Just about had it with this electrical issue...

[ChopperJeff]

After stopping for gas on a day trip, I start the bike up, get all set to put it in gear, and WHAM, the bike goes totally dead!!! I'm thinking, "great, here we go again!". I pull the seat, put a volt meter on the main breaker to see if it's tripped, but it shows as being OK. I then turn the key and it all comes back to life, and the rest of the day there are no issues.

Not real keen on handing the dealer a few more hundred dollars to have them MAYBE find something, or do the 'ol shot gun troubleshooting technique of replacing parts at random until it's fixed.

At this point I think I'm going to pull the gas tank and check things out myself. This isn't hard to do, is it?

I think I'll also shoot an email to Big Dog and see if they suspect a bad EHC or something like that. Of course, they may just tell me to take it to the dealer.

Can a person apply the lemon law to a vehicle that's almost three years old? As much as I love the bike, I'm really getting fed up with this issue.

Ride safe everyone.

 

[Gas Man]

Have you pulled the tank and did the di-electric grease and shrink wrap yet? Look HERE

Further, you may want to check your ignition key. That can really put a dampner on things.

Also, the hand controls. Pull those apart and make sure you have a good connection on both of those wires. You can find some info on this HERE

 

[Raywood]

I think you answered your question yourself. I would check the ignition switch for any loose wires. The switch is pretty cheap item and been a problem in the past. Make sure you don't have any key ring on it. Mines been replaced a couple times.
Do all your wiring like Gas Man suggested above. It will cure a lot of your problems.

FC suggests when it dies on you to follow this procedure:
a. after it dies first hit the start switch
b. then cycle the run switch and see if it starts
c. then pull the seat and see if you have lights on the EHC
d. then cycle the key and see if you have lights on the EHC
e. then hit the run and start

This should isolate your problems to a bad run switch, ignition switch or EHC.

Good luck,
Ray

 

[ChopperJeff]

Thanks Gas Man and Raywood!

When I pull the tank I may just go ahead with the shrink wrapping thing while I'm in there. Those links you provided look great and hopefully will help with digging into the hand controls.

As Raywood pointed out, the next time it dies I'm double-check the status of the EHC lights, though I'm pretty sure they will be all off as when it dies, the electrical totally goes south as if someone came along and ripped out the battery.

I had the ignition switch replaced about 6 months ago as the dealer back then thought that was the problem at that time. Is there an alternative to these cheap switches?

 

[Raywood]

If all the lights are off and by cycling the key switch it energizes everything then it's definitely the switch again.

 

[ChopperJeff]

Just pulled the tank (that was actually easier than I thought it would be!), and took a look and the wires and connectors. I noticed a bit of wear on several, but nothing that was all the way thru the insulation. I then poked, pushed, yanked and prodded around all the wires and could not get the bike to die. However, it appeared to me that the wires were placed in such a way that the tank was pressing down on the wires. I taped up the worn areas, then placed them in such a way as to not have the tank sitting on them.

I then popped off the hand controls and all looked OK. There was a ton of that di-electric stuff on the connectors, so I guess when the dealer did the recall on that a while ago, they did it right.

Maybe I should go ahead and purchase ANOTHER ignition switch, huh? Perhaps Vicky at KC-Creations would have these?

Better yet... is there an ignition switch out there that will actually work for many years to come... as it should!!!

 

[alhall88]

Take 2 measurements: The OD of the round threaded section, then across the 2 flats. I have seen pics. I think in a drag sp. book and all you need to do is call and see what there measurements are (I did this with mine). Other than that I suppose you could open up the hole to a std. 3/4 size. But you would have to do that on a mill with an endmill. Or better yet and do like blitz says and redo the whole mount and cover.

 

[Raywood]

That does look sweet Al. I like the straight boots on the sparkplugs.