Hey guys, I'm having a strange throttle problem. First a little background, my bike is a 2009 Iron 883. There's about 1400 miles on it. I had the 1000 mile service done about 350 miles ago. Second owner.

So I was driving home last night late night, probably drove about 100 miles total yesterday, and in the last 5 miles or so of my ride I noticed the throttle was saying open. In other words, it would not snap back. At first I thought maybe it had something to do with the temp as it got pretty chilly last night. As I exited the freeway, I then noticed it went back to normal, snapped back. Parked it for the night, and then this afternoon went to head out and within 30 seconds of being on the road, the throttle stuck again. Not only would it not snap back, but it also required more effort than normal to open it up. I pulled over and made sure that star-nut was not screwed closed. It wasn't, but for piece of mind I loosened it all the way.

It's important to note that when the bike is idling and/or off, the throttle is fine, not sticking. The weird thing is that it happens ONLY while driving, and when it does happen it'll go away after a minute or to. So essentially it is happening randomly and not staying stuck. I'm really stumped...I don't have a service manual so I'm not sure if the answer is obvious and in there, but I noticed that the throttle cable that is closest to the outside of the bike seemed a little loose. Now I have not really messed with the cables before this so I don't know if that's just the way it's supposed to be. I also am not sure of the 2 cables, which one is the main one. I took a picture of where the cable meets the area near the rocker box, and I'm able to pull the outside one out completely. I'm not sure if this is the problem, but take a look and let me know if this is normal.

Any advice or ideas are appreciated, I'm sure this is a simple fix but at thr moment, I'm stumped. Here's a picture of what I described above.

 

Looks like the cables are out of adjustment. In the way it looks, there should be alot of play in the throttle handle when the cable sheath is in it's proper place.

 

same thing happened to me take two (3/8) wrenches and adjust the cable.

 

Did u check the thumb wheel?
Under side of the throttle, inboard.

 

Thanks guys. If by thumb wheel you mean the little star shaped screw then yes, that's not the problem.

What's frustrating is that the bike just got serviced not two weeks ago...and it's weird that it's happening intermittently. Like it'll get stuck, then the next minute it's fine. There definitely is play in the handle, but I'm thinking that it just needs to be adjusted again. Looks like I know what I'm doing after work tomorrow.

 

Having relatively the same issue with mine - '12 Iron - was happening intermittently on the way home today, but when I got home, turned the bike off and it was still doing it while it was not running.

Not sure if this is something easy to fix or more complicated. Really dont have the know how to fix it myself (its my first bike) and dont have the cash to take it in if its gonna cost.

 

I just recently adjusted my throttle cables per the manual. On my bike the exposed metal on the cable cover is down inside the hole where yours is sitting on top. Looks to me that your cable is too loose and it may be catchin/binding at times depending on throttle/steerin position and not allowing the throttle to fully return to the closed position. They should have checked throttle adjustment during the 1000mi service if done according to the book. Maybe they either adjusted it wrong or forgot to tighten something. I would either adjust it yourself or take it to the dealer and have them fix it. Seems like a potentially dangerous condition you have right now. Good luck.