Cutting out

While I was cruisin down the road bike is running great, nice day, haven't seen a cop all day ect,,, my bike starts to cut out like it had a dead short (it did I'll get to that in a minute) it dies out then comes back and keeps doin it so at the closest exit about six miles or so i pull off check all the usual spots i have trouble with like the wires on the back of my coil and my ignition switch. It's all good nothin broken or hangin out. I shake several wires and it stops doin it for about a mile then its back. So I make it back to civilization (bummer) and it's doin the pull and jerk the whole time. Then a little voice tells me to look at your battery (I just looked at it before I left the house making sure all was tight). So i listen to that little voice and there it is. It was my battery tender end, ya know the little metal piece that's about one quarter of an inch long? there it is on my positive post arcing away.. The only problem is, is that it's still cutting out. Like its running on one jug. could I have somehow burnt up a coil? I let it cool way down thinking that it may be a breaker. I is charging. a steady 14 volts. It's a S&S motor with a smart ignition. Thanks

I had a similar issue at one time with my Sportster. I found two things. 1. I had a fouled plug. 2. I had a primary chain that was loose. Did you miss a gear? If you knocked out a coil you wouldn't have power period.... Just a thought.... I have also experienced this with dirty fuel filters. (In the tank and In Line..)

Nope I'm not missing any gears. I know usually when your coil goes it all of a sudden like a battery shorting out. I did forget to mention that after it cooled down for about a half hour and i fired it up It ran fine for about three blocks then it started it again.

Check your voltage regulator....

Now that I think of it, I hd these exact same symptoms with my wifes bike. A Suzuki. We would let the bike rest for a little while and it would fire right up and go, then act up again... Ask Red Rider about the push starts that he was so nice to give us... We let her bike sit for about a week, then we took it to the shop and we completely lost power just before we got to the shop. My indy later said that the bike fired right up. He discovered the VR was shot, no issues since....

Nope. I just needed someplace to start. As far as the VR I figured since it was chargen it was OK. How do I check my VR

That is not true. My battery was charging just fine when my voltage reg went out. Your battery is charged by the stator, not the voltage regulator. As far as the procedure goes to check the the VR, refer to your shop manual. If you don't have a shop manual, get one....Otherwise someone will chime in to give good directions...

Yep your battery is indeed charged by your stator and not by your voltage Regulator. Sorry about the checking thing, I was being lazy and brain dead it's all coming back to me now. So What my thinking is. (there he goes thinking again) Is that if I sent that much of a shock through my regulator a good part of it probably made it to my stator, because my regulator did not just go out, I murdered it with electrical shock in cold blood.

Thanks

Your charging system is comprised of 3 components, The stator, regulator and battery. The stator and regulator work together to keep the battery charged. Depending on the model of your bike, the stator puts out 30-60 volts AC. Everything on the bike runs off the power from the battery, which produces DC voltage. The regulator is required to convert the AC voltage to DC voltage and accomplishes this with a 4-6 bridge diode inside the regulator.

Here is an easy way to check your charging system. With a fully charged battery, start the bike. With a volt meter you should be getting 14.3 -14.7 volts DC at the battery, if your not, it could be a bad regulator or stator. With the bike running, unplug the regualtor from the stator, switch your volt meter to AC. Your shop manual will tell what the output of the stator should be at a specific RPM. For example, it might say the stator output should be 30-40 volts AC at 2200 rpm.

So if you don't have the 14.3-14.7 volts at the battery when the bike is running, but the stator has the correct output, then the regulator is bad. If the stator output is below min spec, the stator is bad. Anything is possible, however, I doubt that the tender plug arcing fried the stator.

Hope this helps.

Did the bike have time to warm up in the 3 blocks??...let the bike idle and the take a hair dryer and warm up your ignition module...if it starts acting up with the heat and runs good when it cools...probably the ignition module...