'02 Sportster Intermittent Speedo, Odometer, and loss of electrical power
 

Hello,

My wife has a 2002 Sportster.

Occasionally she will loose the speedomoter, and the odomoter will go blank.
On very rare occasions the bike will stall, loosing all electrical power (no starter, no signals, no speedo, no odo, no status indicators, but headlight stays on).

She is about to go on a road trip and I am really uncomfortable having her go out with this problem, even if it only happens every few weeks. (Note the speedo/odo issue is VERY common, stall/no start issue is very uncommon).

Can anyone make a recommendation?

I would start with checking all the electric connectors making sure they aren't loose. Double check the wires that run close to the frame as they may be starting to rub bare spots in the wires causing a short.

I'm guessing either coil connections, (the 90* connections need removed & squeezed to tighten the fitting back up), or battery connections loose/broke.

Thanks

I went through and reseated and tested every connection except those under the tank. On Saturday I will bring it into the garage and inspect the remaining connections.

The coil plugs sounds plausible but would that explain and inability to run the starter and blinkers while the headlight continues to work?

Apologizing in advance for being frank, I wouldn’t let my wife go anywhere on a bike that was not 100% ... that’s why mine rides on the back of my Ultra. That being noted, you need to get this resolved before she goes anywhere. Start at the battery and work your way out to the problem circuit.

I totally forgot about this thread.

Before she went on the trip I stripped the bike as much as I could in an afternoon, tested every connector, traced every main wire and eventually found a bad connection through the ignition switch. I forget the exact problem now, but I seem to remember there being two circuits that are connected through the ignition switch and I could intermittently loose either one or both of them by wiggling the key.

A new ignition switch has resolved the problem.

Thanks

Same exact bike same exact problem.
 

This just started for me today and I find this thread for the exact bike. My ignition switch is not old though. I’m hoping I can rectify the problem soon.