I hope this is the right spot for this post. Three of us went for a ride this evening and one had some motor issue and I am looking for some help. It is a Big Dog chopper that he has had for several years and it has served him well. This evening we went about 8 miles and I pulled over at a gas station to see if either of the other two needed fuel and his bike died, by the way none of us ended up needing fuel. Anyway, his bike started right up and we went another 3-4 miles and it died going down the road. It would start up but once you got off the throttle it would immediately die and the tach would do some weird things.

Long story short, he started it up and was going to try to get it home by staying on the throttle to keep it from dieing. Well he drives is 8-10 miles back home and it acted normal and would idle and do everything normally. Does anyone have any idea what could be causing this type of issue. Naturally he is now reluctant to ride it very far for fear of getting stranded.

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

Start checking battery connections and any electrical plugs, had a funky circuit breaker do that a few times also.

 

Big Dogs are notorious for their electrical problems and now that there's no longer a company for any support, I hope your friend keeps his fingers crossed and a number for the nearest tow service in his wallet.

 

Sorry but no, I don't think this is in the right spot. This is an HD forum and this is General HD chat not big dog chat.

 

Go to the Big Dog forum ....
many many threads about Big Dog electrics and fixes

 

sounds like a bad dog.

 

Not a Big Dog, but a friend has a BMC. Ignitions issues turned out to be wiring probs inside the frame and inside the loom. Sometimes makin it look smooth is not the way to go.

Just a thought.

 

does it have a vacuum line on the fuel petcock ? If so check for a leak

 

That would not effect the tach. If a battery is internally shorted or dying it will cause these symptoms.Have it load tested or switch to a different one.

 

Sudden death like that, particularly affecting the tach, is almost always ignition related. Either the crank signal to the ignition/ignitor/cdi box/whatever, or the ignition system itself.

1st step is to figure out what system is on it, then verify the function of the components and wiring from there.

A battery issue should present itself as a slow or no crank problem also. You didn't mention that over many starts so it doesn't sound like battery to me.