Riding my 2004 Heritage with 10K miles home from a local hangout I noticed lights up front dimming and then coming back on. When I let off the gas the engine died. I started the bike back up and a mile or so later all of the lights switched off and the engine quit. 5 seconds later the bike restarts and the lights come back on. This happened 2 more times and then it just quit altogether. This morning it cranked up, lights on and 10 seconds later everything was dead. 10 minutes went by and it fired up. I have 12 volts at the battery, it drops to 11 when it starts, and with the engine idling I have 14 volts. I have an intermittent electrical problem. When it starts okay I have 12 volts to the center of the ignition switch, it seems like when it doesn't want to start I have 4-7 volts at the center of the ignition switch. Loose connection at the starter maybe????? Ideas?????

 

You got a loose connection or a short somewhere...Check your connections, and If you have done anything to the bike recently (even If you think it's unrelated), check that area out too!!

 

You may have already done this but clean the battery terminals and make sure the connections are tight. A piece of emery cloth or a wire brush is needed to make sure the contact points are clean.

 

After you check the battery connections, go to the run switch at the handlebar. The intermittent problems are the hardest to run down. A manual with the wiring diagram would help running it down.

 

Sorry... hadn't had my first cup of coffee.... please disregard...

CharlieD.

 

As mentioned above, the battery terminals come off quite often, I would load test the battery and check the charging system as well.

 

Thanks guys, I'll be tearing into it this weekend.

 

The battery was good and held a charge, the charging system is working fine and regulating at 14 volts even when you vary the rpm's, so I changed the circuit breaker. I fired up the bike and backed it into the driveway to take it for a ride and it quit. No lights, no fuel pump sound, etc. I immediately put a meter on it and found only 2 volts getting to the circuit breaker. I rolled it back into the garage and put it back on the lift and removed the battery and battery wires and the wires off of the starter. I wire brushed all ends and even wirebrushed the battery terminals and reassembled it. I temporarily stuck a DC ammeter (on sale Harbor Freight $3.99 )in series to make sure I didn't have too much load going through the circuit breaker. It showed about 15 amps going through the 30 amp breaker so I figured it was ok. I've taken it on 2 rides now and its been fine. So.....maybe its fixed???? The rides will get longer and longer until I'm satisfied that it was a dirty connection that I cleaned up.