'00 Dyna FXDX carb. not EFI.

The bike has been garaged over winter on a CTek battery charger/tender connected to the Odyssey gel battery.

Started the bike for the first time and it was a real hard start which I put down to stale fuel, cold oil etc. I haven't really had this kind of problem before but it did eventually start. I went out for a ride and as I was accelerating to join the main road, the bike backfired once, the tacho went straight to zero and I glided to the side of the road. Turned the ignition off then on a few times and there was nothing, no engine check light although I had neutral and oil pressure lights. Waited a couple more minutes and all was okay and it fired straight back up.
Went to get fresh fuel and no problems starting after that. Went a few miles, stopped for some shopping and dead again with no engine check light. Again, waited a short while, turned the key on and off a few times and finally I got the engine check light and she started.

I thought maybe I had a battery or connection problem so I cleaned and tightened all the connections to the battery, 30A circuit breaker, starter motor, coil etc. Nothing seemed loose but it was as well to check. I checked the fuses and they're okay too.
The battery reads 12.57v but now I have no engine check light at all and of course no spark.
I substituted the ignition module with a brand new one and still nothing. I have the genuine H-D service manual and parts book, but they say to use a breakout harness for testing which I don't have.

When I turn the ignition on, the speedo and tacho needles move very slightly then drop back again and I can hear an initialisation noise (even though it's carbed) but no engine check light and nothing on the engine on/off and run switches.

Would a faulty crank position sensor prevent the engine check light coming on?

Could the battery be showing volts but not have enough amps to turn the ignition system on? I doubt this, but I can't check for voltage drop when cranking because it won't crank!

On these models H-D use a fault code system where you read flashes on LED's so I don't think there are fault codes as on the later models.

I've checked the 250 threads that came up when I entered search terms, but nothing exactly matches my problem.

 

Update: Changed the starter relay and crank position sensor but still no engine check light and not even the hint of the engine turning over.

 

Not sure I can help, but . . . I had similar condition (not exact) that happened to me. Bike died under power going down the road. No speedo, no tach, no lights, I mean grave-yard dead at 65 mph! & when I tried to re-start - nothing, no gauges, no starter. Towed her home, and the next morning, she fired right up as if nothing had happened! Blew me away.

To give you the Reader's Digest version, it was the ignition switch! That's all. I tried taking it apart & cleaning it, did not help. I put a new one on - that fixed it! It never set a code, & has never happened since (about a year ago).

Mine ('04 FXDP carbed) has the twist-**** ign switch on the console, not the one under the seat. Not sure which you have & not saying this is your prob. Just saying I had similar experience, & this is what it was! Good luck!