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[clegg]

     Hi guys. Here is the deal. My wife and I were cruising along at about 35-40 mph at steady speed holding throttle when I lost all electrical. The bike died and I coasted to a stop with no guages, lights, nothing. After stripping the left side down I checked all the fuses. Good. Pulled open the right side. 2 more fuses there, a 5 and a 15 amp. Not sure yet what does what, but the 5 amp was blown. Replaced it. Nothing. Found self resetting circuit breaker by battery. Suspected it but had no test light or meter. Shorted it together with pliers. Whamo- it resets and I have power back. I re-assemble the bike. Then it will not start, just cranks like mad. (Why did I not try to start it before I put it all back together?) I tested spark with a screwdriver and seem to get nothing.
     Well anyway, after a few hours I got it on a trailor and hauled home 75 miles. I have not gotten to look at it yet but I will right after church this afternoon. Any ideas?

[ice6900]

i cant help you with the circuit of the 5A fuse, but beaking down like that really sucks, while your checkingh things also have a look at the ground cables as sometimes they can work loose

[sadunbar]

     Hi guys. Here is the deal. My wife and I were cruising along at about 35-40 mph at steady speed holding throttle when I lost all electrical. The bike died and I coasted to a stop with no guages, lights, nothing. After stripping the left side down I checked all the fuses. Good. Pulled open the right side. 2 more fuses there, a 5 and a 15 amp. Not sure yet what does what, but the 5 amp was blown. Replaced it. Nothing. Found self resetting circuit breaker by battery. Suspected it but had no test light or meter. Shorted it together with pliers. Whamo- it resets and I have power back. I re-assemble the bike. Then it will not start, just cranks like mad. (Why did I not try to start it before I put it all back together?) I tested spark with a screwdriver and seem to get nothing.
     Well anyway, after a few hours I got it on a trailor and hauled home 75 miles. I have not gotten to look at it yet but I will right after church this afternoon. Any ideas?

Long list of possibilities, but I would check the starter ground first...

(Or, if you trust your dealer, call them and ask them to come get it and fix it....)

[clegg]

Things will have to be pretty bad for me to take it to the dealer. I have a service manual, and I am a fully certified mechanic. Just not a Harley mechanic. Anyway, I have a pretty good idea what to start going after, and to check the basics like grounds and powers, battery voltage as good as it should be, etc. I am more interested in why the whole bike shut down, then just the ignition. Can't say I see that in cars....Did the charging system surge and kill the bike and the coil? Or did the coil crap out and draw down the entire bike? How this happened is going to be important when I go to replace a part just to fry it agian....

[sadunbar]

Things will have to be pretty bad for me to take it to the dealer. I have a service manual, and I am a fully certified mechanic. Just not a Harley mechanic. Anyway, I have a pretty good idea what to start going after, and to check the basics like grounds and powers, battery voltage as good as it should be, etc. I am more interested in why the whole bike shut down, then just the ignition. Can't say I see that in cars....Did the charging system surge and kill the bike and the coil? Or did the coil crap out and draw down the entire bike? How this happened is going to be important when I go to replace a part just to fry it agian....

The only thing that readily comes to mind that would shut the whole bike down revolves around the security system....   

[clegg]

Sorry, my bad. 2000 SERG. Power Commander III USB. No security system. Whatever it was tripped a 40 amp circuit breaker...

[sadunbar]

Sorry, my bad. 2000 SERG. Power Commander III USB. No security system. Whatever it was tripped a 50 amp circuit breaker...

I suppose I could have looked at your avatar or something.....

I had a 2001 SERG...  One of the few very few issues I ever had with that bike was with the circuit breaker itself...  I can't say I remember the details, but I seem to recall they replaced this breaker as a product recall or warranty recall.... because of an issue of it tripping causing bikes shutting down.  In fact, now that I think about it, a riding buddy had a minor accident back then with his Ultra Classic...  He was in a pack of bikes and his shut down - and he was hit from behind by another bike.  They replaced the main breaker on his bike - and that is when I found out about the recall...

