Hi Knuckles & Friends,
I have a similar electrical problem on my 2004 Big Dog Chopper.
1) First Lo Beam went out intermittantly; then Hi Beam went out same way; NO Headlights now.
2) Then later, ENIGINE RANDOMLY CUTS OUT ELECTRICALY; Headlights always out.
My "EHC" symptoms are:
a) months ago Low-Beam started to intermittantly go out; had to use Hi-Beam only; All else was OK.
b) got New Battery and trickle charged every night. Problem went away two months ago.
c) one month ago Low-Beam out again, Hi-Beam only; bike randomly just lost all power to spark plugs while riding; continued to quit electricaly (no spark, but other lights, horn, turn signals OK, but no Hi-or-Lo beams) Let it sit by side of road for ten minutes then could start and ride it home. (I knew no spark by carrying spare spark plug I connected and held to side of cylinder while cranking.) no signs of weak new battery. All else was OK.
d) rode home, checked voltages:
on same New Battery: 13.5 while on charger, 13.1 off charger; 12.5 dip at startup cranking; started engine --running it charges immediately to 14.2 volts, seems OK. But no Headlight at all.
e) Checked Headlight voltages at bulb connecter:
Yellow wire 10.5, White 7.5; with key ON or engine running. (of course checked/swapped bulbs and jumper wired temporarily off battery to be sure all were working ok; jumper wired direct to battery with single negative/ ground wire testing from various ground points and then from negative terminal on battery; while getting positive side volts from the Headlight connector [not directly from positive terminal on battery] to eliminate possible bad ground connection that many others speak of, since voltage readings were unchanged.
f) Pulled Connecter to Headlight under gas tank and measured same exact voltages as at Headlight connector; Yellow wire 10.5, White 7.5; Checked ignition wire 12.1 volts.
g) Checked voltages at EHC 50 pin connector while connected and ignition key ON: pins 16 & 17 same yellow and white wires to headlight, same voltages 10.5 and 7.5
I think this means my EHC is bad --cannot get 12 volts out of the EHC to headlight...
and think something else within EHC is cutting the engine off randomly (electricaly); while all other lights, turn signals, brake lights, horn, speedo, tach, nuetral light, etc OK; But Hi-Lo-Beam is still always out.
I can only ride with no headlights for 9 miles or fifteen minutes and bike quits per item c) above. Everything else is fine, battery (Tomioka) holding its charge OK.
I have my Wire Plus 374 on order... I believe this will fix both problems
Will let you all know if it does not!
Sincerely,
Fat_Bastard,
Irvine, CA
UPDATE 7-5-2012
****EHC was in fact Bad****
Just got my Wire Plus Kit and Ignition Key Switch (after a Loooooooong Wait, 3 months!)
It has fixed all my problems per above, bike runs great now even seems slightly stronger at low rpm and idle --perhaps the failing EHC was not allowing strong voltages and current to other areas...
All in all I feel a strong Nuetral to the whole Wire Plus Solution. My 2004 Chopper had no PDM alternative product offering. Third choice was to rewire Harley style -- out of the question for me, too much money. Had no other reasonable choice; So for $500 and change I expected more from Wire Plus -- a "plug and go" solution.
Pro and Con:
Con:
Installation instructions are very poorly written and lack enough proper helpful photos.
(youtube video helped, showed me the wrong way to mount the modules backwards blocking view of LED's; and they probably thought they were showing you the right way, LOL) Many things omitted... -- and all wires and connectors should have come as more of a "plug and go" set up for the $500 plus... I felt they just built two modules and let you build the rest supplying a few pieces of wire and bunch of connectors. Very expensive and they took my money upfront, pretty much ignored my requests for updates and status and a 3 month wait for fabrication WTF!!!
Pro:
It worked.
Nuff said.
