I was on my way to a run in MO making my first leg of the trip up to northern Montana by cutting through the top of the Idaho panhandle.
I had been riding in the rain most of the day, and was only 140 miles from my objective- when the bike stopped running, like a literal switch had been tripped.
Long story short- stranded in the middle of nowhere, no cell signal, bike turned over- but no start.
Some guys stopped to help, but ended up pushing the bike to a farmhouse, parked it in and orchard, and went 21 miles into Bonners Ferry, Idaho for a motel room.
One of the guys had an auto shop and in the morning we trailered the bike to it.
After a few hours of testing and diagnostic work, found the problem.
My Power Commander connectors had filled with water and shorted it out.
We purged the water, treated the pins with dielectric grease, and it ran like a top.
I paid the guy, who bumped his morning shop appointments to do the work, which put me below my budget for the trip.
I rode home with about 300 miles of rain in between without a hitch.
So, check your connections and treat them for moisture so you don't have a similar occurrence and maybe not as good of luck with rescue I had.
Lesson learned.
Ride on!

 

You're not the first one I've heard of having that very problem with power commanders. I seem to remember that being a popular thread topic a few years back. I'm glad you were on your way with a minimum of fuss. Breaking down in the middle of nowhere in the pre cell phone days lead to some of my best memories on the road. Adventure isn't always fun while it's happening, but it makes for memorable experiences.

 

Every few years you should all check every connector and replace the dielectric grease. Just to be sure.

Can anyone tell I used to be a Navy Nuke?

 

Is dielectric grease recommended at the fuel injector connectors? I recently installed a FuelMoto which requires some pigtail connectors there.

 

It couldn't hurt..I'm going overboard with it after my issue. Lol!

 

Brother had a bone stock 1980 FX on a Sturgis trip with me, same scenario been riding in heavy rain for a while and his bike starts dropping out then back in again randomly. No pattern or time limits to it drove us nuts for 2 days chasing the gremlin till we found the main circuit breaker had gotten wet and was randomly tripping then reset when it wanted to. Water & wires have never been good company.