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bike just shut down

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Old Oct 5, 2009 | 11:11 AM
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Default bike just shut down

Left the house yesterday morning to meet up with some friends and got about three miles from the house and my bike just died as I was slowing for a stop sign. No electrical power or anything just as if I had cut off the switch. Then just before I came to a complete stop the power came back on. After several attempts it started back up. Rode on to meet with my friends and on the way, one time the power like just flickered, but didn't cut off. Rest of the day, no problems at all. Bike ran great, cranked every time after a stop and rode about 160 miles. Anybody have any ideas as to cause or cure?
 
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Old Oct 5, 2009 | 11:13 AM
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Check for a loose battery connection or loose ground wire.
 
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Old Oct 5, 2009 | 11:19 AM
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I will check those. Thanks. I did replace the battery last winter maybe I didn't get one cable tight enough.
 
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Old Oct 5, 2009 | 12:27 PM
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Check your connections at the kill switch. If they're loose and/or not making good contact it will shut the bike down the same as you hitting the kill switch.
 
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Old Oct 5, 2009 | 12:34 PM
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Ignition switch.
 
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Old Oct 5, 2009 | 01:25 PM
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There has been an occasion when I would go to crank my bike that I would turn on the switch and then hit the start switch and nothing would happen. I could turn off the switch and then try again and it would start.
 
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Old Oct 5, 2009 | 02:00 PM
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With your bike idling, try "jiggling" the ignition switch back and forth. Mine would initially cause a momentary loss of all power, then fire right back up on it's own. Then I would have to cycle the ignition to get it to start. Then it wouldn't start at all unless the forks were turned fully left. When mine was bad I could keep the bike running by applying forward pressure to the switch (toward the fairing). Pull back on it and it would die. This is on my '07 Ultra.
 
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Old Oct 7, 2009 | 08:05 AM
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I tried jiggling it and nothing happened. Pushed on it from side to side and front to back still nothing happened. Checked ground connections on frame and they appeared to be tight enough, but tightened anyway. Battery connections were tight also. I don't know where to go from here. My bike is an 07 EGS.
 
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Old Oct 7, 2009 | 08:08 AM
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Before you mess with the kill switch one at a time undo your battery connections, especially the ground, remove, clean them off and retighten.
 

Last edited by paguy; Oct 7, 2009 at 08:13 AM.
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Old Oct 7, 2009 | 08:19 AM
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I had that happen to me on my 2000 Ultra. I was coming home from Sturgis and was in the middle of Chicago and it just died. It took about 20 minutes then it started right back up. I got to looking it over at the next gas stop and the only thing that we could come up with was a breaker going bad or overheating. Unfortuanlty the bike was totalled later that day in Ohio so I never got to find out what the problem was. By the way the crash was unrelated to this problem.
 
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