[Caprock]

I was on my way home from a ride this past Saturday and was about 20 miles from home, and noticed that my heated grips were no longer heating. I looked at my Springfields display and saw the battery indicator. I then tried to reapply a grip set point but that option was not working. A little while later, my check engine light came on. Shortly after that, my ABS light came on. It was beginning to turn darker outside and I noticed my lighting wasn't as good as it should be and the passing lamp button indicated that the lamps were off. The bike did make it home, and when I got off of it with it still running, I noticed my passing lamps were indeed off, and my LED headlight was not fully illuminated. I shut off the bike tried to restart it, but the battery was dead. It then dawned on me to look at the voltmeter, which was only at 11.2V.

I put it on the trickle charger and when the battery got to about 12V, I was able to start the bike, but my voltmeter on my gauge and my handheld DVM indicated about 11.8V, confirming that the regulator was not putting out voltage. I did go ahead and check the battery cables, even though the symptoms indicated a bad regulator. The following day, I disconnected the 3 wire connector on the regulator / rectifier and checked that each leg of the stator was putting out voltage and got 22 to around 30VAC depending on RPM. I checked it Monday and got the same results.

Today, I took it to the dealer for a warranty regulator replacement, and I will be damned if the regulator didn't fail and was applying around 14.2 - 14.6V (according to my bikes display) for the 4 mile ride to the dealer. I still think that the regulator is bad, but of coarse the dealer isn't going to replace it if they can't see the failure. By the way, my battery indicator was still on even though the regulator was putting out proper voltage. Have any of you ever experienced a regulator fail that comes and goes? Or do you think there may be something else causing this?

 

[Moto_Max]

I haven't heard of a regulator coming and going. But there was a known issue and a good majority of regulators were replaced under warranty. Hard to replace one under warranty if it shows a good reading. You might have to go back when it's not reading right to get it replaced under warranty. If you're cool with your dealer, they might allow you to take a few pictures if and when it does happen again and use those to get your regulator warrantied.

 

[Dr.Shifty]

Mine went out over time with a few intermittent failures like you describe. I got the warning light, couldn't scroll through the readout, indicators didn't work, probably other stuff. Then it went into limp mode a few times but the bike mostly ran OK apart from those bad days.

When it was working OK I scrolled to the battery indicator and left it there. In the bad episodes it was charging way too high, up to 16 volts.

I was touring Tasmania when it was getting seriously bad, but luckily it was our last day and we were heading to the ferry back to Melbourne that night. I rang a Melbourne Indian dealer I knew and he had the new part for me the next day as we got off the ferry. He also got them to replace the battery under warranty.

If you are having intermittent fails my advice would be to take photos of the battery indicator showing it charging out of proper range, as well as warning lights etc. Even a short movie of things not working would give you some evidence to show to the dealer.

 

[Caprock]

I'm hoping that it fails for them. The picture thing is a good idea and I wish now that I would have done that when it failed and would have if I knew then that this was going to be intermittent. Like Moto said, I've never heard of a regulator having an intermittent problem (it's normally good or bad). I thought about buying a regulator / rectifier from Ricks as I have read about quite a few of the Indian OEM ones failing. But, I hate to buy something if I have warranty that should still cover it.

 

[joescian]

I was on my way home from a ride this past Saturday and was about 20 miles from home, and noticed that my heated grips were no longer heating. I looked at my Springfields display and saw the battery indicator. I then tried to reapply a grip set point but that option was not working. A little while later, my check engine light came on. Shortly after that, my ABS light came on. It was beginning to turn darker outside and I noticed my lighting wasn't as good as it should be and the passing lamp button indicated that the lamps were off. The bike did make it home, and when I got off of it with it still running, I noticed my passing lamps were indeed off, and my LED headlight was not fully illuminated. I shut off the bike tried to restart it, but the battery was dead. It then dawned on me to look at the voltmeter, which was only at 11.2V.

I put it on the trickle charger and when the battery got to about 12V, I was able to start the bike, but my voltmeter on my gauge and my handheld DVM indicated about 11.8V, confirming that the regulator was not putting out voltage. I did go ahead and check the battery cables, even though the symptoms indicated a bad regulator. The following day, I disconnected the 3 wire connector on the regulator / rectifier and checked that each leg of the stator was putting out voltage and got 22 to around 30VAC depending on RPM. I checked it Monday and got the same results.

