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2003 intermittent electrial power loss

jaceddie

jaceddie

Junior Member
2003 Ultra is having an electrial problem I can't find. While riding, the bike just stops, no gauges or anything. Completely dead. After turning the switch on and off a few times and jiggling the bars, it will start up with all power restored. Have checked and cleaned the grounds on both ends and the other cables look good too. Anyone have any suggestions on what to check next? Being an intermittent problem, it's hard to track it down.
 
Don't have any ideal on what's causing your problem, but have you thought about changing the main circuit breaker? I think you have a 40 amp, if you have added extra lights, you might need a larger one. replaced mine with a 50 amp.
 
Look at the schematic and see if the kill switch is Normally Closed (closed in RUN position). The schematic will tell you how engine Kill is achieved. If it is a "normally closed" setup, the problem can easily be where the cable twists at the frame neck.

If you can upload the exact schematics for your bike (just enough to see ECM, bars wiring, ignition switch) I would be Happy to look it over and tell you what to do in order to shake out the problem.
 
It not only kills the engine, but the entire electrical system goes down. No power on anything. When it does reenergize and restart, the engine runs very rough until the engine management system resets or whatever it does. When it goes down, there is no power anywhere. I have the repair manuals with scehmatics, Hoople. If you think it's still around the kill switch, I'll upload them.
 
Do you happen to have a Digital Time display in your speedo. If so, does it default to 12:00 when you loose power.

Now that you said you loose complete power (I should have seen that in post #1),,, disregard what I suggested about the bars cable and kill switch. Just take a quick look for DTC codes. MM is really weak on diagnostics and codes, but it is worth a look.

Also, how often does this happen. You may want to do the light bulb trick just to see what branch of the electrical system is failing.

If no codes are present, and you don't loose time of day, I would look real close at the ignition switch.
 
Everything goe back to the default setting. Clock, cb and the works. It's like the battery has been disconnected. This has happened a total of 3 times over the last 4 months. That's what is making it so hard to track down. The last time the bike had been rode 3 or 4 times before it happened again. Each time, the bike was in motion and just dies and it coast to the side of the road.
 
jaceddie said:
Everything goe back to the default setting. Clock, cb and the works.
Click to expand...


That is Good. It will make it cheaper to fix. Upload a few pages of the schematics showing the Battery, ignition, regulator, starter and main fuse Group. It should be a walk in the park if the schematics are for your exact bike, year make & model.....
 
I've uploaded the file of the schematics as an attachment. Thanks Hopple
 

Attachments

  • jack.pdf
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The first thing I would do is get rid of that self resetting 40 amp circuit breaker. Even if it tested good,, I would switch it out for a Bussman Maxi fuse. Those circuit breakers were OK in their day but today I would change it out for a Maxi fuse.

I have seen so many of those breakers do flaky things, I have seen those breakers open when pumping 1/2 the rated current through them. Unless you have the fancy tools needed to really test them properly,, toss them out.
 
Hoople said:
The first thing I would do is get rid of that self resetting 40 amp circuit breaker. Even if it tested good,, I would switch it out for a Bussman Maxi fuse. Those circuit breakers were OK in their day but today I would change it out for a Maxi fuse.

I have seen so many of those breakers do flaky things, I have seen those breakers open when pumping 1/2 the rated current through them. Unless you have the fancy tools needed to really test them properly,, toss them out.
Click to expand...

I'll try that. I leaving for vacation for a week and when I get back, I'll change it out and let you know. Thanks
 
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