Voltage Question

So i'm riding home from work this afternoon and it is hot 101 by the thermometer on the bike, anyway i happen to look down at the voltmeter at a traffic light and it is reading about 13 volts and then slowly started rising up and leveld off at right at 14. I reved her up a little and she jumped up to 15, Shouldn't she be holding at 15-16? I have never noticed it that low befor or even fluctuating at all. Could it be the Battery? It is the original battery from 09.

14 to 14.5 is ideal for any 12v system, if its been running 15 or higher the battery may be getting hot and confusing the voltage reg. check your voltage at the batt after its been off for an hour sb 12.6 to 12.9 in that area much higher or lower usually means the batt is going bad, if ok, probably the voltage reg. had a 99 venture and the reg stuck open and cooked the batt was charging 17.5 v, no load, after sitting the bat had 13.6 v but couldnt turn the motor over, and make sure the reg is tight to the frame for a good ground good luck!

.....never mind

So i checked the voltage on the battery cold and engine not running And got 12 volts. Then started the engine and got 14 volts, I had the wife run the RPM's up to around 1800 and still holing 14. so all should be good correct? but why all of the sudden is there a fluctuation in the gauge?

Hi,

I installed the VictoryHID lights. Somethings the radion will recycle when I switch from low beam to high beam. My thoughts are 1. Battery may be going bad or 2. I need to regulate the DC power but I am no machanic. How can I resolve this issue.

Thanks,

poppop I am assuming you are using a digital volt gauge and not the gauge on the bike because 10th's can make a difference. Check for a draw fist by disconnecting the battery and see if you get any sparking at the terminal, their may be a very light spark just because of the electrics on the bike but if its a heavier blue spark, something on the bike is causing a draw. OK assuming their is no draw and your battery is reading 12.0 volts after letting it cool that's a good sign the battery is bad. A sitting battery after that short a time should read no less than 12.6 volts preferably 12.8 to 13.0, and if the battery if low its forcing the charging system to overwork itself to keep up, and when electronics get hot they can do weird things such as what you are seeing. If you dont want to take it to the dealer, take the battery somewhere they will test it for free, try to find the cold cranking amps for it first so they have a basis to work with, my guess would be around 250 couldn't find any info quickly, anyhow the battery is the cheapest and easiest place to start good luck!

barned01 first contact victory support to see if they have an answer, if not, is your low beam shutting off when you switch to hi? hid lows are supposed to stay on with the hi beam, not sure of the wiring on the vics but you may have to get a hi low switch made for hid,s, they develop some pretty hi voltage to operate and my guess is its shooting a spike through the system when they turn off and screwing the radio up, if thats not possible go to radio shack and get a inline noise filter for a radio and tie it to the pos wire for the headlights and see if that cures your problem,

barned01 correction, put that noise filter on the radio hot as per instructions

sorry no coffee yet this morning!