ignition help please
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Tourer
Joined: Apr 2013
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From: Clinton mo
ignition help please
My wife's 96 superglide has the ignition switch under seat behind the battery. She got off bike and left key on on accident. Now on accessory the odometer and back light comes on but if you switch to ignition the odometer and back light will stay on for aboyt 3 sec before you can hear a click and it all shuts off. The wires from plug to ignition are getting extremely hot and smoke. Any ideas? Thanks.
Road Captain
Joined: Apr 2013
Posts: 583
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From: australia
could be a faulty ignition switch,leaving it switched on shouldn't over heat your wires, the other thing it could be is a faulty battery but shouldn't be.... BUT hot wires is the bike telling you theres a short some where...
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Tourer
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From: Clinton mo
No start. When it goes from accessory to run it clicks and have nothing. Service guy at hd said today that an aftermarket battery (which I was against) could burn up wiring on older bikes. Never heard of that but who knows. He said the bike needed to go into service and would be at least a full day maybe more to figure it out and fix. Seems like bs to me
Outstanding HDF Member
Joined: Dec 2012
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From: Texas
I don't know about the battery part, but the time estimate is fair and reasonable. It is an electrical problem and while it may take 15 minutes to fix, it may take many hours to locate the problem. It isn't like you can see electrons leaking out. If you don't have a wiring diagram for your ride and the knowledge, experience, and tools to trouble shoot and repair electrical circuits, then you need to take it to someone who does. You can easily do more damage screwing around with something you don't know anything about.
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Cruiser
Joined: Jul 2014
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From: Indiana
My wife's 96 superglide has the ignition switch under seat behind the battery. She got off bike and left key on on accident. Now on accessory the odometer and back light comes on but if you switch to ignition the odometer and back light will stay on for aboyt 3 sec before you can hear a click and it all shuts off. The wires from plug to ignition are getting extremely hot and smoke. Any ideas? Thanks.
You have a dead short. The click is the relay, detecting the current then opening the circuit, so it can save your wiring from melting.
MAYBE you can use the hot wires to trace the short. It should be at the end of the hot wire. An ohm meter will show zero resistance to ground, on the wire that is shorted...
But, like someone else said, if you're not into wiring you might end up making a lot MORE trouble by trying to fix it yourself. I'd like to help, man, but I'd have to be there and see your bike.
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