Motorcycle Repair: 2001 super glide charging sys, dc volts, zip ties

Question
QUESTION: hey Mike,this is actually a follow up; here's the original email i sent you
the battery is new, my dad bought a new 1 w/o checking the
regulator & all that good stuff so its definetly not the battery. i checked
the regulator, well i hope i did, its that rectangular grilled box near
the front of the bike right? i was told to check it with a test light;
i put the wire from the test light to the neg on the battery & the
other to each of the pins, none of these connections produced any light. i
was told if there was light then the reg was bad. did i do this right?

then you asked to test the battery with the ign off & with it @ 4000rpm, so i got this battery tester(not a voltmeter) & i charged the battery over nite, the battery was reading between 12.6-12.8 off. then i started the bike & cranked it to 4000rpm's & there was no change on the battery tester. I'm pretty close to just buying a new regulator then i thought mayb I should take it off & take it to kragens & have them check it, they check batteries so i figure mayb they can check my reg, what do u think?


ANSWER: What you need to test is the stator. First, unplug the regulator from the stator. At the pins on the stator check the OHMs fom each pin to ground. Should show no OHMs. the test from one pin to the other. SHould show OHMs. Now start the bike and st the pins on the stator you should get around 60 AC (not DC) volts. If the stator fails the above tests then it needs replaced. If it passes then the regulator is bad.
SOmetimes, if the stator goes bad it burns up the regulator too.
Good luck and happy riding
Mike

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: ok, so i ordered the volt reg off ebay & am gonna install it myself. i was looking @ the wiring & its seems like its gonna b a real hassle to cut all the zip ties run the new wire up the frame under the tank all the way back to the relay. so i was thinkin it might b easier to cut the bad regs' wire by the fork, cut the new regs wire & just make a connection there at the fork to avoiding running the new wire. is this a bad idea? thats my ?
thanks

Answer
You can do that, the only thing you need to worry about is the connection corroding later on and then the battery not charging. The best way is to install the new wire. It will take a little longer, but you will have a better connection
Happy new year
Mike