bike shutdown

Energy One

hippee

Member
took 2001 mastiff out for drive. ran fine for hour or so, stopped ate lunch, bike fired up and ran about 2 miles and completely lost power. complete shutdown, no lights, no cranking, nothing. wiggled every wire possible including key switch, nothing. battery voltage is good. voltmeter shows 12 volts and when take key to on, volts go to zero, like going straight to ground. EHC is under tach so have taken apart and unplugged EHC. now when take key switch to on, battery voltage doesnt move. not sure where to go from here. is EHC testable? i looked and its all Thunderheart equipment. please help :bang:
 

stlmikie

I wish I had more money.
First how old is the battery. Have it load tested. Very important we establish the battery is good. Even if it is fairly new. Make that happen and check back in with us. Do you have a taillight on that bike or blinkers with brake lights?
 

max davidson

New Member
hey hippie , i had the same problem , and everyone is tell'n me to rewire the bike basic way. do away with all the big dog junk !!!!!!! i even had the wire plus put in , and same problem . so im rewire'n it harley style . basic ! like one member said , do yourself a favor and rewire it simple style . big dog electronics is junk !!!! you would have thought by now and the cost of a big dog , they would have got it under control and made better stuff. mines a 2006 pit bull , and no better than yours. good luck bro !
 

stlmikie

I wish I had more money.
Go easy Max. You 06 and his 01 are night and day different animals. His bike is wired basically Harley style. 03 and earlier didn't use bigdog stuff. It was made by another outfit. Bare with us hippie. We'll get you back on the road. Dont let anyone scare you into doing anything until we get it sorted out.




hey hippie , i had the same problem , and everyone is tell'n me to rewire the bike basic way. do away with all the big dog junk !!!!!!! i even had the wire plus put in , and same problem . so im rewire'n it harley style . basic ! like one member said , do yourself a favor and rewire it simple style . big dog electronics is junk !!!! you would have thought by now and the cost of a big dog , they would have got it under control and made better stuff. mines a 2006 pit bull , and no better than yours. good luck bro !
 

hippee

Member
ok thanks to both. the battery is less than a year so silly me i check the volts but didnt use my load tester. after you said that and dash all tore apart, the load tester when pushed went to zero. tried to charge and it says fully charged but goes to zero when load tested. will get battery tomorrow and hopefully will solve the issue. thanks again. i will let ya know for sure. ugh lol
 

Little-Boo

Well-Known Member
Troop Supporter
ok thanks to both. the battery is less than a year so silly me i check the volts but didnt use my load tester. after you said that and dash all tore apart, the load tester when pushed went to zero. tried to charge and it says fully charged but goes to zero when load tested. will get battery tomorrow and hopefully will solve the issue. thanks again. i will let ya know for sure. ugh lol
Once you replace that Battery make sure your charging system is working and you bike is not running off the Battery alone cause the same thing is going to happen again.

Carlos :whoop:
 

stlmikie

I wish I had more money.
Boo is right. It sounded funny when you said you hit the run button and it dropped to 0. Tons of nay Sayers who instead of properly diagnosing there bike freak out and run to the bank to pay someone else to fix it without having an idea of what's going on.
 

hippee

Member
yes i will put the battery on it tonight and then check the charging system provided it will start. checking the charging system? and specific ideas? i normally just put a meter on the battery and check the charging voltage?
 

2004BC

FREEDOM!!!
yes i will put the battery on it tonight and then check the charging system provided it will start. checking the charging system? and specific ideas? i normally just put a meter on the battery and check the charging voltage?
That's a good check. Once it starts check voltage across battery terminals and see if you have 13.5 vdc to 14 vdc (I'm not sure exact numbers but probably close). If VR is shot voltage will be 12 something and start going down as lights, coil, etc start using it up.
:cheers:
 

BadBrad

2005 Pitbull
Hey Hippee, had the same thing happen to me. Definitely the battery. Between the battery, VR and stator issues, I finally purchased a "charging system/battery fault" light that let's me know if there are any issues with either the battery, VR or stator before I ever leave the driveway. I'm sure you remember "The DeadOne", aka Jeff that was once a member here. He's also an electrical engineer by trade and invented this handy little gadget where the light will come on if voltage is too low (battery/VR) or if voltage is too high (stator). Here's the link to one on Ebay:

eBay - New & used electronics, cars, apparel, collectibles, sporting goods & more at low prices
 

hippee

Member
ok put the new battery in. turned key on. lights on dash came on and i could turn engine over. all of the lights would not come on. then i noticed smoke and an electrical smell from the dash. turned key off and removed dash. could not find anything burnt or hot. turned key on and noticed smoke and electrical smell. turned key off. smoked seemed to come from a small metal box just forward of the EHC module. i can see a few wires going to it and it has the thunder heart symbol etched into it. not sure if i can remove it without removing one side of the tanks. so im asking what that thing is and is this somehow connected to my lights. or do i have 2 complete issues. i had to step away prior to serious frustration. of course any help is appreciated.
 

stlmikie

I wish I had more money.
Pull it and check it out give it a sniff. I have an extra here if that's what it turns out being.
 

hippee

Member
ok i will pull it tonight. anyway to test it and am i right that i need to pull half the gas tank? also would this affect the lights? that part really didnt make sense to me that the lights didnt come on when i turned the key. dash lights came on but nothing else.
 

hippee

Member
yea mine is mounted between tanks under the dash. i pulled it last night and it definitely has burnt smell. started looking for replacement and cant seem to find one for "01" mastiff. a few i have found dont have the same amount of wires or proper plugs coming out of the box. i cant find a part number on it and my local bike shop that used to sell big dogs dont have one but are trying to look for me. and im still wondering if this would affect my headlights. if the ignition module caused this whole catastophre would it have just shut the bike down like it did while it was running?
 

hippee

Member
yes the actual module looks exactly like that but the plugs are different. it has a flat 3 pin plug and then a square 2 pin plug.
 

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