I have a 2003 anniversary edition 883 with a 1200 kit on it.

I love this motorcycle, and it has less than 30,000 miles on it.

My issue is with the speedometer. It is driving me crazy and too the poor house beyond words.

1. I have a brand new sensor cable installed.
2. I have a brand new light controller installed.
3. I have swapped out three speedos

And it still doesn't work and I am at wits end. Everything works fine on the bike. Starts right up. All lights work perfect, and the Tachometer is spot on.

The speedo will usually go through its boot cycle like normal, and sits there waiting. When I put it into first gear, it will blink a little....then when I start to give it gas to go, the speedo shuts down.

Normally I would think this is a short. I have traced everything I can think of. When I got it back from a ride today, the speedo was totally dead and didn't even come one when placed into neutral. I unplugged the speedo and checked for power at the orange wire and got 12 volts.

The speedo didn't work at all until in installed the new sensor cable. Now it is at least trying.

Any and all help greatly, and I do mean greatly, appreciated.

 

I have a similar problem but it shows up after I am going down the road, either indicating way fast or way slow but if I shut the engine off with the key and restart it is ok for a while. It seems to have to do with the wire connection just below the right, left, oil pressure, neutral, light bar. I wedged a piece of wood between where the wire clips on and the headlight duck bill that pushes the wire up tight and glued the wood so it will stay in place. Haven't had any trouble for about a week (fingers crossed).

 

Well, here is the update so far.


1. So I ran all the checks (again) in the Clymer manual.


2. I'm getting a DC08 error that should be the sensor unit cable. However, this unit is brand new from Harley at the cost of 65.00 plus tax. And the tests I ran on on the unit show no fault or loosed connections anywhere.


3. I cleared the error code in the replacement speedo. Every code said CLR.


4. Started the bike in fifth gear on a stand. Wow, I was shortly impressed. The speedo worked fine. Fast and slow in 5th gear with no problem.


5. l shut off the motor and checked the diagnostic codes again. All CLR.


6. This time I started the bike on the stand and ran down the gears. All was fine until I got to neutral......blinks.......shift to first........lights go out.


7. Shut it off and checked diagnostics......DO8


So this POS has the most worthless Electronics imaginable. I mean seriously....142.00 for a light module? $400 for a speedo? $65 for a cable?


How come I could buy a Kawasaki for half the price and the SPEEDO WON"T FAIL FOR DECADES???????? Whatever happened to the $1.42 mechanical blinker module you can still get at Advance auto instead of the 142 light module that has to be rubber mounted and insulated>?




I like the motor, the rest of the machine is junk. I had a 99 Road King that I sold because it had NO SOUL. none. Sounds like a sewing machine and is just like every other HD on the road.


I will never get rid of my AMF FX, or my AMF FLH. I have hundreds of thousands of miles on those two bikes and they have been great to me. I will never sell them, and put them up against any of these new expensive junkers.


So, I'm going to take my worthless POS ANNIVERSARY edition Sportster and put in a tried and true mechanical speedo that I know will work and not cost me my first born male child to fix.


I'm getting rid of the frickin "light module" that is a worthless costly hunk of junk and wiring in a mechanical blinker.


I will probably trash the flimsy front end and the plastic light bucket for a wide glide with the big wheel and steel light shell.


Sorry to go off like this, but it is what it is. There is no way I will buy a new Harley Davidson, ever.

 

And now, the rest of the story.


So I'm starting to poke around to convert this bike and take off voltage regulator.


The ends on the two prong lead look a little blackened for some reason. Like road tar or something.


I clean them up.


And just for laughs mind you, plug in the voltage regulator and start the bike.


WTF???? Speedo is alive. I turn the bike off and put it on a stand. Crank it up again. This time I run it through the gears on the stand and watch the speedo. It works flawless. Not a problem.


I'm not taking any chances on this thing and ordered a new voltage regulator.


The moral of the story is........Harley electronics are a pure mystery. There really is no way to correctly find the fault if anything related to the speedometer goes wrong.


In my opinion, this is the best way to troubleshoot the speedo:


1. Check all connections. And I mean ALL, no matter how remotely related to the speedo.


2. Replace the sending unit.


3. Replace the voltage regulator


4. Replace the Speedometer


5. Replace the light module.

 

The intermittent faulty speedo has moisture under the face. After sitting in the warm sun for 10-15 minutes, it began to work again. Also the neutral light does not work. Is it possible to replace with a used one? How do you re-set the odometer? Or is swapping the speedo a pain? Thank you.

 

I will tell you that it isn't that hard to work on. It is just difficult to troubleshoot.


Finding the issue can be a huge pain.


Water or condensation in the glass would indicate a leak to me. It is easy to take the Speedo out and replace. All you have to do is remove the two small allen head screws, then remove the bottom plate.


Your speedo probably has the rubber boot over the reset button. The boot simply unscrews.


Then you unplug the harness in the speedo head. There is a plastic button you push to make it easy. Then the speedo comes out the top.


If you have water in your speedo though, it probably isn't water tight and you may have to carefully un-crimp the glass ring and check that out.


If your neutral safety light doesn't come one, check the lightbulb. As crazy as this sounds, there are tiny little bulbs under the plastic cover.


To change them you need to remove the speedo housing from the handlebar clamp. Loosen the two large allen heads. t
Then kind of turn the panel over, and you will see two phillips head screws on either side of the wire loom bringing power to those lights. Be careful because there is a thin plastic window under the cover that is fragile.


Everything seems to run through the speedo electrically. It is rare the speedo itself is actually bad. But if you do replace it, make sure you use the original part number. They are set up for different models.


I don't know how, if at all, you can reset the odometer. I don't believe you can without specialized equipment.
equipment.