Howdy Folks,

Wanted to see if anyone has had a similar experience with electrical / battery issues on my 2009 FXDL.

I have a battery tender / SAE port that is directly connected to the battery. For several years, I've used a cigarette-lighter-adapter-to-SAE port, then attached the usb-to-cigarette-port for my Garmin GPS.

So Battery -> Terminal-to-SAE-pigtail -> SAE Cigarette Lighter Adapter -> Cigarette Adapter to USB -> GPS

The SAE port to terminal connector has a fuse in it, which is not blown, came with the connector, etc.

I've had a couple iterations of the last year where after getting fuel, the bike would not start; like dead battery no power to the bike not start. I'd take the seat off, open the battery compartment, disconnect the battery terminals and re-connect, and then would be able to start the bike with the seat and battery cover still off. Annoying, yes. This would seemingly happen about every time I needed to stop and start the bike again.

That battery eventually went dead, (was about 5 years old) and I replaced the battery with a motorcycle battery from AutoZone, not HD brand. I was heading to the mountains for a few days so I figured I would take another look at the connectors, put a mild sandpaper abrasive to them, got rid of a tiny amount of corrosion on the negative terminal etc. I took the bike out probably 10 times prior to the longer trip, with the GPS on and had no problems. Bike would start up each and everytime. So I was chalking the previous things up to build up or corrosion on the connectors.

So the wife and I are at the top of a hill in Brevard, NC at a stop light, I hit the gas and bingo bike stalls with no power. Luckily it was early in the morning not a lot of traffic, and a gas station conveniently withing rolling distance. We pushed the bike into the gas station, I straight up disconnected the SAE adaptor, and the bike fired right up. I didn't use the GPS for the next 2 days, probably started the bike 20 times and it fired up every single time, no issues.

So I have a couple theories -
1. It's got to be grounding out(?), if it was anything on the battery towards the GPS, i would imagine the fuse would blow on the battery tender connector.
2. Maybe the SAE to Cigarette adapter has a short?
3. Maybe the CCA on the battery is not the same as the stock HD battery?

The strange part is that this issue happened on the HD and non-HD battery, and it also functioned finen for probably 2 years. Now its fairly easy to reproduce. Obviously I can get a different battery, and a different connector, just scratching my head, and wonder if anyone has seen something like this.

Thanks!

 

Definately looks to be on the GPS side of the tender cable, I'd ohm it out and wiggle the mess out of it to see if it is shorting. Maybe it is just a mild enough short so that it isn't pulling enough current to blow the fuse?

 

Is the polarity of the wiring for your gps reversed? While it's not connected the circuit is open and harmless. If the wiring is wrong, when the gps is connected it may cause an error. As a simple example LED lights are polarity sensitive, I'm not sure about gps units. You also have several things in series for your gps, it may be better to simplify that. I have mine connected directly into my front lights.

 

I figure that TYPICALLY, folks have an easy time matching color and the SAE connector on the battery tender cable is keyed to connect in one direction, but ehh who knows. . . .