1996 Dyna, 12,200 mi. Has been really dependable. The instrumentation lights appear to be really dim, irratingly so. I go over to my buddies to see if he wants to go for a ride. He's got other things to do. When I hit the start button to go, it kjnda hesitates before firing. Didn't give it much thought. Nice ride, getting late in the day, about an hour.
Get home, decide to adjust my idle speed. Go to start the bike, "Buzz, rattle, buzz". I notice that the instrument lights are noticeably brighter than normal. "WTF?". My first thought is, "Battery", although I installed it back in April when I purchased the bike. Hooked up the tender thinking, "Charging system, perhaps?". Buddy from down the street walks down. I try a start again, he says he sees smoke from the area of the idiot lights/headlight area. Okay, I'll check that out tomorrow, (found no evidence of shorting wires). I decide to check the battery connections. The battery tender has shown green quickly, so I think it's probably not the charging system. Battery connections are good, getting late, I'm tired, (67 yo), and it's Miller time. I'm retired, so I'll do this **** tomorrow.
Next day, get out the Clymer, says to check the starter relay. Okay, the bike's 27 years old, might be some corrosion in play here, pull it, check it, yeah, there's some resistance there. Late in the day, I'll go to the local indy tomorrow and pick up a new relay, around 20 bucks.
Thurs. Rode the Honda monkeybike over and got a relay. Installed relay, "buzz, rattle, rattle". sounds like it's coming from the primary, maybe a starter issue? Pull the battery box out of the bike and start looking around in there. Starter/solenoid right there...(hmmm, weak ground in the starter circuit?).Took the cable off, hit it with a wire brush, used some anti-seize on the stud and reinstalled. I had been pulling apart electrical connections all this time and using dielectric grease on them. I kinda don't want to take the primary cover off, was just in there a couple months ago. "Maybe it is the battery", I thought. Have an old battery sitting on the bench, charged up. Hooked it up without reinstalling the box, hit the starter which spins like it's supposed to! I then reinstalled the new battery with the box and all associated crap. Bike fires up really nicely, idiot lights bright, everything works as it should. I'm thinking a weak ground on the starting solenoid cable. Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good, right?

 

Can you boil this down to what the issue is and leave out all the dialog?

A wall of text is hard to read for my old eyes.

 

I actually agree with Dan. People need to live out the story. What is wrong, what is it doing.

Plus line breaks, I didn't get past the first part.

Or tell your story and then do an executive summary.

 

Thanks for the long story. Sorry I lost interest.

 

We could use a stickie, that they fill out
carb/FI
starter turn over
fuel pump prime
ect

 

I used to work at a high-end boat manufacturer making electrical cables. A few years ago I noticed my heavy cables developing corrosion inside where the lugs were crimped on the cables, the green crap. After buying the parts I made cables with a little bit extra length, I would take your major cables to a Marine store (West Marine) and have some new cables made and start from there.