Today, I took it to the dealer for a warranty regulator replacement, and I will be damned if the regulator didn't fail and was applying around 14.2 - 14.6V (according to my bikes display) for the 4 mile ride to the dealer. I still think that the regulator is bad, but of coarse the dealer isn't going to replace it if they can't see the failure. By the way, my battery indicator was still on even though the regulator was putting out proper voltage. Have any of you ever experienced a regulator fail that comes and goes? Or do you think there may be something else causing this?

Did you check the tightness of your battery connections and negative to chassis?. Could very well be the issue here.

 

[Caprock]

Yes

 

[Caprock]

Well I am feeling lucky. The dealership was able to replicate the failure and determined that the regulator / rectifier is indeed bad and will get me a warranty replacement. I sure hope this one lasts longer than the last. After reading about so many failures on this forum and experiencing one myself, I wonder if I should keep a spare in my saddlebag.

 

[OL'55]

Interesting tale. I, too, had a night ride home with flaky headlights, driving lights and indicator lights on my instrument cluster. My regulator/rectifier was indicating between 11.2 and 16.8 vdc during the trip home from Raleigh. I contacted my dealership and on the ride there the following morning, the indication was a spot on 14.4-14.6 vdc from the rectifier.

Luckily, the crack team of technicians figured out that the R/R was indeed bad and to make a longer, already written story short, it was replaced at no cost in a fairly timely manner. Not sure what year your ride is, mine is a 2016 Chief Dark Horse. It seems that whoever sold Indian a bunch of flaky, failure prone regulator/rectifiers got away with a doozy.

I have had zero (0) problems with my charging system ever since (currently knocking on simulated wood). Of course, you may decide to carry a spare with you; I am currently choosing to not do so. 20,000 miles and two years on, the replacement unit is doing it's job. See you up the road!

 

[RACNRAY]

Reg/rectifiers can and DO have intermittent failures. Charging and then not charging at some point. I have had a few that charged properly and at some time shot the voltage up to 18-19 volts!
RACNRAY

 

[CKJR]

I have had the regulator replaced twice on my 2017 Roadmaster. The first time, they thought it was just a battery issue, because it tested fine on the bench. They replaced the battery and as soon as I started riding in 95 degree temps, the regulator failed. I turned around and they determined that it was failing when it heated up. The second time, I realized right away that it was the regulator. I hope by now they have run through the bad batch. Both repairs were under warranty inside two years of being new.

 

[Caprock]

Interesting tale. I, too, had a night ride home with flaky headlights, driving lights and indicator lights on my instrument cluster. My regulator/rectifier was indicating between 11.2 and 16.8 vdc during the trip home from Raleigh. I contacted my dealership and on the ride there the following morning, the indication was a spot on 14.4-14.6 vdc from the rectifier.

Luckily, the crack team of technicians figured out that the R/R was indeed bad and to make a longer, already written story short, it was replaced at no cost in a fairly timely manner. Not sure what year your ride is, mine is a 2016 Chief Dark Horse. It seems that whoever sold Indian a bunch of flaky, failure prone regulator/rectifiers got away with a doozy.

I have had zero (0) problems with my charging system ever since (currently knocking on simulated wood). Of course, you may decide to carry a spare with you; I am currently choosing to not do so. 20,000 miles and two years on, the replacement unit is doing it's job. See you up the road!

My bike is a 2017 Springfield with around 15,000 miles. I had been reading some threads where 14-17's had some issues. I was wondering if the later replaced regulators and the newer bikes received regulators that were redesigned and more dependable, or if just not enough time has passed for them to have additional failures.

 

[DAVO]

I replaced the regulator on my 14 Vintage when it started to fail with a Ricks Motorsport regulator that’s made in the USA looks and fits the same as factory and is cheaper to buy.

 

[Caprock]

I replaced the regulator on my 14 Vintage when it started to fail with a Ricks Motorsport regulator that’s made in the USA looks and fits the same as factory and is cheaper to buy.

Thanks, I've read several posts where other members have used Ricks and haven't heard of any failures after the replacement unlike the OEM. I'll be out of warranty soon, and if I have another failure, I will certainly be buying one of those.