I'm a newby. I have a 2001 1200 XLC. I took it for a spin and parked it for 15 min. When I tried to restart I lost all electrical. No lights and engine won't crank. Battery has 12+ volts. All fuses in the fuse panel are OK. I don't know where the Maxi fuse or main breaker are located to check them. I think there are also some inline fuses I haven't found. Symptoms point to a fuse if I could just find it.
2001 Sportster Electrical Failure
- Thread starter elmosack
- Start date
Chopper
Senior Member
Welcome to the forum elmosack, I would start by cleaning the battery terminals and check for a good ground, just follow the ground cable from the battery and make sure it's clean and making a good contact. Most of the time the problem is at the battery terminals. Have you checked them?
As chopper has said the battery cables are the most likely culprit in this sort of situation
they can be a bit of a pest to get to the battery connections on a solid mount sportster by taking the seat off you will get better access you may also need to remove the ignition module cover to get good access to the end of the battery strap
help from an assistant may also be useful to hold the battery at a slight angle to be able to get tools on to the connections
when dealing with a battery always disconnect the negative first and reconnect last
Brian
they can be a bit of a pest to get to the battery connections on a solid mount sportster by taking the seat off you will get better access you may also need to remove the ignition module cover to get good access to the end of the battery strap
help from an assistant may also be useful to hold the battery at a slight angle to be able to get tools on to the connections
when dealing with a battery always disconnect the negative first and reconnect last
Brian
J
Jack Klarich
Guest
Chopper and Fin give you very good advice here, Always start @ the source The Battery and work out from there, most problems are in poor connections this will also lead to shorter battery life and regulator and stator problems. IMO:s
From reading the other post, I pretty much tried all the easy stuff b4 I posted. Battery connections checked OK with volt/ohm meter. 15 amp fuses in fuse box check OK. Found one other inline fuse that was OK. New clue: Ign on ACC speedometer lights up. Goes out w/ ign on. I'll do more troubleshooting and get back later. Sort of hard to work w/o a schematic. The print I have shows a 20A fuse inline w/ the + Batt terminal.
Chopper this crow is hard to chew. The batt volts were good, connections tight, no corrosion, good ground but I finally took the batt out and load tested it. It failed miserably... I'm sure you assumed I had already done that. Sorry, I'll do better. I need to learn to listen better. Batteries can cause some crazy symptoms but is the easiest thing to test and eliminate. I always have to do a bunch of crazy hard stuff b4 get my head on straight. Thanks everyone for good helpful advice. New batt is on the way.
Chopper
Senior Member
Cool! Glad you found the problem, batteries are easy to over look when they are putting out good volts. Don't try to save a buck, put in a good AGM battery and if you don't have a battery tender this would be a good time to buy yourself a early X-Mas gift, you can install the leads with the new battery, it'll pay for it's self in longer battery life.
Ride Safe
Ride Safe