Hi everyone,

For the last two summers I have been trying to get my '91 Sportster 1200 working. Currently, it is not getting any power. No power to the lights, rear of the bike...nothing. I am looking for troubleshooting help. I would ideally like to fix this myself, especially because there is a month lead time at any bike shop around.

I have replaced the battery, three out of four breakers, ignition switch, and the wiring from the ignition switch to the breakers.

I called a local shop and explained to them what was going on and they recommended replacing the battery terminal cables. Before spending the money for this, I wanted to see if there was a way to test if the battery is properly outputting electricity. How can I do this?

Also, does anyone have any other ideas what the issue may be?

I'd appreciate any help so I can get riding this summer.

 

You should be able to have your battery load tested free at a variety of places to confirm its condition.

Okay, here are two options, depending on what was current for your year which hopefully helps.
If you follow your positive battery cable down to where it mounts on the starter, do you see a smaller secondary wire coming off of that mounting stud on the starter motor?
If you do, then this smaller secondary wire should be going to your main circuit breaker.
If you don't see the secondary wire on the starter stud, then you may have a model year that ran this wire directly off of the battery positive terminal. So look carefully around the battery area for a wire with a ring terminal on it that isn't hooked up if it isn't already in place.
This wire provides power from the battery, either directly from the battery, or via the starter stud as mentioned above to the main circuit breaker which then provides power to your ignition switch.
If this wire is damaged, or not connected, then you will have no power to your circuits or ignition switch.
The main circuit breaker is identified from the other circuit breakers by the fact that it should have two different colour studs. a silver one and a copper one. Your secondary wire should be going to the copper stud.
Of course there could be many different explanations as to why you've no power but it can't hurt to check the above.

 

Thanks for the helpful response!

The battery itself is good. It is a year old battery that has been put kept on a trickle charger. In my original post I was inquiring if there was a way to test if the battery was outputting power to anything to rule out if the battery cables were bad.

I believe my model year runs the wiring directly off the battery terminal. I included in this post a video showing the wires and showing the ground wire hook up on the starter. You will see a secondary wire coming off the positive terminal. This goes directly to a breaker and then the other side of the breaker there is a red wire which is going to the ignition switch. I have replaced both said wires last summer during my troubleshooting.

Regarding the breakers... I have multiple breakers with silver and copper studs. When I replaced the breakers, this was a standard option of replacement. They are OEM Harley purchased at a Harley dealer.




Video Link

 

Doesn`t matter if it is a brand new battery, the first thing you do when you have an electrical issue is make sure the battery is good.
You need to have it load tested, an auto parts store will do it for free, so no excuses.....

Once the battery is known to be good, you can start systematic troubleshooting (replacing parts is not troubleshooting).
You need a digital multi meter, they are cheap, you don`t need to spend more than 20 bucks.
Once the battery has been tested, let us know and we can walk you through the troubleshooting steps.

 

Ok, so I took the battery to Autozone. They don't test for loads there. I have a meter already. How do I test for the battery load and does the battery need to be hooked up for this?

 

I watched a couple of videos on how to test the load. I am not sure if I am doing it correctly because the voltage did not change whatsoever. It stays at 13.2v.

I hooked up the battery, turned the ignition switch on (this doesn't lower the voltage at all either), turned the bike to run and then hit the start button. No drop at all.

Any ideas?

 

 

Stop screwing around, pick up the phone and find an auto parts store that will load test the battery.

 

The absolute first place to start electrical troubleshooting is to get the battery tested. You could spend years troubleshooting for nothing with a bad battery.

The battery is where you start, test it. Then test cables, ground, keep going from there. Get yourself a factory service manual and electrical diagnostic manual; follow procedures outlined.

 

Alright, I stopped screwing around and called around. I ended up going to Autozone again, among other places that said they did this, but weren't actually sure what it was. I spoke with the GM. He said their machines test for load and that the result would come up as "Good" if the load and initial voltage was good. So, I don't know the actual voltage that the load brought it down to, but according to him, it is good.

I then did what RRider suggested. I bypassed my negative terminal to another bolt. I tried to start the bike and put it in different positions with the ignition switch. It read 13.2 V the entire time.

I took a video of me doing it to show. Literally nothing different happens when I put the ignition switch in different positions.