Today I think I blew a fuse. I'm a bit disgruntled at Progressive because they left me on the side of the road for 5.5 hours while the tow company they eventually sent me was only 2 miles away, but that's not the fuse I'm talking about.

I haven't actually opened the fuse box to validate that it was just a fuse (combination of hope that it is a fuse and also still steaming a bit), but assuming it is just a fuse, I've got a few questions:

1) If it's just a fuse, should I be concerned as to why I blew a fuse? Nothing electrical on the bike has changed in the last 3-4,000 miles (did just upgrade to true duals about 200 miles ago).

2) I've read that there are rewiring kits that will dramatically improve the performance of your headlights. Is that true? Reason to not do so?

Bike is a 2000 Road King Classic

 

i guess the burnign question/statement is:
1. You haven't specified what happened to cause you to write this post.
2. What "performance" in your headlight circuit are you referring to?

 

On Sunday, after a great summer of commuting almost 5 days/wk my roughly 34 miles (round trip) and a very small number of longer rides, I finally got a chance to head out on a recreational ride. Chaps on, lunch in the tour pak, I rode out about 30 minutes in roughly 60 degree weather. Getting sufficiently far away from home and into a sufficiently rural area, the fates decided to give me pause.

Traveling about 50 mph on a back road, all of a sudden the bike started flaking out. I quickly grabbed the clutch and let off the throttle and looked down at the gauges (not many on a Road King Classic) to see the lights flicker and go out. At this point, I quickly started making my way to the side of the road ... plenty of cars behind me and me being unable to signal in any way - needing both hands to get to the soft shoulder down the 3-4" drop-off in the pavement.

After that bit of excitement, I switched the bike off (run switch and ignition switch) and waited a minute. Switching them back on did nothing at all. No lights of any kind.

Not having any tools on me, I dialed Progressive for some road side assistance (posting to follow on the terrible experience that was) and started listing to Car Talk on my phone.

Upon getting the bike to the garage, I pulled off the fuse cover and found that all fuses appear intact. Today I'll start calling around to try and get a diagnosis over the phone.

Sad times, indeed, in that the next 6 days here appear to be our Indian Summer - full of 65-70 degree sunshine and fall color everywhere.

Any help diagnosing this quickly would be fantastic!

 

jwyrem. I think you'll find the two links below helpful. Pay special attention to testing your voltage regulator as I feel that's where you'll find your issue to be.


https://www.hdforums.com/forum/elect...sting-1-a.html

https://www.hdforums.com/forum/elect...sting-2-a.html

 

Thanks for the links ... I'm reading them now. A few updates:

1) I learned in another thread that the 40A circuit breaker on my model is notorious for going bad and/or not being sufficient. It must have been the reason for the total electrical failure because the electrical failure simply "went away" after removing the battery and plugging it back in again.

2) I replaced the 40A circuit breaker with a 50A circuit breaker

3) On my last ride I was out for like 45min in 60 degree weather having a ball and on my way home (luckily, in my own sub) the bike started to flake out again in much the same was as it did just prior to the circuit breaker tripping last time. The bike didn't actually cut out and die like it did last time, just got all herky-jerky and almost stalled (seemed like it) with the lights flashing and the speedometer waving around. The event lasted about 3 seconds and the bike was perfect thereafter ... but my confidence in riding it outside of "pushing it home again" distance is near zero.

I'm now reading through your articles to figure out of there are some other tests I can perform or something to determine what on my bike is failing. I'll start with the voltage regulator as you've suggested.

Any further insight, given this second flake-out event, would be much appreciated!

 

I've been looking for a YouTube video showing me how to execute these tests ... anyone want to create one? If you have one - please send on the links!