apache

Well today we took off for as ride, I keep my 99 dyna in a shed on a battery tender usually. It wasent this time for a week, and sometimes isnt for longer. It fired right up as usuall and as it sat there my other half says " theres smoke comming from up front" The regulator in front has a large 2 wire plug, the one in the rubber boot,before going into the case. The regulator end of the plug where the wires go in to it had smoke comming from it and the wires were hot enough It would burn the hands if you held on to long. The regulator did not get hot as I know they will. We rode for 125 miles or so with out problems. Anyone have any ideas? overcharging? short somewhere? Im really startin to feel like a walkin disaster waitin to happen. maybe a nice padded cell and some rubber toys will help.

Smkndzl

I would get a VOM meter and check for short to case or frame, had that happen on mine and was shorted to the case , got some shrink tube and fixed it .

apache

Ill do that. Im gonna check it over. last time I washed it (long ago) I had the seat off and started seeing smoke from the battery +, it was so close to the frame the water from washing caused a arc and was shorting the battery. Ive put a bunch of miles since then and I doubt its related but Ill check it out. At 38k, maybe its time for a new springer

TomW

Ain't even broke in yet! Sheesh! My Geezer Glide has 116,000 on it!

apache

Yeah, but I havent had my way with it. Or maybe I should say I havent jinxed it yet.

pappyman

Could be condensation in the electrical connections....I put die-electrical grease on my connection.....on one of my customs it would always smoke on cool mornings from under the tank and it had me worried...then one morning I checked it out before starting and found condensation under the tank would drip onto a circuit breaker well grease on that circuit breaker fixed the problem

An old mechanic will always tell you to replace any wires that smoke escapes from "gotta keep that smoke inside the wires"

MikeyB

Yeah, Mine did that several years ago. The battery internally shorted and causes some smoking from the regulator connector. Come to find out the regulator was the bad (18v +) and cooked the battery. Didn't know this until the replacement battery cooked.

MikeyB

Shovelhead

I've been seeing alot of folks (Including me on the Geezer-Glide) lately with shorted stators.
Seems the vibration over time (and the low cost bidder-suppliers) cause the epoxy on the windings to crack and the exposed windings to short out on the engine case.
I caught mine when the voltage meter wouldn't go above 12 volts (normally 13-14 volts) at highway speeds.
Pull the plug and check the two prongs on the engine side of the connection for continuity with the engine cases.
A short on either one indicates a Primary-Side tear down is in your future.
The dealer charges 3 hours @ $65 Per Hour + parts.
I did my own in less than two hours in my garage.

RATTLINRAM

Not sure on the newer ones, but I replaced the stator in my 77 when it went bad in 94 and I bought a hold-down clip along with a new stator that keeps the plug pressed firmly into the case. The plugs had a habit of working loose just enough to cause intermittent loss of contact which led to the wires heating up. Never had a problem after that.
Having use of a bike lift made the install easier.

TomW

Aint' THAT the truth! Those things are a life saver (and knee saver, back saver, etc. etc. etc.)

Shovelhead

AMEN to the bike lft.

apache

The condensation theory makes sence. Usually in the shed its X degrees, when I roll the bikes out within minutes there becomes a haze of moisture on certain parts from the temp change like the tank where the fuel is and anywhere it wont warm up quick like. I hate to see this but there not much I can do about it. I luckly have some warranty left so im gonna take it in for a check over.