2011 FLHTK ~53K miles


After washing my bike the low fuel indicator becomes illuminated and the gas gauge swings the full position. After riding for some time or leaving the bike sit over night the indicator clears itself and the gauge returns to the expected position for the amount of fuel remaining.

Looking for tips to trouble shoot. I've got the the manuals and don't have breakout boxes. Just looking for an educated guess on what connectors to inspect or replace.

Thanks in advance.

 

Sounds like water intrusion. I would pull the connectors apart one at a time, put dielectric grease in them and reassemble. All of them.

 

grease AROUND THEM if at all.

dielectric grease is an insulator- and IN a connector, it can keep the pins from making good contact.

DG can also trap moisture in a connector- causing corrosion.

so take apart examine and put back together

If you add DG- that's on you

mike

 

Update from OP!

I've been chasing this all summer.

I've disconnected and cleaned all connector's in the fuel gauge circuit and sealed them with black electrical tape. No dielectric grease, sounds like it would make things worse. First I did the connectors under the seat, then under tank dash by the fuel sending unit and finally behind the fairing and I'm still experiencing the water intrusion issue (Fuel gauge = full and idiot light is illuminated).

Finally, last weekend after washing, the same symptoms occurred. I currently had about 100 miles on the tank of fuel so I know I had about 150 to go. I know I can get 250 on a tank when I need too. So I remove the tape from all the connectors and blow dry them with my master blaster. Problem not solved.

While going for a short ride and out of desperation I started tapping on the speedometer lens. At this time the light extinguished and the fuel gauge returned the expected position.

This is a minor problem and I know I can live with it this the way, its been doing it for a couple years and I always rely on the trip odometer to know when I need gas.

I do not think there is much I can do about this and it just bugs me when something isn't quite right with the bike.

So a couple more questions.
Is it possible to reseal the speedometer?
Could other problems arise because of this?
Any other wisdom from the great forum?

 

Take this for what it's costing you.

If it were mine I'd pull the outer faring and gently pour water over the outside (not the front faring side) like it was being washed and see if water is entering the inside of the faring around the speedo. If you see water then it may lead you to what's causing the problem. If nothing is obvious then id do the whole clean and reseat the connectors that attach to the speedo. I'd probably even go so far as to pull the speedo itself and check for looseness, corosion, bad seals, etc and maybe even proactively seal anything that might look suspect.
If all else fails you could even replace the speedo.