were the sparks coming form the neg connection at the battery?, if so see if the bolt is loose, if thats the problem you don't need a qualified tech to tighten it.

 

Good news! It's fixed! Sparks were actually coming from the positive cable. So I carefully removed the negative one (as instructed in the Harley manual), pulled the battery off and removed the positive cable. I checked to see if anything looked burnt, I cleaned up the connections, put the positive cable back on and tighten it like a bitch. Put the negative cable on and everything works like it used to Maybe vibrations over time made the positive cable slightly loose.

I'd like to thanks all of you for your help. You saved me a trip to the dealership. You guys rock!

 

next project: tranny overhaul!

 

Did you have any split lockwashers under those bolt heads, if not, wouldn't hurt to add some.

 

Don't ever do that again.

Good and snug. Yes.
tighten like a bitch. No.

The terminals are soft metal. Over tightening them could result in an unpredictable "break off" at the most inconvenient time. A good set of railroad tracks could do it.

Nice and snug, preferably with the lock-washer mentioned above.

 

Another thing to keep in mind is that the cables need not only to be snug, but clean as well. If I ever take a battery cable off whether its my bike or car, I never put it back on with cleaning the tarnish off and make them shiny. Use either a knife or something to scrape them or sandpaper or a small file. Make both the cable end and the battery post shiny, and you'll have less problems later.

 

Tellin ya they just have to be a wee bit lose to cause some joofy problems. Even worse, I have an old farmall cub with a six volt system. So much draw on that and if all isnt super tight, the starter aint going no where.

 

Just take a wrench and tighten the connection... or have your wife do it. Forget doom sayers like Bluehighways... battery explosions with these new sealed batteries just don't happen by connecting wires or even arcing them out. Battery explosions used to occur occasionally when a spark would ignite the gases escaping thru the tops... that's one of the main reasons that they started making sealed batteries.

 

There is no washer...and I might have tightened it a little too bit. Thanks for the heads up guys!

 

Use blue Loctite, and it will not come loose on its own again.