My wife and I were out for a ride when her bike (Sportster) suddenly died. After sitting a few minutes it started and we rode off. About 200 yards it died again. No restart. Towed it home. Changed plugs and fired rite up. Plugs were black. Let bike get up to operating temp and it died again. Checked for spark and had none. Replaced coil, started rite up, and after getting to operating temp it died. Almost like fuel was evaporating before it could ignite. Checked vacuum lines and found a couple dry rotted so I replaced them. Bike fired up and ran better but still dies after reaching operating temp. Bike just turned 10,000 miles. Only thing I haven't replaced is the ignition module. At 265 bux I don't want to buy and have it NOT be the problem. Any ideas? What should I look for next? Almost sounds like bike is starving for fuel. Checked bowl float and it looks good. No dirt in bowl.

 

Ignition module overheating. Replace it with a SE one or a aftermarket one.

Easy way to test if it is overheating is to pull the cone cover off and take your wives hair dryer and heat it up while it is running. If it dies there is your problem.

I had a '99 883 and it did the same thing to me. Died several times on me and I remember reading on the old sportster.com page about the module having problems. My quick fix was to put ice on the cone until it cooled off and took it straight home. This was a few years ago and you could still find SE modules on eBay.

 

More then likely the ignition module. But check your battery connections too. Make sure they haven't vibrated loose.

 

start the bike normaly from cold start

put hairdryer on the ignition module
if the bike shuts off/sputters or idles crazy thats ur problem