2003 883 problem

[R. Lewis]

Re: Hello from Kansas

What will cause my bike to shut down while riding? I have replaced the coil & it is still doing it. Today i started it and before I could get it out of the garage it died. I pulled a plug wire and put another plug in the wire and ck'ed if any spark and nothing. Need suggestions

I ride a 03 883 and am having a bad time of trying to locate why my this thing dies while riding down the rode. I've replaced the coil, cleaned the carb, removed the tank & cleaned the screen, & ck'ed the wiring the best I could. The bike will die at irratic times. It will crank over right after it dies but will not start until it sets for awile, & the waiting time will very. I'm thinking it could be a circuit breaker or one of the many sensors that they thought they had to put on this thing.
Does anyone out there have the answer?

so between your March 25th and your last post - have you changed any fuses , put a good Amp/Ohm/ Volt meter to it , have you checked ALL grounds , have you checked BOTH ends of your batt. cables , have you had the stator checked , did you make any mods prior to the problem........ ????????

 

[Jack Klarich]

Re: Hello from Kansas

I ride a 03 883 and am having a bad time of trying to locate why my this thing dies while riding down the rode. I've replaced the coil, cleaned the carb, removed the tank & cleaned the screen, & ck'ed the wiring the best I could. The bike will die at irratic times. It will crank over right after it dies but will not start until it sets for awile, & the waiting time will very. I'm thinking it could be a circuit breaker or one of the many sensors that they thought they had to put on this thing.
Does anyone out there have the answer?

Usually when the module goes bad the bike either won't start, or starts fine when cold and starts cutting out or dies when it warms up, and won't restart until cold. Does this sound familiar?

 

[halfpint]

help!!!! 03 883 dies while riding

03 883 dies while riding. Have changed out coil, cleaned gas tank & carb, & and ck'ed wiring the best I could without disassembling everything. The problem is irratic, when it dies, it will crank but not start. Wait awhile and it will start up. The waiting time will very and the run time will very. Makes it where you really don't want to go very far away from home! Could this be a circuit the main circuit breaker and where is it located? Any ideas will be welcomed!

 

[Jack Klarich]

Re: help!!!! 03 883 dies while riding

03 883 dies while riding. Have changed out coil, cleaned gas tank & carb, & and ck'ed wiring the best I could without disassembling everything. The problem is irratic, when it dies, it will crank but not start. Wait awhile and it will start up. The waiting time will very and the run time will very. Makes it where you really don't want to go very far away from home! Could this be a circuit the main circuit breaker and where is it located? Any ideas will be welcomed!

http://www.hdtimeline.com/archive/t-46448.html start here, sounds like you have a bad ignition module

 

[Hoople]

Re: help!!!! 03 883 dies while riding

When the bike is cranking but not starting, see if you have about 11.00 volts on the black/white wire going to the coil.

 

[halfpint]

Re: Hello from Kansas

Bought the bike in 05 with about 460 miles on it and was the 4th owner. Nothing electrical has been changed except the coil as mention. When I put the new coil on nothing changed, so I have put the original back on. I have pulled all of the fuses and ck'ed them and cleaned the contacts. Have not ck'ed the codes yet. When it dies I still have all of the electrical stuff-starter, lights etc. It just wants to rest for awhile before it starts back up.

 

[R. Lewis]

Re: help!!!! 03 883 dies while riding

03 883 dies while riding. Have changed out coil, cleaned gas tank & carb, & and ck'ed wiring the best I could without disassembling everything. The problem is irratic, when it dies, it will crank but not start. Wait awhile and it will start up. The waiting time will very and the run time will very. Makes it where you really don't want to go very far away from home! Could this be a circuit the main circuit breaker and where is it located? Any ideas will be welcomed!

Halfpint ---- We cant help you if your cross posting in different sections of the forum. I believe you already have this issue started in the Sportster section.???

 

[NEWHD74FAN]

Please don't forget to check the simple things. I had a similar problem some years ago. The bike would shut down while riding. Turned out to be a loose connection on the +post on the battery. Since the connection "looked" good and "felt" tight I passed it off as not part of the problem. I nailed it when I actually took the battery out and really inspected it closely. A s/s star lock washer was the solution.

Had to do that on my NEW battery...the internal stainless insert had separated from the lead terminal, so used additional stainless steel screw and washer in the "unused" top post connection as well as the side connection to red terminal connection...after I found it sparking big time when probing with my DMM:small3d029:.

Sometimes things just "hit you"...like these intermittant problems can be pretty nasty and troublesome...don't forget what would seem obvious, when it is really is an assumption, I bought a spool of heavy #14 AWG clear speaker wire...somewhere in that 50' spool was an open connection, I unwound the entire spool and NEVER did find the open...returned the spool to the supplier and they could not believe it either! :newsmile055:

 

[fin_676]

With this sort of problem on a solid mount sportster i would suspect the ignition module as it is not unknown for them to stop working intermittently once they get hot
to be sure carry some canned air as in spray duster when the bike stops and will not start open the nose cone and spray the air on the ignition module as the air comes out of the can it will be very cold and reduce the temp of the ignition module if after that it starts you will know what you need to replace
You may need to prepare the bike for this test as the nose cone cover if riveted to the bike from the factory drill out the rivets and replace with self tapping screws for easy removal

Brian

 

[MDCowboy]

Fin, you beat me to it! Just a addon here.. Turn the can UPSIDE DOWN and spray. My bike would get about 10 miles before I had to spray again.