I am guessing that my 01 F4i works the same way a car does when it comes to checking if the alternator, or in this case.. rectifier is bad.

I can charge the battery on the battery charger and run it for a little bit and all be fine then it slowly goes dead like its not charging..
I had the battery fully charged, started the bike and then took off the negative battery terminal and the bike died, just like that. I did it again and the same thing.

So, this would mean that I need a new rectifier right?

Thanks for the help in advance guys.

 

I don't think it works the same way as a car. If you pull the battery cable the bike will die.

Also, the bike's generator will not charge the battery unless you get the RPM's up to around 5K.

 

if you get a clymes manual, it will tell you how to check the integrity of the rectifier and the stator. in this case it could be either. how old is the battery? check the voltage, and remember...just because the battery shows 13+ V that does not necessarily mean the battery is good, could be showing a surface charge.

 

bikes are different. below 5K you're actually still drawing from the battery somewhat.
with the battery sitting in the bike, not running, should read at least 12.9V.
with the bike fired up and engine revving to 5K and up, should be between 13.5 and 15.
if it's not reading this it means that it's not charging the battery.

then you need to find out if it's not charging because the rectifier is bad and not coverting the AC to DC or if the stator is bad and not making any juice to feed the rectifier and then the battery.

 

I just had this happen to my 93 900 i didnt have a good enough multimeter to test the charging system like my service manual said so i took it in and sure enough it was the rectifier so id probably take it to ur dealer if ur not sure but thats exactly wat mine did and they said ther was a loose connection that burnt out the rectifier in return