A friend who is a much better tech than I am called today with a problem that has him stumped. Here's the info:

Bike: 2003 Ultra with no aftermarket electrical or electronic accessories.

We're thinking about two possible problems that could be causing the maxi-fuse to blow intermittently:

1. The VR was damaged by the bad stator and needs to be replaced again.
2. There is an exposed wire downstream of the maxi-fuse causing an intermittent short.
3. Two or more circuits downstream of the maxi-fuse are overloaded, the sum of which is causing the maxi-fuse to blow but not the smaller 15A fuses.

We think the third is a long-shot, but any advice is welcome.

 

03's have a circuit breaker instead of a maxi-fuse. The bike originally came with a 40A but the recall replaced it with a 50A. The 50A's still fail, in my opinion due to the heat in the area it's mounted. I replaced my 50A circuit breaker with a 40A inline fuse and have had no issues since. I would recommend that as a first step.

Harley changed to the maxi-fuse on 04 and later bikes and relocated it to the side panel, which I presume is related to this issue.

 

the issue isnt with the circuit breaker it is with the ring terminals that carry the current to the circuit breaker! Bad crimps on the ring terminal cause it to get hot, replace the crimps and voila. Try to measure the heat at the terminal, if over 80 degrees its bad. This is why you solved your problem with a fuse, you eliminated the crimps.

 

There are several old threads on this. Different causes, but primarily bad crimps.

 

+1 this is correct. I would do the inline fuse and rid yourself of the problem forever.

 

I actually used the ring terminals and bolted them to the inline fuse that I got from NAPA, so in my case it wasn't the crimps.....

 

I've never seen the victim's bike, so as the OP I was relaying 3rd-hand info. I was told that he "replaced" something several times, either a fuse or CB, so I assumed he had a maxi-fuse on his bike since you don't normally change a CB when it trips. I'm checking in on exactly what he has.