My bike didn't want to start this morning, acted like dead battery. Got home, after work, and began to pull battery out. Removed + cable, pulled battery out, and began to remove - cable. I then noticed how warm the cable and post were, almost hot. This can't be normal?

 

It telling you there's a short somewhere and coming back to the battery , or maybe something simple like loose or corrode cable ends
clean every cable and wire end that you can (everywhere ) even at breakers and then see if cable still gets hot

 

I had just recently cleaned all terminals and ground lugs. How do I clean the breakers?

 

Warmth means resistance which is usually caused by bad connections/corrosion and/or bad cable. It's possible the strands inside the cable have broken over the years. There could be corrosion at the crimp under the insulation. Etc....

If the clamp/post looks clean, and the ground on the frame at the other end is good, I'd replace the cable (not expensive) and see what happens.

 

cables are all new last fall

 

How old is the battery?

 

Two alternate ideas:
Post and cable next to hot oil tank?
Or, internal damage to negative post.
Just throwing these out there.

 

Always remove negative cable first, connect negative cable last.

The cable is hot due to a poor connection.

 

Positive has to come off first in order to slide battery out far enough to get to negative cable. Another blunder on HD's part. All cables are new and heavier than original, battery is new also. This has been an ongoing problem since I've had it. This was the first time tho, I noticed how warm neg. terminal was. Seems to be good a few weeks then suddenly no good any more. I did find a bare wire going back to rear turn signal, not sure if it was pos or neg. Also, the horn has never worked, maybe something there?

 

Year/make/model? Some years (2007 is notorious) have electrical issues in the relays.