Extended battery life on '84 FLTC

[kajutisg]

When I bought my '84 FLTC back in May of '99, it came with the OEM 22A charging system & a typical lead acid battery (Yuasa Y50-N18L-A-CX), complete with the vent hose. This battery proceeded to die shortly afterwards, in mid-Jul '99 & was replaced with a Canadian Tire motorcycle battery (Y50-N18L-A).

I rode the bike year 'round for the next year (yes, I rode in the Winter, but that's a story to be placed elsewhere on the forum) 'til this battery died in June of '00. Out came the Canadian tire unit previously described & in went a Wal-Mart unit (Y50-N18L-A3). At this time it was determined that regulator had failed, too, so it was replaced with Accel unit.

Riding continued 'til near the end of May '02 when the Wal-Mart battery died on me & a NAPA unit (don't have spec's recorded) went in (during a ride in Minnesota). Turned out to be failed regulator, replaced under lifetime warranty by Accel. Upon returning home I performed surgery on my beast & installed relays & switches so that I could run both headlights, one or none, while still keeping running lights going. Being this was a Canadian model, it had daylight running lights mode, so the moment you fired up it had all the running lights on, plus the headlights. Research showed this was easily overcome, by removing a jumper in the instrument cluster, so now the ignition switch Lights position actually did its job. So now I had the ability to run the bike with no lights at all, & that means a good long running time with only ignition to worry about.

In '03 I'd read about the Canadus Power Systems Battery Energizer, & how it could prevent or reverse battery sulfation. Anything that could extend the life of a battery sounded good to me, so I sprung the $ for one (about $150) & installed on my FLTC under the seat (photo was taken much later).

Then in March '04 I lost another regulator & replacing it didn't help. Further investigation revealed that my charging system was shot. Magnets were loose in rotor & some wires were melted where stator led them out through primary. Replaced OEM 22A system with CompuFire 32A system, including series regulator. Installed genuine H-D AGM battery (no more checking water or vent hose).

Since that time I have had no trouble whatsoever with the charging system or battery. I've put 43,900Km & going on 6 years of not having to worry about the battery.

Now I can't argue 100% in favor of the Canadus unit being my savior for batteries, since it was most likely the charging system building up to failure that took our the regulators & the batteries. But Canadus claims, & I believe them, that if you prevent sulfation then your battery works as designed & doesn't get the sulfation that weakens it & forces your charging sytem to work harder, hence leading to failure of other electrical components.

Only way we'll know if the Canadus system REALLY does do what they claim, is wait for the day when the AGM battery fails then cut it open & examine it for sulfation. But I'm a believer, so I have these devices on ALL my equipment that has batteries, since all that equipment also has Battery Tender Plus on it when it's not being used.

Well I hope some folks find this interesting reading.

[Sarge]

I'll listen to the advice of anyone who puts all those miles on a Harley in Canada! (how many miles did the '84 bike have on it when you bought it in '99?
It's good that you went inside and found the deteriorating alternator. I agree that it was the cause of all your regulator failures.
Those new high-tech batteries are the cat's pajamas, aren't they? They leave the old-fashioned batteries in the dust. I have the biggest one I could find inside my horseshoe oil tank. I swear by it; and a 12v. bolt-on alternator, Thanks for sharing!