I bought a 81 FLT and am going through it as a winter project
It starts okay but after warming up for a couple minutes it just dies then it doesn't want to start up and I end up having to charge the battery for a while
I thought the regulator might be going bad, I'm getting 13.8vdc while its running around 2000-2200 rpm at the battery terminals
Could it be the coil breaking down or am I looking in the wrong direction?
Thanks
Rich

 

bang on the money,,for what its worth buy a coil,,even if thats not the problem,the coil could give out on you on a nice long ride,and a spare is nice to have on hand,,trust me on this,,stuck in the middle of nowher,for 6 hrs,,and thats exactly how it acted before I left for the trip.Welcome to the shovel world,they may need a few tweakd now and then,but worth every minute of it when riding

 

Coil or the stock ign. module those years that's how they acted when they started breaking down get warm shut off , cold start again .

 

Well after posting I went and removed the crappy aftermarket cam cover and it looks like a stock electronic ignition that might be the prob