Hi everyone, new time member but long time viewer here.

I got a 1995 Sportster 883 a few weeks ago in good condition. I've probably put around 300 miles on the bike in the past few weeks and haven't had any problems.

Last weekend I went out to the garage to go for a ride. I turned the key and no power came on to the bike. I did it a few times and a couple of times the bike got power and a couple of times it didn't. Now whenever I do it I get no power. I charged the battery and checked it's voltage with a multimeter and it has 12.8 Volts.

I read the ignition switch was a common issue so I replaced the ignition switch with a popular amazon one. There was no instructions to where which wire went, so I could have wired it wrong, but to my knowledge replacing the switch didn't fix the problem. I checked continuity in the 4 fuses under the seat and each of them were not blown. I have a Clymer manual so I have a wiring diagram, but I'm not the most electrically inclined so I could use some guidance.

Could the problem be the 50A circuit breaker? How can I test if an ignition switch is continuous? Thank you all in advance!

 

Stop guessing and buying parts.

Remove the battery and take it to an auto parts store, have them load test it.

Clean all battery cable connection surfaces (don`t just check to see if they are tight).

Check that the new ignition switch is connected properly.

 

You can check continuity at switch by connection of red to red/black and red to red/gray. Turn key to each position and check continuity. Should be pretty easy to do.

Good looking bike! Looks to be in really nice condition for it's age.

John