Long post..

hey fellas.. I installed some front turn signals that required me to play with the cabling.. burnt a fuse by accident... then found a couple cables with the wires exposed... took care of it... while riding the bike the engine hesitated a couple times.. later.. the engine died completely !!.. but the lights and speedometer kept working.. I was able to restart the engine no problem.. later.. the engine started to quit more often.. this time it was more difficult to start the engine, although lights and speedometer were working... I had to power cycle the bike.. sometimes I had to wait for a minute or so.. then it got really weird ... I am riding and the engine quits completely (like hitting the kill switch).. but then it restarts half a second later.. then worse.. engine went through cycles of start / stop while riding, scary!! .. but it wasn't like the engine started stalling / sputtering, it was a sudden death like using the kill switch (or kind of like the ignition coil going bad and killing the engine momentarily), If I started the bike from a cold start and didn't move it or touch the throttle the bike stayed at idle and didn't quit, but if I jumped on it and tried to ride it then it showed the problem.. I checked the usual: battery terminals.. swapped the relays to determine if the system relay (the one that powers ignition coil, injectors and fuel pump) was bad.. checked for loose connectors / cables... nothing.. checked the DTC codes... it had "Historic" codes P0373 / P0374 pointing to the Crank Position (CKP) sensor.. I was going nuts.. I thought perhaps I fried the ECM while playing with the wires ... I didn't think it was the ignition coil since it is a dual coil system.. perhaps it fails on one cylinder, but both cylinders failing sounded unlikely to me.. checked battery voltage.. I got so desperate I hooked a voltmeter to the system relay and taped the voltmeter to the tank and rode it to monitor if I was loosing power on the ignition coil / injectors / fuel pump... system remained powered during the time the engine died .. damn.. that's not it.. I decided to clear the DTC codes and ride it again to see if they register again... but before that.. I decided to replace the spark plugs and add some Seafoam to the gas tank.. the old spark plugs looked real bad.. ok.. I jump on the bike to reproduce the issue and regenerate DTC error codes.. guess what.. the bike ran perfectly!!!!... damn.. the issue was not the electric system.. it was most likely the spark plugs!!..

Sorry for the long post but I felt it was important to share my experience with you all because I feel I've got so fixated in thinking the issue was of electrical nature because I was previously messing around with the cables.. which caused me to focus on the ECM cabling, ignition coil and fuel pump power for so long it took me an eternity to fix the problem.. so..

The moral of the story is.. do not get fixated into thinking the source of the issue is of a certain nature.. due to the fact I was playing with the wires.. I was almost certain I caused the a problem in the electric system . .. open your mind to ideas and other people's opinions..

Happy riding!!!....
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whew....glad it worked out and was something simple bro. i've done it before myself, look right past the easiest most obvious things to check until you've exhausted all resources then it hits you! glad you got it worked out and it didn't kill you in the process, literally. good job.

 

thanks bro!... yeah... scary **** right there... imagine your bike completely dying on a 5 lane highway!..

Any more beer recommendations??... bro... I'll be riding to Sturgis this Tuesday!!!!

 

^^^cool as hell man. you gonna document the trip at all. can't wait to se some pics. my bike cut a cylinder out at 60mph so i know what you mean, it's stains in my shorts. well in lieu of national IPA day on aug. 4th give some of these a whirl, you'll be glad you did.

Russian River blind pig IPA (it's RR, need i say more)
Bear Republic racer 5 IPA (7% never tasted so good)
North Coast acme IPA (curently my absolute favorite IPA)
Mad River Jamaica Brand sunset IPA (delish)
Flying Dog centennial imperial IPA (make sure you aint doin any ridin after this one, she's 10%)

enjoy the trip, i want a report on my desk first thing in the morning upon your return, lol. most of all, watch your bacon bro and bring it back in one piece. cheers!