1996 Electra Glide Classic.

The stock radio was cutting out for no apparent reason and I was noticing that there was a pop sound coming out of the speakers when I hit the front brake lever. It didn't pop everytime, but it was noticable. The radio would cut out randomly mostly when driving but seemed fine when not running. I figured a short in the radio.

I was looking to upgrade, so I went with the Sony biketronics set up.

When I installed it, I took every connector on the bike, cleaned the terminals and put dielectric grease in them. The original problem must not have been in the old radio. I wired it all in and it worked fine until I hit the brake lever. The radio shut down like it lost power. I checked, and there is still power to the back of the radio and the fuse is fine. Sometimes if I push the tune switch straight in, it will fire up again.

I took the handle all apart, looking for a short or faulty switch and I can't find anything. I shook all the wires trying to find a broken/chaffed wire and can find nothing.

Any ideas?

 

Yer gonna think ah'm on drugs....but check the GROUND side - sounds lahk a ground wire is dirty/loose.....

 

Check your ground wires. It sounds like a floating ground.

 

Thanks Guys.....

It ended up being the chassis ground at the starter. It didn't look like typical corrosion. It was black and a wire brush wasn't really taking it off. Ended up scraping it off with an exacto blade.

Works fine, now!

 

Glad you found it.