I have a 2005 Heritage with fuel injection and 16k on the clock. Bought it last year at 12k miles. No issues until now. Riding in to work going down the road at about 65mph and the bike lost all power. This was in the morning (cool temps) and only about 3 miles from home. It refired itself before I came to a complete stop. At first I thought maybe it was something like a loose or bad connection to the battery. Checked that out, went for another ride, issue still there. This time without listening to music, I noticed it seems as though the fuel pump is shutting off. The bike died, I pulled over, it did re-fire then died again. The second time it died, it would not fire right away. After a minute or so, I heard the fuel pump kick on, then it started. Any ideas would be appreciated.

 

Try searching for temperature sensor threads.......maybe the bike thinks it's getting hot and shuts off, faulty sensor?

 

Thanks, I'll look into it.

 

This is DEFINITELY NOT a Temperature Sensor failure!

The Fuel Pump is powered by the "System Relay." The "System Relay" is turned "On" and "Off" by the Computer.

The "System Relay" is powered by the Ignition Switch via a Red/Black wire through the Ignition Fuse 15A. The Wire becomes Gray leaving the Ignition Fuse to the "Stop/Run" (Kill) Switch on your Right Handlebar. From the "Stop/Run" (Kill) Switch on your Right Handlebar the wire is White/Black and this goes to the "System Relay." The voltage between this wire and the Negative terminal of the Battery should be 12 Volts any time the Ignition is turned "On" and the "Stop/Run" (Kill) Switch is "On."

The Computer turns the "System Relay" "On" by grounding the Green/Orange wire that runs from the System Relay to terminal # 4 on the Computer. The Computer will ground this wire for two seconds without seeing a Crankshaft Position Sensor Signal. This is why you get the two second "Prime" run of the Fuel Pump when you first turn the Ignition "On." As soon as you crank the engine, or anytime the engine is running, the continuing Crankshaft Position Sensor signals keep the two seconds shut down about two seconds in the future. (BTW your problem is NOT the crankshaft position sensor.)

The "System Relay" provides power to the Fuel Pump (When the Relay is "On") by connecting the Blue/Green wire and the Yellow/Green wire. Power flows to the 15 A Fuel Pump Fuse on the Yellow/Green wire. The wire from the Fuel Pump Fuse to the Fuel Pump changes to a Orange/Gray wire.

Now that you know how the Computer controls the Fuel Pump . . .

Because you say the Fuel Pump turned on after some time (more than two seconds) after the engine had quit . . . and this happened without you doing anything . . . . specifically like turning the Ignition Switch On and Off . . . what you heard was the Computer was running it's start-up cycle. In other words, either the Power or the Ground side circuit to the Computer was interrupted. This is what stalled the engine. Then, some time later the circuit was re-established. When the circuit was re-established the Computer ran the Fuel Pump for it's normal start-up process. There is an intermittent Open Circuit. A Grounded (+) wire would have blown a fuse and a Grounded Ground Circuit wouldn't cause this problem. This intermittent Open Circuit could be one of the folowing Computer circuits: "Switched Power" White/Black (Terminal #13), "Grounds" Black/Green (Terminals #10 and #28), "Battery" Blue/Green (Terminal #31).

You should check every terminal and connection in the circuits I have listed here . . . this includes the Ignition Switch, all ground terminals, both Battery Cables, the "System Relay" connector and the Computer Connector. Others on this forum may suggest a bad computer. I would suggest that it is much less expensive to check these simple items and only after you are 100% sure that is isn't a simple problem to take a look at the computer. The odds are 99%+ that it isn't the computer (not impossible but extremely unlikely).

Oh . . . and buy a Service Manual so that you will have a wiring diagram!!!

 

Check Ur gound cable at both ends.
Might even pull U ECM apart, wait a minute and then put it back together...

U should also check to see if she's throwing any codes...

Those are the easy one's to start with.


.

 

You have a short... either power to the ECM, a bad battery connection (must be clean and tight), a failing ignition switch (like mine was), or a failing run/stop switch. Worse could be a grounded wire but that's doubtful with the few miles that you have. It could also be a weak battery, but probabaly not since it is just when it is running.

Put your hand on the base of the ignition switch (below the flip lid) and see if it is hot or pretty warm. If it is, get a new one from J&P NOT HD.

C#

 

Before you dig too far into the technical explanations above, take the dash off and check the back side of the ignition switch where the 3 wire plug connects. They tend to corrode and do exactly what you are describing. A quick roadside fix would be to turn the connector around and put it on backward. So now you have to turn your switch on to the left instead of the right, now test ride. Still an issue after that? Start digging into the tech above...

Mike

 

I checked the battery. It did have a little corrosion on the negative cable terminal. I cleaned that out. The battery had decent voltage (12.5) and was charging at about 13.5 or so at idle. I put the battery tender on between the 2 rides. I will look closer for a loose connection. Thanks for the input guys. And yes, I have a service manual. That was the first thing I bought for the bike.

 

I wanted to add that last Sunday during a ride, we were parked for a bit. A fellow rider, parked close to me, went to move his bike which bumped into mine. This caused my bike to tip over. I was standing close by and was able to slow the fall, but not completely keep it from going to the ground. It was gently laid down on the crash bars. No real damage was done, and I don't know if it has anything to do with what is going on now, just thought I would add the info. Rode the rest of the day Sunday and Monday to work (a 50 mile round trip), then on Tuesday the problem started.

 

So I checked some of the wiring last night. Really found nothing specific. Put her all back together ready to take it to the shop today. Took a test ride to confirm the problem was still there (I hate it when a shop can't recreate the problem) and it ran fine. Went on about a 50 mile ride with no problems. Maybe it was a loose connection? I did unplug and plug in the connections to the fuel pump and to the ignition switch. I'll keep things updated if the problem returns. Thanks to everyone for their suggestions.