Hello to all, I just purchased a 1975 sporster XLH1000 but there is a problem with the starter. The bike starts fine but when I go to drive it, the starter starts engaging itself over and over while i'm driving! Oh and the positive lead terminal melted when this all happened grrrrrrrr! I did a little research on here but didn't find an actual solution to this problem. I checked the starter switch and wires going to it and they seem fine. I also looked at the starter and relay and they both look fairly new. I just need some direction where to start at and what to check. I ordered a manual for it so it will arrive soon but till then I want gather some information or pointers as to what might be causing this to happen. Thank you for any advice!

 

The starter switch wiring may be fine, but the starter switch itself could still be faulty.

 

I would also suspect the starter switch closing when it shouldn't

 

Your symptoms are exactly what happened to my bike. Bad switch.

 

Great guys thanks for the info! But what caused the positive lead on my battery to melt?

 

Where is the best place to buy parts online? I went to Harley-Davidson.com and the bike list only goes back to 1984?

 

I agree with the rest on here... first thing i thought was something in the switch must be jiggling around and making contact while riding. Only other part that could have something loosed and cause the circuit to close while driving would be the relay. I'd say get both - if money isn't a problem - and switch 'em out one at a time to see which is causing the problem.

 

cool great advice...thanks again guys! I ordered the switch and both starter relays and i will replace them one at a time so as to figure out which one was the culprit. Thanks!

 

Hi all, well here is an update of what I did so far. I filled and charged the battery it is good and holding a charge then i changed the starter switch/button and it started great and idled good. It wasn't until the bike was driven and hot then the starter started to go crazy and engage itself while the bike was running and It wouldn't shutoff by either the run switch or the ignition key, I had to disconnect the battery in order to kill the motor and starter from engaging!! I have the starter relay that i'm going to change next and see if that fixes it. Also the plot thickens, I went to check the points to see if the timing is off a bit because it backfires and sputters when putting it in gear, and there was a dyna "S" ignition in there so someone changed it to electronic ignition. So it led me to the web site where it says "Do not use solid core or spiral core type plug wires" so I looked and I have 'spiro core' wires on there now. Could this be one of my problems with backfiring and sputtering. Please any suggestions would be great as I have yet to ride this thing!
Thank you in advance for your priceless knowledge!

 

First things first:

Starter Issue - It appears safe to rule out the starter switch. As suggested by another, it may be the starter relay. So once that relay is replaced your starter problem hopefully will be solved.

Backfire / Sputtering - Likely ignition or carburetor ... possibly a combination of both. Spark plugs are cheap, so get the correct ones and set the proper gap. I would also rebuild the carburetor. The kits are cheap. Once apart you can confirm having correct size jets and adjust the mixture.