You need to charge up your battery. The bike is not like a car with an alternator. Push starting a dead battery will not do anything. You need to either charge it properly or get it going and ride for hours.

 

Lol...really? The odds favor his bike being submerged?

Dead batteries do crazy things to a bike. Start with a good battery (hopefully the one you have now) then troubleshoot but my guess is that the battery will cure the probs.

Brackish water...ha ha ha. My daughter has a brackish fish tank. Toss a puffer fish in the gas tank. If it lives more than an hour I would say your bike has been submerged in brackish water.

 

I have to agree with Mandog & Tom07 on the battery was low & the cycling sound you heard was the fuel pump. The battery could have been low from the alarm during the trip, crusty fuses which is a known issue on '07s up, or just a loose battery wire not suppling ample power to the starter. The battery was low, you finally got it started and just let it idle instead of ridding it around for say 20 to 30 minutes. If I remember correctly, the battery doesn't start getting re-charged until you get the RPM's up above something like 2000. I'd say to charge the battery, clean fuse block & add di-electric grease when re-assembling, and put a wrench on all four battery cable bolts to make sure they are all tight & not just wiggling/checking them by hand. I wouldn't get to worked up. It should be an easy fix.

 

5 minutes of running will not even come close to charging a battery on any kind of motor vehicle. If the bike is left idling to charge the battery it will overheat way before it starts to charge the battery. Not to mention running it that short amount of time, especially if its cold where you live, will just cause excess moisture to build up in the cylinder, and then the cylinder walls and pistons will rust. I would suggest making the dealer work it out, because electrical problems should always be someone else's PITA!

 

Wow, thanks for all the replies guys. Makes me feel alot better reading (most) of these posts. I think I'll try a few more things before I call it a "lemon". I just picked the battery up from Auto Zone, they pulled it off the trickle charger and tested it, said the battery was fully charged and put out 13.3 V if I remember correctly. I'll check the fuses and everything tomorrow when I put the battery back in the bike, but from what you guys are saying it sounds like it was just a dead battery issue. I didn't let the bike run for long enough since it was still in the back of the trailer and yeah, I just let it idle. Live and Learn.

Love this forum

 

Can't top that answer ... Not a bad thing to do regardless with an unknown Bike... If your battery reads more than 12.8 Volts after charger is disconnected you are good to go .. Just go far enough to make it worthwhile not around the block ..

 

The 07 Sporties have a known, well documented here, problem with water intrusion into the wiring harness/fuse block. No, it is not a case of "submersion in brackish water", but simply a good rain or washing the bike that creates the problem.

As said above, remove and clean all fuses and fuse block contacts. Then coat with dielectric grease. (This is a temporary fix)

There was a Service Bulletin issued by the MoCo that calls for the wiring harness and fuse block to be replaced. The fuse block actually gets relocated with the new harness.

 

Is the whole replacing of the wiring harness and fuse block something that HD covers? Or is it more of a "Hey, we know its a problem, do this to fix it, but don't expect us to do it for free". If its not something I can bring to the local dealer and have them cover it, how much does the relocation cost? This isn't something that I'm going to want to have to worry about everytime the bike gets wet.

 

It should be covered at no cost. If a dealer tells you it's not, take it to another dealer. The Service Bulletin called for the dealer to replace the harness.

Additional references:
http://www.hdtalking.com/electrical_...r_battery.html

http://www.harley-davidsonforums.com...cal-short.html

http://www.justanswer.com/questions/...2007-sportster

 

Now that is awesome news, I haven't had to deal with the local harley dealer yet so hopefully they aren't difficult just for the sake of being difficult. cHarley, I don't suppose you remember where you found that bulletin? I'm looking online right now, but if you could point me in the right direction I would really appreciate it. I'd like to be able to walk in there with something solid to back me up.