XS and HD don't mix

[dwales]

Yesterday, I went on a ride with some HD riders to an open house at a HD dealer. Once we FINALLY got going, (we had to make 3 stops for between 20 to 45 minutes each to pick everyone up), we got about 8 miles, and my electrical power quit. Wiggeling the accesable wires had no effect. After about 5 minutes, the power came back on. They talked me into continuing on with them. We got about another 6 miles, and the same thing happened. This time, once the power came back, I headed back home. I had no problems going home, and have had none before. After getting home, I pulled the seat and side covers. Checked all of the fuse connections, wiggeled every wire I could get at, and could not duplicate the proble. Do XS' do this when in the company of HD, or when heading to a HD dealer? Seriously, any suggestions?

[Artic_rider]

My XS doesn't do it to me...and it's parked next to my HD. Now the Harley on the otherhand tends to get a little finiky when graced with the presence of my XS...lol. About your troubles though. I would go through all your connections, pull them, clean them, and add a little electrical greas to them. If you haven't already as well...look at an aftermarket fuse box ( I believe TopCat is selling some) or go with some inline fuses. Had that problem last year and it turned out to be bad connections in conjunction with the old tube style fuses.

Happy Trails bud

[skids]

Re: XS and HD don't mix

Clean the kill switch on the handlebar. Make sure that the ballast resistor isn't shorting out on the frame.

[dwales]

fuse block and ballast resistor

Artic_rider
There is already an after market fuse block installed. The only way I could duplicate the problem in the garage was to remove the main fuse, which is an inline fuse, seperate from the fuse block. I did clean and DI grease it's connection.

skids
No ballast resister on the 81. Besides, I don't believe that would kill ALL power? The second time this happened was on a downgrade, so I had a lot of time to fiddle with the ignition switch and kill switch. Nothing, until the bike sat for about 5 minutes. I am thinking some kind of a heat problem. My HD friends don't ride as fast as I do. Something about the value of them wrecking their bike versus me wrecking mine. I thought all human bodies had the same value.

[81xsproject]

check/remove your tipover switch...

[Ken Talbot]

Take that main fuse out again and see if you can yank one of its ends off. Those things are notorious for breaking that way, leaving you scratching your head when the working part of the fuse looks okay.

[trbig]

A buddy's Special was doing something similar. Sometimes sitting for 5 minutes did the trick... sometimes it took days, but a new ignition switch helped him out for a while. He told me that when it happened to him at night alone on some twisties... it wasn't very fun.

Tod

[Artic_rider]

I'm with ken, I still think there is a main fuse somewhere that is screwing with your mind...Maybe also check your ground? might be loose or something. I chucked in one of them star locking washers to ensure a good ground. Other then that...have a beer, it will all be clear

[TopCatGr58]

Well, my vote is on the TIP OVER switch! It's a mercury filled switch IIRC. Wayne-Canuck during last years Philly Rally experienced an intermittent on/off problem. Randy=Electrical Guru suggested the TOswitch, he pulled it, and it worked just fine after that, made it back to the great white north and all!! But, it could be ALL that has been mentioned, main switch, kill switch!?
Good Luck!
T.C.

[dwales]

TOS

I am starting to lean towards the tip over switch myself. I guess if the bike goes that far over, I have other issues to deal with other than whether the engine is still runninr or not.

[webbcraft2150]

Replace the pesky main, glass fuse under the left cover. Had mine die, the fuse looked good. Trucked 'er home. Was about ready to dive into the wiring. Metered the glass main fuse, looked good but was no good, install new fuse, its fixed. Replaced OEM fuse holder with a ATC style in-line fuse holder. Ain't the simple fixes great. Course, could be tip over switch, ign switch. Replace the fuse holder anyway, its not if it will give you a problem, its when,

[mason79]

i was thinkin for a tempary crutch before a full blown fuse block swap , solder some alligator clips to both ends of a spade fuse holder, carry the 30,20 and 10 amps fuses, and use that as a jumper to circumvent the culprit circuit,in a emercency, i know if you are going throuh all the trouble, do the swap.

this may be good for more than just the fuses, what do you think topcat?

[xssiveone]

Nice idea for an emergency repair. Much safer then my method of useing the foil from cigarette packs.

Only problem with it is that sometimes the fuse holders themselves are suspect. They get corroded and can be just "there" but not making contact. Of course, with the aligator clips you could bypass the fuse clips as well I guess.

[Geezer]

Check the plug on the ignition switch. The connectors here are notorious for corroding and burning up.

Geezer

[D. P. Larmee]

It sounds dumb, but I had a loose battery connection that behaved a lot like this. The nut had come off the bolt, but the bolt was still through the eye on the end of the cable. It was on most of the time but would jostle loose on bumps.