So i was out in my garage sweeping up and what not, turned my ignition to acessories and listend to the radio, (no more than 15 minutes) It's a 2002 Ultra btw. So today i go to leave and i turned on the ignition..Nothing. No power at all. I was thinking there's no way i killed the battery that fast, and sure enough i put the battery on the charger, and it say's it fully charged..Started right up and everything was fine. As soon as i pull the negative side off the engine dies and i lose all power.

Now here's where it get's strange. I unplugged the charger, with the negative side still connected to the battery, the ignition turns on and the bike starts right up?! Mind you the battery charger was unplugged for atleast an hour. I checked all the fuses, it's all good there. Other than that im completely stumped? HELP!

 

Is your neg. post corroded? With the charger connected to the batt. post it's making contact to the lug.

 

Take the cable ends loose and clean them and the battery post. Then reconnect them. Make sure the connections are tight. Check cable ends on starter. If they are loose, take those off, clean, and reinstall. Make sure all connections are tight.

 

IS there a stater hooked up on harleys????? back in the day I had a yamaha virago with a stater (not starter) That went bad and would only push through when there was more than normal voltage. I is a cheap fix...... again I have never checked to see if Harleys use a stater.

 

That sounds like whats happening.

 

gets my vote to

 

Give us the verdict when you getter figured out.

 

How old is the battery? I don't remeber which means what, but I am going to tell you anyways. If you have the bike started and discount either the positive or negative one means, bad stator(alternator) and the other means a bad battery. I want to say a disconnected negative and the bike dies is a bad battery.

 

Turns out the positive post on the battery is damaged, im not exactly sure what the inside of a battery looks like but to me, it looks like it swelled out of the battery itself some, possibly damaging the battery on the inside? The bolts we're perfectly snug. The battery is only 2 years old. I've never seen anything like this happen before. I take it out in the winter and keep it on a battery tenderer and take care of it properly. I got it from a local shop, so their gonna give the company a call and see what can be done about this, cause we know they aren't exactly cheap.

Thanks for the quick tips tho.

 

Another example of throw away parts for America. Not sure where the battery was made...but I'm sure it was cheaply made. At least you found the problem.