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[East Coast]

Major Gremlin!

I haven't ridden the bike in a while and decided to take a quick spin this afternoon. The bike started right up and was running normal. As I was into the ride for 10-15 minutes the bike just shut down while cruising. I had no power at all as if the battery was removed from the bike, completely dead! See attached pic, the speedo needle remained at the speed I was cruising in when the bike shut down. This is the third time this has happened while riding over the last two years, speedo holds shown speed after bike shuts down.  It is intermittent, it doesn't happen all the time. I coasted off the road, waited 2-3 minutes, turned the ignition switch on and had power. The bike was difficult to start but fired up and didn't want to hold an idle, it ran okay as long as I was on the throttle. I rode another 15 minutes to my brothers place where the bike stalled while parking. I waited 20 minutes, hit the button and it fired right up. The bike ran great on the way home, held an idle as if nothing happened?

The bike is a 2002 Heritage Springer with top end motor work which was done 7 years ago, I have a Power Commander USB 3 on it. I have short apes with internal wiring which was done 8 years ago. I swapped out tins recently and replaced the rear harness with a new one. All connections to the battery are clean and tight. I checked the ignition switch, all looks good, clean and all connections tight, switch still snaps on and off. I am not blowing any fuses. I am not showing in diagnostic codes.

Anyone have any ideas what would cause a total loss of power while riding?

Faulty ignition switch? ECM? The Power Commander?

Thanks in advance!!
Erich

[VANAMAL]

Ck and lube the ecm modual connection also the same at the tbw connection. Cycling your ign switch a number of times will reset

[East Coast]

Thanks for the reply Vanamal.
Question what is the the TBW Connection? Throttle Body? What would you recommend as a lube for ECM connection? Dielectric grease?

Thanks again.

[SteveFLHTK]

You don't have TBW so don't worry about it.  Such an intermittent problem is going to be hard to diagnose.  First thing I'd suspect is the PC (I've known of several go bad).  Disconnect it, ride without for a while see if it happens again.  Then, if it doesn't, zero out the map and reinstall the PC.  That should run just like the bike with n PC.  Ride it like that a while, then reinstall the map, ride again.  Good luck.

[VANAMAL]

That grease is fine. If you have throotle by wire then the connector is on the left side of throttle body behind air filter. I was riding a freinds bike one day it just quit! I forget how many time you cycle the ignition but it should restart. This is not uncommon

[SteveFLHTK]

Vanamal, read the OP.  It's a 2002.  That's 2 0 0 2.  TBW didn't happen until 2008 and that was for the touring line.

[SteveFLHTK]

Major Gremlin!

I haven't ridden the bike in a while and decided to take a quick spin this afternoon. The bike started right up and was running normal. As I was into the ride for 10-15 minutes the bike just shut down while cruising. I had no power at all as if the battery was removed from the bike, completely dead! See attached pic, the speedo needle remained at the speed I was cruising in when the bike shut down. This is the third time this has happened while riding over the last two years, speedo holds shown speed after bike shuts down.  It is intermittent, it doesn't happen all the time. I coasted off the road, waited 2-3 minutes, turned the ignition switch on and had power. The bike was difficult to start but fired up and didn't want to hold an idle, it ran okay as long as I was on the throttle. I rode another 15 minutes to my brothers place where the bike stalled while parking. I waited 20 minutes, hit the button and it fired right up. The bike ran great on the way home, held an idle as if nothing happened?

The bike is a 2002 Heritage Springer with top end motor work which was done 7 years ago, I have a Power Commander USB 3 on it. I have short apes with internal wiring which was done 8 years ago. I swapped out tins recently and replaced the rear harness with a new one. All connections to the battery are clean and tight. I checked the ignition switch, all looks good, clean and all connections tight, switch still snaps on and off. I am not blowing any fuses. I am not showing in diagnostic codes.

Anyone have any ideas what would cause a total loss of power while riding?

Faulty ignition switch? ECM? The Power Commander?

Thanks in advance!!
Erich

I have to wonder if that bike has the 40 amp breaker that was found faulty a while back.  It's a reset switch, so when it trips, everything goes dead...once it cools down a bit, it starts again.  The 40 amp was replaced with a 50 amp....might be worth checking.

[DCC]

you might want to check the Rh switch housing and wires leading to the kill switch.  Look for a sharp edge that may be cutting into the wires.  I had this happen to me.  Same symptoms...bike would just quit intermittently.  Turned out that the chrome housing had a pretty good burr inside that was cutting into the wire.

[Hx2]

Not sure if you have the 40 amp circuit breaker right in front of the battery, but if you do I would start there. On the 99-03 Ultras that circuit breaker was replaced with a 50 amp circuit breaker that would also fail when hot.  In 04 they replaced the circuit breaker with a maxi fuse and moved it to the right hand side panel.

The other issue with the circuit breaker is corrosion and faulty crimps, so if you pull the circuit breaker out clean it up real good and spray some WD-40 or other similar fluid on the wires/crimps. 

[East Coast]

Steve, would a bad PC cause a total shutdown?

I don't recall ever seeing a 40 amp breaker in the bike. I believe what ever I have sits behind the battery in the fuse block, smaller fuses and relay's. I'll have to look into that.

DCC, I will definitely check inside the switch housing. When you lost power was it a total loss as I described?

Thanks guys!
E

[sadunbar]

I know there was a recall on 1999-2003 Electra Glides due to similar symptoms as yours.  Instead of a "main fuse", Electra Glides at that time had a "main thermal relay", which often failed.  Starting in 2004, the thermal relay was replaced with the main fuse.  At the time, the recall replaced the 40 amp thermal relay with a 50 amp thermal relay.  However, this recall "fix" was not always effective.  I believe they eventually determined the problem had more to do with the wiring connection to the relay rather than the relay itself.  An any rate, in 2004 they eliminated the relay entirely.  I know this because back in 2003 a friend's Electra Glide suffered from this problem.  It's likely the problem was not limited to Electra Glides.  I suspect your 2002 Heritage has the same relay.  Do you have a service manual for the bike?  At any rate, your symptoms mirror my friends bikes symptoms.  I would think your dealer could do some research and find out if the recall affected your bike, and could find out if your bike contains the same relay.

[SteveFLHTK]

Steve, would a bad PC cause a total shutdown?

I don't recall ever seeing a 40 amp breaker in the bike. I believe what ever I have sits behind the battery in the fuse block, smaller fuses and relay's. I'll have to look into that.

DCC, I will definitely check inside the switch housing. When you lost power was it a total loss as I described?

Thanks guys!
E

Could it cause a total shut down?  I'd say probably not.  The procedure I gave you was to rule the PC out.  I believe your problem is more likely the thermal 40 amp cutoff.  As was suggested, find a service manual and check it out.  I don't have anything for that model/year, so I can't look to see if there is one or not.

[East Coast]

Yes, I have a service manual for the bike. I'll give it a once over in the morning.

Thanks guys!

[East Coast]

I grabbed the service manual, the main circuit breaker on my 02 is a 30 Amp. I'll pick up a new one tomorrow if the dealer is open. Would it be harmful to replace it with a 40 Amp?

[SteveFLHTK]

Nope, wouldn't hurt at all.  Pay close attention to the connections....the problem is, they would start to corrode, degrading the contact, causing resistance which produces heat.  Clean them well before replacing and use a good dielectric grease.