took my 07 heritage out yesterday.after riding about 10 miles we stopped for a break on a mountain top.after about 20 min i tried to start the bike.nothing worked.no lights,horn,neutral lite,anything.almost like a dead battery.pushed the bike out to the road and started coasting.popped the clutch.bike started and then died again.after 3 tries it started.got it home and tried it again.nothing.tried it again a little later and it started right up.tried it again about 6 times and it starts everytime now.meter says battery is fine.wondering if anyone else has run into this problem.kind of worried about taking it out again.

 

whats the voltage on the battery?

Anything less than 12.7 is not good. I had similiar issue, but the lights would come up and when I hit start, would try and hear clicking, if you hear the clicking, then its the battery. On mine, battery was reading only 12.6 volts, even though tender said it was fine. Also, if you can keep the meter on the battery, when you hit START, if it drops to like 4 volts, its the battery. When bike is running, battery should meter over 14 volts, alternator is working.

A 100% charged battery is 12.8 and higher, if it is at 12.6, that is only a 75% charged and at 12.4, its only 50% charged. Fortunately, my brother works at a battery shop and was able to fully load toasted and was failing every time.

So, if you hear clicking, usually good, the starter is trying, just not enough juice/charge in the battery to turn it over. If you dont hear clicking, could be something else. Start with things above, let us know what happens or has happened. Check your connections on the battery, make sure they are nice and tight, and check the ground to the frame, should be tight.

 

oh, and I have a 2007 that was less than two years old and the battery died. I kept on tender for both winters and between rides also. Luck of the draw.

 

battery volts is 12.9vdc when off and 14.2vdc when running

 

Loose connection possibly. When its not starting, is there any clicking?

Good voltage there. If you did all that already then I'm probably sure that you checked the connections on the battery and also the ground on the frame. Loose negative cable can cause wacky things. Just make sure no corrosion and get it off with a wire brush.

 

nope,no clicking sound.like i said it was like the batt was completely dead.i'm wondering if it an ignition or kill switch problem.trouble right now is it running fine so it's kinda hard to find the problem.it'll probably happen again when i'm 100 miles from home.i'm gonna chk the connections though.

 

chked all the connections and cleaned them up.will take it out tomorrow and see what happens.maybe i'll just ride around the local harley dealers parking lot just in case

 

Did they seem like they were loose or any corrision ?

 

no, everything looked good.i cleaned and tightened the batt and ground connections anyway.a friend told me he had the almost same problem.it was a broken wire but if a wire is broken why would it be starting now?

 

maybe a possibly short....and just sometimes catching, kind of hard to find.