I bought an 02 sportsman ho this week. The previous owner had taken power off of the acc plug and wired the low beams into a toggle switch on the pod. Well, after tracing wired for most of the day yesterday, I thought I solved the problem (found a couple of broken wires) and I hooked up everything. Last night my wife took it for a little spin, and she said that all the lights, dash, speedo, everything would shut off completely, then come back on. She likened it to four way flashers. I took it for a ride and all seemed well. Rode it all day today with the head lights on and it worked the same. This afternoon, it started acting up again. Same thing, it is almost like a circuit breaker tripping and then resetting, but according to the wiring diagram, there isn't one in there. The bike never skips a beat when this happens, just that all the electrical seems to shut off. I have cleaned all the switches and put some di electric grease into the connections. There must be someone out there who has experienced this. Suggestions?

 

Probably still wiring issue maybe pinched or cracked something, It isnt in the CDI system since it runs without sputtering. If it was sputtering the it would be in the ignition system interupting the spark.

 

Remove the front cover and check for broken wiring. Somewhere arond that year I found several Sportsmans that had broken wires. A couple brown and a yellow usually. The way they are routed and wire tied causes them to break/cut in two. Can cause exactly what you describe. You'll have to open up some of the plastic looms to find them.

 

I will open it up and keep looking for broken wires..... The way it shuts off eveything electrically and then comes back on without a flicker still makes me think that it is not a broken wire, however this afternoon it was raining, so it may be a broken wire. I went through most of them though, and remembe this kills everything, speedo, tail light, neutral light, etc. will have to wait a week or two to look at it as i don't have too much time. Any other ideas?

 

Just spent some time looking here, hard to search as it could be described a number of ways, and found an old thread in which somone says that the entire system is protected by a 20 amp self resetting ciruit breaker in a water tight case, that can get moisture in it. Could explain why it was acting up last night and again today in the rain. Anyone hear of this or am I way off base. While I haven't traced every wire yet, I spent a lot of time yeterday tracing all the wires in the lighting circuit, so it has to be elsewhere.

Anyone? Thanks