died again

ohio dog

Active Member
Okay guys here we go. What do you think? Bike did this last summer as well. Starter will spin normal, but bike will not start. No backfire, no start then stall, nothing. Wait an hour or so, and it will start up? Tonight it was long enough for my neighbor to come and pick me up, and me return with my trailer. As soon as I got there, bam she started right up.

All wires have been checked/ wrapped. Battery wires are tight, but get extremely hot, and so do the terminals when this happens. Battery sits on the tender at 13.3 in the garage, and goes up to 14ish while running....so not thinking VR. I noticed tonight that the ignition control led was not blinking while attempting to start. Now that the bike starts normal, the ignition control led will come on with key, turn off, then blink while cranking (hit start button) once bike is running it stays on solid. I'm either thinking ignition module, or coil? Only light that comes on the ehc is the red light when I press the run button. When it does not want to start I've tried bypassing circuit breaker by crossing terminals, and it does not help...so not thinking CB. I've tried a 1000 times to get the bike to duplicate the problem, but can't. ANY and ALL imput will be appreciated.

Oh by the way it's an 04' Chopper w/ 10k miles, and the battery is fairly new.

Sorry if rambling, but wanted to cover everything, and I'm a little pissed. I know these (all) bikes, take work....my problem is not being able to figure this one out. I hate to start replacing parts without knowing it will be fixed.
 

ohio dog

Active Member
that flow chart kicks ass. my bike is an 04, but I'm sure a lot of the troubleshooting is the same. Thanks for the chart. I'll post what I find. I have a 5 hour drive ahead of me tonight, and I don't want to leave....work sucks! Thanks again!
 

ohio dog

Active Member
thanks for the help guys. waiting from dealer to see if they have ehc or cam sensor in stock. i think it's the ehc since i get no led light on the ignition module.
 

dogvet

Banned
Okay guys here we go. What do you think? Bike did this last summer as well. Starter will spin normal, but bike will not start. No backfire, no start then stall, nothing. Wait an hour or so, and it will start up? Tonight it was long enough for my neighbor to come and pick me up, and me return with my trailer. As soon as I got there, bam she started right up.

All wires have been checked/ wrapped. Battery wires are tight, but get extremely hot, and so do the terminals when this happens. Battery sits on the tender at 13.3 in the garage, and goes up to 14ish while running....so not thinking VR. I noticed tonight that the ignition control led was not blinking while attempting to start. Now that the bike starts normal, the ignition control led will come on with key, turn off, then blink while cranking (hit start button) once bike is running it stays on solid. I'm either thinking ignition module, or coil? Only light that comes on the ehc is the red light when I press the run button. When it does not want to start I've tried bypassing circuit breaker by crossing terminals, and it does not help...so not thinking CB. I've tried a 1000 times to get the bike to duplicate the problem, but can't. ANY and ALL imput will be appreciated.

Oh by the way it's an 04' Chopper w/ 10k miles, and the battery is fairly new.

Sorry if rambling, but wanted to cover everything, and I'm a little pissed. I know these (all) bikes, take work....my problem is not being able to figure this one out. I hate to start replacing parts without knowing it will be fixed.
Check for power at the coil (red wire) if you don't have power there with the key and run switch on, then it's probably your ehc. If you do have power then it's either a bad ignition module or a bad connection between the ehc and the ignition module. Both share the same power from the ehc but power comes out on different pins for the coil and module.

There is a 4 pin connector that goes to the ignition module that has a red, green, yellow and black wire in it disconnect it and check for power coming from the ehc.

Those ehcs were prone to have poor connections with that slide latching mechanism on the ehc plug. Make sure that everything is tight. I used to take a big wire tie and loop it around the connector and behind the slide so the slide couldn't move and unlatch itself.

The thunderheart cam sensor had more than it's fair share of thermal failures over the years as well.
If everything else is working and has power, you can disconnect the three pin connector at the ignitionm odule and short the green and black wire together (on the module side of the connector). This will force a spark at the plugs Which by the way is great fun if you can get somebody to hold the spark plug while you short the wires!

If you get a spark, replace the sensor plate. A Harley sensor plate will woirk great, but you'll have to change the connector and pins
 
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