Hey all,

I recently acquired a 1989 FLHTC as my first bike. Shortly after I bought it, it began showing signs of a short somewhere in the system (voltage jumping all over the place, blinkers occasionally not working then working again, radio cutting off and putting engine noise through the speakers, and the neutral light only works every once in a great while).

Then it started giving difficulty while starting. The previous owner had problems with the ignition switch, so he mounted another switch on the side of the bike with a jumper wire straight from the switch to the starter. Using that, the starter would turn and turn and turn, but the engine wouldn't fire up. One day after doing that for about 10 minutes, I kicked it into first and hit the switch, and it fired right up. Other times, if I shifted through gears and turned the ignition on and off a few times and then tried it, it would work.

Well now, I was having those normal problems leaving work, and finally got it started. About 2 blocks down the road, it started to die on me. I figured maybe I didn't let it warm up enough, so I just rode it in the higher rpm range for a couple miles. After about 10 miles of interstate, I exited and almost immediately it began to sort of bog down when I released the throttle, then it just died out. I went through the same start up process (for about 15 minutes), got it going, then got about another mile down the road and it just died out again. I tried starting it this time until the battery died (and was actually getting some bad starter noises) and I just had it towed home.

I'm not really experienced in the testing of circuits, but I can get my hands on a multimeter if need be. My question is - where should I start. I should also mention that after putting it on a tender for 2 days, I just fired it right back up again with really no problems.

Any help to this newbie is appreciated.