6.5 miles into the ride today my 98 Fatboy suddenly died, no sputtering or anything, just like I had hit the kill switch . Pulled the front plug finding no spark after multiple attempts to start. Took a look at the Compufire ignition, coil and wires, and what I could at the side of the road and everything looked fine

After trailering it home and a couple of hours later, it fires right up.

Got any ideas.

 

Bad relay?

 

Motor turned over fine with a press of the start switch, but no spark while grounding plug to the cylinder, and no way it would start, until maybe three hours later and now seems fine.

 

Coil (maybe), ignition module (probably), separate pickup in the cone?

 

I'm suspecting ignition module, but it's darn hard to diagnose when now working fine, and I hate to just go out and buy another without knowing that was the problem.

My wife thinks it was some kind of divine intervention to protect us from harm, and it may have been, but I would like to consider the other possibilities for now.

 

Yes, sounds heat related which very well might be the pickup.

 

I think I would take the cover of the pickup and hit it with a heat gun to see if you loose the spark. Don't know if a hair dryer would get hot enough but maybe. You could do that on the module also, but they usually don't get that hot if its on the fender like mine.

 

Another vote (guess?) for the ignition module.

 

Heat gun or hair drier on the suspect component. Start the bike, add some heat, bike dies, found your problem. Is the pickup a separate thing or is the ignition all in one in the cone?

 

Ignition and pickups are all in the cone, I'm liking the heat gun or wife's blow dryer idea, and I had not thought of that.

I may be wrong but I'm thinking not pickups, more likely module, as pickups would not be likely to work, not work, then work again. The electronic module I could see that with.