This is what I do sometimes. But I've always started it In the lights
Pos with no probs yet though.if I switch to lights
When idling it causes a miss fire.

 

That is the way those chaps chose to do it. I start in the Ignition position and switch the lights on almost immediately, after setting the idle. There is no set procedure, only what works for you.

Starting with the lights on with early bikes means there is extra load on the battery. Current batteries are much stronger than the original stock ones, way back when, so they are better able to deal with that load today.

 

Gotcha. My lights are on in either position, so I guess it doesn't matter.

 

Hot damn, you do learn something new everyday. My '99 reads "ignition, lock, Accessory" from left to right. Is there ever a time to run in "Accessory?" Never have thought about it before.

 

The only time I would have a reason to "run" in accessory is if I was out of fuel and I'd be the one running next to it. Accessory on mine means "engine off, parking lights and radio on" so ideal for when cleaning it in the garage.

 

If you want to start and run without lights, which can come in handy at times,
look at your cicuit breakers behind the headlight,

there's a green jumper from the light breaker to the ignition breaker(white wire),

remove the green jumper from the ign breaker, reinstall nut, connect it on top of the wires already on the light breaker(green wires) with another nut, I didn't remove the nut from the lights, just put on top and found another nut.

I did this instead of cutting the jumper, still have option to revert without butchering anything.

 

By '94, Harley had rewired the Softail, so there were two settings, one for "lights" and one for "lights and ignition". I suspect too many people were cutting the jumper wire so they could start/run without lights, so Harley decided to "foolproof" the switch. You can still rewire the switch for Ignition first, then ignition and lights but it's a bit more involved. I figured out how a few years back when I was nursing a failing starter.

It involves locating the wires that run from the ignition breaker and the light breaker to the ignition switch, and reversing their locations at the ignition switch. Since Harley decided to run the neutral and oil pressure lights off the light breaker, you will also have to switch the wire to the neutral and oil pressure lights from the light breaker to the ignition breaker. You'll need to consult the service manual for the wiring diagrams.

This works for '94 and '95 Softails. In '96, Harley changed to a 3 position switch (off/run/ acc.), so you're out of luck there.

 

By the way, the '94/'95 Softail uses a different part number for the ignition switch than previous models. The switch functions identically, but has an extra "slot" for the lock tab, allowing the switch to be locked in any of three positions (off/lights/acc.), instead of the two positions of the older switch (off/acc.). If you don't care about locking the switch with the lights on, (or you've converted), the older switch will work fine on the '94/'95 Softail, and is easier to find.

 

The misfire is because there's a momentary "break" in the ignition circuit as the switch is moved between the two positions. Back in the day, we learned that we could make the engine backfire at will at road speed by rocking the switch between the two positions. Cutting the ignition for a second filled the headers with unburned gas, and when the ignition comes back, the waste spark on the exhaust stroke touches off the unburned mixture in the headers.

Good times!

 

Yea that's what mine does. Scared the **** out of me
When.i first got the bike lol!