test again over a period of time before I crank it and perform the test again.

I swapped them one at a time and tested them after I swapped each one (battery and R/R) and both times it tested ok. If it is an intermittent problem I don't know how I am going to catch the problem unless I just luck up on it or start changing parts one at a time.

This is true and every time I check it it is getting constant voltage. It may disconnect somewhere on a ride but I have no way of knowing while I am riding.

Ok so now it is making sense to me. I was thinking that a stator on a motorcycle should act like a alternator in a car. So if the stator does not put out enough to compensate for a bad battery then at some point the bike will die. I hope I am understanding this correctly because the battery today is also the same battery that died in the MM a few weeks ago. I did have it tested and it tested good but it is also my understanding that sometimes a bad battery will test good even under their load testing procedures.

I WAS ONLY JOKING ABOUT THE HD. I have the battery on slow charge right now. When I pushed it into the garage I disconnected the battery and checked the DC voltage with nothing connected. It measured 11.16 volts. I have it on SLOW 2 amp charge so it will take a while to charge. I will check again before I connect everything again and then I will check everything after I get it connected. I did swap batteries. The weird thing is that this is actually the battery that was in my MM that failed a few weeks ago. It got home but the turn signals were acting funny and when I got home the MM would not crank. So now that battery is in the 2001 and today it failed again but this time I did not make it home. I was under the impression that even if the battery went bad the bike would run as long as the stator and R/R were fine and when I tested it they tested fine a few days ago. After it charges I will start all over again and test everything. I know the R/R is good because it came off the MM also. Oh well it is a good thing I am retired. Tomorrow is shot as it is Father's Day. I have 3 days to figure this out before I have to keep my 4 month old granddaughter again.

No. But at least I would be expecting the problems.

Do you think the HD would give me much on a 2000MM and a green 2001 Venture? Both are in the garage and both are broke down! I am in the process of changing the slave unit on the MM. I thought I had figured out the electrical problem on the 2001 but today I went on a 180 round trip lunch run and made it about 120 miles. I rode it about 45 miles round trip the other day with no problems. The other day after fully charging the battery it was showing 14.04 volts DC. After turning on all the electrical stuff and revving it up it dropped to 13.98 volts DC. Today about 80 miles into the trip we stopped for a break and when we went to leave the 2001 would not crank. We jumped it off and I left the group and jumped on the interstate and made it about 40 miles. The dash lights started getting dim, the radio cut off, the speedometer went haywire and then went to zero then the engine died and I had to have it toed home. I really don't want a HD but enough is enough. Everything test alright on the 2001. I swapped the R/R on the bikes and everything checked out. I swapped the batteries out and they both took a charge and they tested good at the auto parts store BUT this is the same battery that died in the MM on the way home a couple of weeks ago and has been tested to be good. Even if the battery was bad the motorcycle should continue to run until it is shut off. If the stator was bad then I would not get the 14.04 volts DC reading. Somebody just shoot me.

Hi Rick I got the donuts from Partszilla http://http://www.partzilla.com/ they were $4.24 each plus $5.99 shipping and boy do they ship fast. 3GD-14613-00-00 GASKET, EXHAUST PIPE as you know you need 4 to do both sides and even though I am only doing the left side the shipping is $5.99 for 2 or 4 so I'll hang on to the other 2 until I need them.

I put HD slant pipes on it so they should come off pretty easily but thanks for the suggestion just in case I need to use it.

You know since I have never taken these off before and since I am not really sure what I am doing I went ahead and ordered the exhaust donuts. I figure they have been on there up to 14 years so the likelihood That I can get them off without damaging them is very slim and for $10 I can replace them so I went ahead and ordered them. Any and all comments are welcome but I am going to change them out.

Exhaust pipe removal and installation on the left side of the bike. I found a post on here where someone asked how and what was needed to take the exhaust pipe off. He got several replies but no one ever explained the process. I have checked the shop (service) manual and I see how to take the left exhaust pipe off so unless there is a trick not shown in the shop manual that should not be a problem. Since I have never done this before do I need to replace the wahers that seal the exhaust between the engine and the exhaust pipe? There is nothing wrong with the exhaust pipe I just need to replace the rubber boot on the shifter where it connects and goes into the engine. It will make it easier to get to the shifter seal also so I can get that thing out. Thanks, Harry