Hello everyone I just purchased a 2017 sportster 1200. When I got the bike the speedometer was acting erratic and displaying random speeds, after a couple days the speedometer now sits at zero and doesn’t move.
my auto cancel doesn’t work for my turn signals and my gear indicator also doesn’t work.
I got the codes p0503 and p0507.

I have replaced the VSS and that did not help.
also the speedometer gets power (when put in diagnostic mode the needle moves).

any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

 

Hello and welcome to the forum,

The fault code P0503 relates to the Vehicle Speed Sensor (VSS), as you've said that the VSS has been replaced we can rule that one out.

The fault code P0507 relates to the idle speed, it shows up when the ECU detects that the engines idle speed has exceeded the manufacturers specifications over a certain period of time.

Sorry, I'm not an expert on this type of fault code but hopefully one of our other members will be able to give you a fix solution for the P0507 fault code.

 

Your bike uses CAN bus system for communication. The speedometer is a CAN bus device on your bike. All the data it gets is on the "bus". The fact you can see the diagnostic codes suggests it is working although that doesn't eliminate the mechanical aspect of it.

Unfortunately as you have found a code doesn't necessarily mean the device mentioned has actually failed. All the system can do is indicate to you a symptom. Also one thing leads to another. If the bike doesn't know how fast it is moving it affects other operations on the bike. The gear indicator is calculated from wheel / bike speed and engine speed. Indicator self cancelling is something else also affected.

The VSS picks up the rotation of a shaft. That shaft has to have something on it that the VSS can detect. I have no clue there but if it is for example clogged up with metal particles it might well cause the sensor to give erratic output. With the sensor out it might be possible to use a borescope to look inside the casing.

I would start at the connector and check that you have 5 volts and ground. With a meter connected do a wiggle test of the wires. Also check that the pins have not been pushed back. Check continuity of output wire from sensor connector back to ECM connector.

How you do this HD has what they call a breakout box that plugs in between where a connector is but you might be able to get to the back of the VSS connector using thin wire. You need to measure the voltage of the VSS sensor wire. With the bike in gear turning the back wheel will move something past the sensor. You should see the voltage around 5 volts and 1 volt or less.

I can only guess that if some of the something the VSS detects are messed up the voltage might be some in between figure which the ECM is detecting.

If you get good output from the VSS and you definitely have good connections in the wiring harness it points to a fault in the ECM itself.

As for the other DTC it might be connected but get the VSS working first and see what happens when you clear the codes.

 

I bought A 2004 a couple of years ago. Same thing happened. 1st the speedo got wonky. Then the error codes didn't check out. I did the same thing, I replaced the speed sensor because the code said it was bad. Only to find out the old 1 was still good. (It's running on my 05.)
Then I started swapping other parts with my 05. (TSM, ECU, coil, speedo etc.) I tried the bike after each swap. Nothing worked... So I started familiarizing myself with my new to me bike by cleaning every electrical connection on it. I obviously started with the easy ones and the last one was the crankshaft position sensor on the bottom between the frame rails. (You know;-) Down there where E1 pays lip service to the cleaning but never actually sees it.
In the CS position sensor connector was some oily grime that washed right out with 3 squirts of brake cleaner. Before I even rethreaded the the wires back between the rails I hit the starter and the bike fired up.
I can't say that your problem is the same but if I had started with the Worst connection 1st I'd have been done a day earlier. 🤷‍♂️
OH Yeah. My Speedo died never to be resurrected. 🙏
$282 for a new OEM HD replacement. 15 minutes to replace... The dealership wanted $400 to do it. 😡

 

Thanks for your suggestions everyone. I’m not experienced at all with anything electric so this stumped me pretty good.

I decided to check the 3 wires (power, input and ground) that connect the VSS to the ECM with a multimeter. And sure enough the power cable wasn’t reading so I cut it down by the VSS. I then checked it from the cut to the ECM and the cable was fine. I then check from the cut to the pin in the VSS and got no reading so I knew it was the pin. Bought the pin from Harley for $1.15 and got 3 inches of 22 gauge wire. I put the new pin in and reconnected the wire with some heat shrink and it is all working.