All, I have a 2003 FXSBTI (Nightrain) that I am having a bear of a time with.
Issue: Speedo is erratic at times. I’ve tried but I haven’t found a way to duplicate it, it is very intermittent. Some days it works fine, some days it will show speed accurately and then all at once go to zero. If I am cruising at 60 mph the speedo may bounce from 60 to 0 and back and forth. There are times when it will stay at zero and not work again until I shut the bike down and restart. There are times when it won't work at all. If I get on the bike hard with hard acceleration to 70 – 80 mph that seems to get the problem to surface although not always. The speedo backlighting does continue to work regardless of the speedo reading. The check engine light will illuminate when the speedo quits reading however not all the time. When speedo quits idle does get rough and engine may stall although not all the time. WORK PERFORMED AND ITEMS REPLACED IN THE FOLLOWING ORDER:
1. CLEANED VSS....PROBLEM STILL EXISTS
2. REPLACED VSS....PROBLEM STILL EXISTS
3. REPLACED SPEEDO....PROBLEM STILL EXISTS
4. CHECK WIRING HARNESS AND GROUNDS...GOOD CONTINUITY THROUGHOUT....PROBLEM STILL EXISTS
5. REPLACED VOLTAGE REGULATOR....PROBLEM STILL EXISTS
6. REPLACED TSSM....PROBLEM STILL EXISTS
7. REPLACED ECM WITH ZIPPERS THUNDERMAX....PROBLEM STILL EXISTS
8. PUT BIKE UP ON JACK STARTED BIKE PUT IN GEAR SET THROTTLE AT 30 MPH AND TUGGED ON HARNESS....UNABLE TO DUPLICATE....PROBLEM STILL EXISTS

***I DO NOT HAVE BRAIDED SPARK PLUG WIRES.

THERE ARE ITEMS I HAVENT REPLACED AND MAY IN FACT BE THE PROBLEM BUT I'VE THROWN ENOUGH PARTS/MONEY AT THIS ONE AND I NEED HELP!

1. CRANKSHAFT POSITION SENSOR...I DON'T SEE IT IN THE WIRING DIAGRAM.
2. IGNITION SWITCH...CLEANED TERMINALS BUT POSSIBLE IT IS BAD BUT IF IT WERE THE BACKLIGHTING WOULD GO WITH THE SPEEDO READING.
3. WIRING HARNESS...AT $738.00 FORGET IT!
4. STEALER LOOKED AT IT AND THEY'RE SCRATCHING THEIR HEADS.

I'm scratching my head on this one!

Thanks,
Tony

 

My 02 has done the same thing. It has only happened a few times. Be cruising along and then all of the sudden no speedo. Shut it off and restart it and it would be fine. I always figured it might be something with the ignition switch but it has happened so rare on mine I have never done anything about it. Wish I had an answer for you but you're not the only one with the issue.

 

Guys,
Thoughts?
Went and changed my fluid this morning and the sensor was again covered and the fluid was full of large metal flakes. I put a magnet in and sure enough it was covered. I did the same thing about a 1000 miles ago and had the same issue. I drained and flushed the tranny and wouldn’t you know it 1000 miles later the same issue. The VSS again was covered. I think I found the culprit...it's the tranny. Most likely bearing failure. This is my seventh HD and I've never seen metal in the tranny fluid this bad. Funny thing is tranny shifts and works smooth. OH well...thoughts?
Thanks,
Tony

 

Sounds like you have probably found the culprit. Might be time to tear into the tranny and see where it's heading down the trail of tears.

What are you running for tranny juice?

 

80-90 Gear Lube.

 

Dang! I was hopin' you'd say Syn3 so's we could all bash on you and HD!

Sure seems like something would've happened by now if there is that much crap floating around from a bearing. It isn't too awful a task to drop the primary, pull the cover off the tranny, undo the trapdoor, and slide the guts out. But it is still ridin' time so I'd be tempted to let things slide until I heard a big CLUNK!!!! CLANG!!!!

 

I flushed the tranny today to it our for a ride and honestly I'm not convinced its the tranny after all. i am going to put the stock ECM back on and get it to throw some codes and take it back to the dealer. Wouldnt surprise me if I replaced a bad VSS with a new yet bad VSS.

 

Well.....
The bikes been at the dealer for a week and a half and no dice! They firgured it was a wiring problem...Shazam...no ****! They're working with HD Corp now and I hope to have the scooter back by RT. Thus far its been a real nightmare with this dealership, everything from flat out lying to over charging! I filled a complaint with HD but no help! I'm at their mercy and so far its been $625.00 in troubleshooting....yikes!

 

any chance you ever got to the bottom of your problem?having the same one

 

With the age of the OP, you may want to PM member directly to see if he is even around.