Someone here will remember this in more detail than I am...

[sadunbar]

I suppose I could have looked at your avatar or something.....

I had a 2001 SERG...  One of the few very few issues I ever had with that bike was with the circuit breaker itself...  I can't say I remember the details, but I seem to recall they replaced this breaker as a product recall or warranty recall.... because of an issue of it tripping causing bikes shutting down.  In fact, now that I think about it, a riding buddy had a minor accident back then with his Ultra Classic...  He was in a pack of bikes and his shut down - and he was hit from behind by another bike.  They replaced the main breaker on his bike - and that is when I found out about the recall...

Someone here will remember this in more detail than I am...

see this...

http://www.cvoharley.com/smf/index.php?topic=1531.msg14927#msg14927

[ice6900]

I suppose I could have looked at your avatar or something.....

I had a 2001 SERG...  One of the few very few issues I ever had with that bike was with the circuit breaker itself...  I can't say I remember the details, but I seem to recall they replaced this breaker as a product recall or warranty recall.... because of an issue of it tripping causing bikes shutting down.  In fact, now that I think about it, a riding buddy had a minor accident back then with his Ultra Classic...  He was in a pack of bikes and his shut down - and he was hit from behind by another bike.  They replaced the main breaker on his bike - and that is when I found out about the recall...

Someone here will remember this in more detail than I am...

thats good news if its as simple as that!

[sadunbar]

see this...

http://www.cvoharley.com/smf/index.php?topic=1531.msg14927#msg14927

and this...

http://www.cvoharley.com/smf/index.php?topic=6054.msg85568#msg85568

[Twolanerider]

Those breakers did occasionally fail.  When they do you do lose everything.  My 2000 has a maxi-fusi replacing the breaker for easier road side repair shoid it ever fail.

Breaker would account for initial shut down.  Not for lack of restart though.  Something else either initially tripped breaker or was killed in resetting it.

[clegg]

Yup, I have seen that recall. My bike does not have it outstanding. Good try though, THanks all for the input so far.

[clegg]

Well, I got to looking at the bike finally. Got it stripped down and the tank off. I checked the power to the coil. Good. Checked for a fire pulse from the ECM. No Good. Checked the injection pulse, it was good. Was fairly sure that the cam and crank sensors were good because of the injection pulse. Took the Power Commander out of the loop and re-hooked the factory ECM. Spark good now. I did not put the tank back on yet, but I am fairly sure the bike will start now. So now I have to decide if the power commander just crapped out, or if something else took it out. Anyone got an opinion on that possibility? I guess I have never heard of a PC just crapping out like that...

[hogasm]

Well, I got to looking at the bike finally. Got it stripped down and the tank off. I checked the power to the coil. Good. Checked for a fire pulse from the ECM. No Good. Checked the injection pulse, it was good. Was fairly sure that the cam and crank sensors were good because of the injection pulse. Took the Power Commander out of the loop and re-hooked the factory ECM. Spark good now. I did not put the tank back on yet, but I am fairly sure the bike will start now. So now I have to decide if the power commander just crapped out, or if something else took it out. Anyone got an opinion on that possibility? I guess I have never heard of a PC just crapping out like that...

I have had 2 go bad on me

1- water in connection with injection harness/power commander

2-  bad ground in front of battery on frame

[1711tab]

Well, I got to looking at the bike finally. Got it stripped down and the tank off. I checked the power to the coil. Good. Checked for a fire pulse from the ECM. No Good. Checked the injection pulse, it was good. Was fairly sure that the cam and crank sensors were good because of the injection pulse. Took the Power Commander out of the loop and re-hooked the factory ECM. Spark good now. I did not put the tank back on yet, but I am fairly sure the bike will start now. So now I have to decide if the power commander just crapped out, or if something else took it out. Anyone got an opinion on that possibility? I guess I have never heard of a PC just crapping out like that...

Yes they can and will just crap out on you without any warning... Replace it with a SERT or TTS...