I only mentioned the stator because YOU said your battery ran down a couple of times. Sorry to disappoint you.......why not take the frickin bike to the dealer if your time is so valuable...sheesh

 

Try checking it a hundred or so times over 0.01s.

 

I can assure you , that you have a bad ground connection somewhere on the bike or inside the negative cable itself. If the cable is stiff, suspect corrosion built up inside the cable and replace it. Otherwise, double check and triple check all of your ground connections.
with the voltage drop you describe, that is where your problem is.

Stroker

 

That is a possibility.
For some reason the voltage at the coil connection is 1 volt less than the battery voltage. (However, at present the bike runs fine)

All of a sudden I had fire on both cylinders and it runs normal.
The cables are like brand new, as are all of the connections. No dirt or corrosion anywhere.
The voltage at the coil should be exactly that of the battery, but it is like I said, 1 volt less. I will have to trace the 12V black/white line back to the ignition module and see if there is any problem with the wire.
I am beginning to suspect that the ignition module is failing to make a ground for the rear cylinder wire of the coil....... if that is possible?

Hard to find the problem while the bike runs however. Can't fix something that is currently working.

There is some lonely deserted patch of highway out there just waiting for me to pull up with fire only on the front cylinder. I fear I will find that place soon......... pg

 

I have a 1999 FXDL with the same symptoms you describe here. Did you ever find a fix for this problem. I realize this is an old thread, but it describes my problem better than any I have read.

Thanks

 

Mark,
Wow! Very old thread indeed.
I never found the problem.
Since my last post (in 2009) I have not had it happen once and I now have 25,000 miles on the bike.
I ride the machine at least every other day and it continues to start and run without a single problem.

I hope you find the problem with your machine and if you do, please let me know what it was.
pg

 

Thanks for the quick reply...if I find the cause I will post the fix. I have read this thread before and was hoping you had found a solution. Running on the rear cylinder seems fairly common...but solutions are not. One day you go out and it works fine...the next it may start and only run on front cyl. Today it is working fine...it just concerns me that I may get somewhere far away and this happens. I will continue to search. thanks again.

 

Yeah, it is one of the strangest things I have ever come across.
The engine will start right up on a single cylinder when this happens.
I shut it off, turn the key back ond most of the time it starts right up on both cylinders.
the time or two when the problem persisted I checked on everything I could think of and never found a single thing wrong.
Like I say..... a really strange thing.
pg

 

same thing happened this morning to me on my 2002 Deuce.

Bike had warmed up for 3-5 minutes while I was strapping my gear on, go to take off and some one was coming up the drive way, pull up and shut down so we can talk. When I fired it back up I was only running on one cyl. I shut it down fired it back off still one cyl did this 2 times. Sat for a second thinking what could cause this (maybe 2 minutes) tried again it started fine. Rode 40 miles to work without issue. I was thinking it was the limp mode, until I looked in my manual on my pc and find no mention of limp mode for my bike.

I guess I'll see if it does it again at 5.