I need some advice here as I am not an electrical wiz. Last week I installed a new battery in my sportster. I should have charged it before installed but didn't. I decided to hook it up to the charger after it was put in and apparantly in turn i shorted out either a wire or a harness near the positive terminal of the battery. There are two harnesses on the left and two on the right. I saw a small bit of smoke come from one of the wires and/or harness. I have been trying to test with a test light but have become even more confussed. Basically it is the wire or harness that controls the turn signals. Currently the front signals light up constant and will not blink. The rear signals will not light up at all. Can anyone please give me a little guidance ???

 

I'm not an expert on Harley wiring schemes by any means but I am an instrument technician, trained in troubleshooting wiring and component problems, so I'll give you the basic troubleshooting steps:

Disconnect at least one battery terminal (two would be preferable for safety) and use a multimeter set to read ohms to see if each wire has no or very low resistance from one end to another. Check continuity through the harness that let the smoke out to ensure all connections there are still good. Check wiring through the switches as well. If you see high resistance where a wire should be continuous, you have an open connection somewhere. If you see low resistance between two wires that have no apparent connection, you have a short between them. You may have to inspect or replace the turn signal flashers, but that's just a guess.

The only causes I can think of are that you connected the new battery with reverse polarity, somehow used a battery charger that provided too high a voltage, or somehow shorted a connection without immediately knowing about it.

 

Now that was a very good and detailed answer by 'Relayer1974'. I cant add anything to that to help you out. All I can do is wish you good luck..

 

Thanks guys, I am going to give it a shot. What a nightmare.