OK, so, I did some following of the battery leads. I ended up not too far away: the solenoid. I notice one 16g wire which sits alone on a small post, was…crushed. I clipped it, and put a new eyelet on it. The post was also loose. So, I tightened the post. On the positive lead from batt to solenoid, noticed THAT post was loose too. I unscrewed the outer nut, tightened the inner nut, and then put it all back together.

Far as I could tell, no wires other than the crushed one were harmed, corroded, etc.

Since someone was wondering if I bothered with the ground issue: I also decided to add a washer to the bat ground and the wires grounded to the frame there. All the wires—3 in total counting the one from the neg battery—were simply bolted to the frame without a washer and there was paint there except for where the star washer came into contact with the frame, which seemed to me to not be great contact point. The OLD rusty star washer (old school lock washer) was replaced. I discarded it. So, frame, big round washer, ground leads, small washer, bolt.

I re-installed the OLD coil, and NEW wires.

LAST: I got to wondering if my dash was…somehow coming into contact with the ignition switch—there are shims under it because it was too low thus raising the ignition a bit so it was not so deep into the dash ignition hole. So, I moved the lower plate up a little ot raise the lower part of the dash slightly higher. I may have to remove some shims? I will see.

Then I decided, hell with it. Let’s see how it does.

Started quick. Ran it for a while (still some hesitation in the lower rpm), and then turned on the lights. Ran fine! Switched to lights off, but while riding. fine. Lights back on at another point? No loss in power ran great. No misfire. No cough through the carb. I did not retest the center post of the coil. Since i am spent after a long day, I will do that tomorrow perhaps.

At this point, I need a beer.

 

I keep a halogen headlamp rigged up to load a ckt as well as an ol fashion test light
WP

 

It sounds like you may have had some success and that's great.

Cking the grounds can also include the other end of the wires you mention all near the battery and the wires of the ground circuit

A bad ground at a component does the same as a bad ground near the battery

WP

 

I have one wire I could not trace…it goes under the oil tank/batt and disappears. I think it might head to the main trunk that comes from the between the tanks. BUT, I am not sure. It would require pulling the tanks and cutting through the old original casing that holds all the wires.

Thank you for all your help and suggestions You’ve been great!

 

Thanks
Respects to You and the other folks for hanging in there as well.

WP

 

 

Hi Mike,

In my FXSTS, there are 2 (usually) ground connections under, or near, the ignition switch dash. They are:

1. the dash lights
2. the speedometer light ground
3. the tach ground.

All of these looked good.

 

But did you actually pull and clean them?

Lipstick looks good on a pig too, don't mean it's good

 

Hey Twizted,

Yes, as I wrote in the first post, when I replaced the wiring from the old connectors to the Deutsch, and when changing out the ignition.

 

So far everything remains unreproduced. But, the test will come from a long ride methinks.

I am more of the opinion--from process of elimination--that the ground issue was not the issue. If it was, it would occur at all times. The more logical conclusion I can draw here is this: the ignition switch.

As I noted, the dash might have been a possible contributing issue as it came into contact with the switch. I raised it. Now that I have gone back and looked, the center pole--the one where the original choke used to be--became loose at the base of the nut. This would pull the dash forward as I tightened it. The dash then came into contact with the switch, and possibly one or more of the 6 posts.

Below is the one I have. It is an exact replica of the one Harley used, right down to made in Japan (you can get it on Amazon). Notice that the posts sit high. Since my switch was on shims, it raised the ignition to near touching the dash on the bottom end, which rubbed the switch at the section just above the posts. The reason the switch was on shims was because it sat too far down, and I could not operate the key to lock it. As the center post got loose, the dash fell lower, and so, I think the dash was coming into contact with one of the three lower posts (seen here). HOWEVER, the dash also pushed forward on the turning part of the switch, rubbing the bottom portion (nearest the rider) making it difficult to turn. I think this made for a bad connection on the lights position...the center top post. This could force the brass ball underneath to lose some contact with the brass nub on the bottom because of the force from the dash would push the part the turned tweaking the contact positions of the underneath.



The newer ignitions are sealed, and the posts sit lower--example below, and made in Taiwan. This is the one I have but have not installed yet since the problem seems to be alleviated.

Now watch, I will be completely wrong in my theory and it will reoccur mysteriously.