Intermittent start problem 99 Ultra

 'Morning,

   I'll buy an early round here.

  Yesterday my 99 Ultra had no lights on the dash, no oil can symbol,
neutral light, and of course, no fuel pump running when I turn the knob to
ignition. After several tries it did work enough to get me home. When I got
hiome it rarely worked at all. I thought the kill switch might be bad, but
cleaning it as best I could didn't help. This morning I found if I wiggled
the bars it would sometimes "catch" and start. Having checked my service
manual, it calls for a break out box to check connectors. Of course, i don't
have one of those. I thought something might be loose or pinched under the
fairing. I found nothing discoonected but I did re-arrange some bundled
wiring from around the fork area thinking it might be stressed. The
fairing's still off and now the bike is starting every time. But I might be
missing something. Anyone experience this before? Is there a common cause
for something this intermittent?

 Thanks in advance, and don't spill that drink....

     Gerry

 

Loose battery cable & moving around in the seat while shaking the bars hits
the sweet spot.  Remember K-I-S-S.
--
Larry
Stupidly keeping it simple.
07 FXST<~~~Still for sale.

 
.

    I do appreciate the response. This is a hard one to pinpoint. I had
checked the battery and I had moved the bars while of the seat!
Well, I disconnected every connector possibly involved with this problem and
cleaned them with contact cleaner.
After 60k miles there was a good bit of plain old dirty  on some of the
components. I covered the front fender and used more contact cleaner to
clean the entire under fairing area. A bit pricey to use that stuff just to
clean, but I didn't trust anything else. Last night and this morning, the
bike wouldn't start. Since 1pm today the bike has been trouble free. Time
will tell.......
It's one of those fixes I wish I could point to and say, "This was the
cause".

     Once again, thanks for the responses to a hard one.
            Gerry

 


Including the battery ground, at the frame end of the cable?
Let me spell it out for you.  Keep It Simple Stupid.
Check the ground.  But what the hell do I know?
Loose ground, bad switch, operator head space.  Let us know.
--
Larry
07 FXST<~~For Sale & Starts every time.

 


  Hi Larry,

   Yes, that point is mechanically sound and I ohmed it out to boot before
going under the fairing. I know myself how people have tried starter
solenoids, starters, and God knows what else, when the bike just needed a
good battery or a sound connection.
But like I mentioned, since going after the area under the fairing, I've
turned it on at least 60 times with no failures. Before that, it had gotten
to the point it would not start unless I turned the bars a certain way. And
that wasn't a sure thing.
 Hard to pinpoint something that fixes an intermittent when you shotgun an
area. I used to work on Yamahas and BMWs in the late 60s and early 70s.
Since then I've worked on clinical lab instrumentation. Intermittents always
make life interesting.

       Gerry