1970 XLH. Riding happily for years, occasionally, when pushing the starter button............nothing. A few minutes later, all is well. Talked with Kirk at Sporty Parts and he said those starter switches malfunction quite a bit. Soldered in a new one. Stopped a few months bac and I thought it happened again. Nope, I could see when you turned the key to "on" it didn't have a strong red oil indicator light. Moved the key back and forth and still the same. Put in my trailer and took it home. Just installed a new key switch and still no good. Careful to wire exactly the same. When you turn to the light position, no lights and red oil light goes out. Turned to on and pushed the starter button and no voltage to the starter solenoid. The P.O. had every bozo around messing with this wiring. Not keeping wire color consistent, bad connectors, etc. It also has 1972 bars and turn indicators. Probably need to buy a new wiring kit and start from scratch. Any ideas gentlemen?

 

Check the starter solenoid and starter relay.

1977 XLH 1000

 

Thx Tex, only thing I haven't checked. Fixing lots of loose connectors. Lock washers were invented for a reason. arrrg

 

Sounds like a flat battery, a different problem to your previous intermittent problem. If your battery is charged, maybe check pos and neg wires at both ends, especially the neg. And look for any ground short, perhaps through regulator or genny.

 

So here is the old relay, looked to be original, 2 posts. The ones I'm finding online that fit the range of year have 3 connecting tabs. See pics. I don't mind getting the 3 prong one but which wire goes where? The 2 post is what's in the FSM wiring diagram.

 

That looks like a curcuit breaker, not a relay.

Paul

 

Exactly 30 amp looks dirty too

 

THAT IS THE MAIN 30 AMP CIRCUIT BREAKER!!!! NOT a relay. Ebay for a circuit breaker, really???? Get the EXACT circuit breaker from Auto Zone. Gotta ask . . . .do you have a Factory Service & Parts Manuals??????

 

Tex, have both the parts manual and FSM. It is referred to on the wiring diagram as the "overload circuit breaker". This is in between the battery connector on the regulator and the starter solenoid, under the battery box. A starter relay to me would have wire terminals activating a relay sending power to the solenoid. I could put direct power to the solenoid to make sure it is not faulty. I'm off this friday so i'll check that. Something is rotten in denmark..............

 

You could add one, and a jumper on the solenoid, to make it foolproof:

This is a shovelhead wiring diagram, but I think ironheads would work the same.