First a little history on the bike:

-2006 Harley Sportster XL1200c
-Junkyard starter motor always gave me problems
- primary oil leaks past gasket into starter and out onto tranny block
- starter solenoid occasionally will click but not turn motor. repeated clicking of the start button will eventually start bike.

One day while sitting on the bike, key is in and on position, run switch on, I hit the start button and the same "click" sound of the starter solenoid. Bike does not start. I repeatedly and rapidly hit the start button several times as always to start the bike, when suddenly I loose all electrical power as if the battery is dead.

Assuming I drained the battery from repeated attempts to start the bike, I have a friend connect his car battery with jumper cables to the bike battery to charge. Checking with a volt meter the battery is now fully charged.

When the key is turned to the on position, still no power. No headlight on, no running lights on although the speedo needle twitches and backlights with odometer lit and displayed. Bike still will not start when start switch is hit.

Battery is load tested on a bench and it is check to be in good working condition. Checked all fuses and none are blown. Checked all 15 amp and Maxi fuse all still good. Re-installed battery, cleaned, checked and tightened all brand new battery cables. All battery connections are in good condition and tightened. Getting a good ground from battery. No fuses blow.

Some how no electrical power is getting to the bike when the key is in and turned to the on position. No headlights on, no running lights on, speedo backlights on but bike is dead and will not start.

It sits at my local indy bike shop with mechanics still troubleshooting the electrical system with no idea what is wrong.

Can anyone out there help me? Any ideas? This is a sudden and strange problem that just occurred.

 

Look at the ground cable where it touches the plastic shield in the battery box.
If there are signs of heat melting the plastic your problems are most likely
a bad ground wire or loose connections.
This happened on 2004 XL that I was working on.( bad wire with original battery only
14,000 miles) Everything checked out fine until a load was put to it then, poof no lights and no start.

 

My mechanic checked that also. all checks out good. Here is what was checked and found to be in good working condition:

Battery fully charged and bench load tested to be good
Battery cables and connections tested to be good
All fuses including Maxi fuse not blown all good
No shorts or pinched wires found


The mechanic is still troubleshooting the electrical system. Still when key is in ignition and turned to on position no electrical power. No headlight, no running lights, speedo however does backlight but no dash lights on (no neutral N light or oil light on)

 

Sounds like the ignition contacts. If everything else you state is really OK.

 

Total electrical power failure is usually caused by something mechanical. In other words something vital has broken, such as a wire, switch, etc. If nothing works, there is relatively little of the electrical system that can cause that. One approach is simply to temporarily wire up the electrics direct, bypassing everything not essential, to verify the bike will run, then eliminate things until the culprit is found.

 

It may be a bad ignition switch. Remove the "Lights" fuse and check to see if one side of the socket has power when the ignition switch is turned to ON. If not, you probably have a bad switch.

 

I believe that the solenoid turns everything else off when it pulls in (I may be wrong) so if the solenoid is stuck partly in it can cause all the issues that you are having...

 

Here is the latest update. After 2 weeks of the mechanic troubleshooting the bike he can "guess" the problem is either a bad TSSM (Turn Signal Security Module) or ICM (Ignition Control Module) but he is not sure which is bad.

One of those parts needs to be programmed by the dealership when it is replaced. So I'm getting the bike towed to my local Harley dealership and start all over with diagnostics to find out exactly what is the problem.

Anyone out there have any ideas or thoughts about this? I don't know what to do. 2 weeks at this shop for them to say I don't know its one of these parts bad. I wasted time and money and now having to start back at square one.

Based on the problem I described in this thread, is it really one of those parts (ICM or TSSM)? has anyone experienced this problem?

 

If you still don't have a headlight or running lights, the ICM and TSM aren't the problem. They have nothing to do with the lights not coming on. Good luck of finding a better wrench.

 

I've recently had the same problem with my Sportster. I was thinking it was the ignation switch. Its a 2005 and am having problems removing the switch. Is there a method to remove it and can anyone tell me how its done.