Intermittent Nightmare

I was out on the bike (2003 Super Glide Sport) and 10 minutes into the ride the bike sputtered and lost all power, like someone turned off the ignition. Thinking I had a loose battery cable I went home picked up some tools, cables looked good, turned the key and power was back. From there rode straight to the dealer. Next day the mechanic said he couldn't re-create the problem but noticed the circuit breaker tripped 7 times, but didnt shut off the bike. He recommended we replace the breaker as a starting point to see if that was the problem. Needless to say, that was a couple of week ago and it happened again tonight. Was on the side of the road, after about 15 minutes it came to life again. One thing I did notice today before I left was that when I turned the key, my odometer numbers were gone. Once I started the bike they came back. It was like an omen. So something is shutting down my bike, when it sits awhile it runs again. I was thinking that maybe something heats up, trips the breaker, and after awhile it resets. But I have no clue. Any suggestions to what may be causing this? I need to bring it back in, but would like to offer some suggestions before the service hours start racking up $$.

The main breaker will reset itself after it cools down in 1 to 5 minutes. It sounds like this is what's happening and the main breaker is doing what it is designed to do.

I had this problem last year and I think my problem was the main breaker was loose or there was a loose connection somewhere. The loose connection was causing the breaker to overheat.

Thanks for the tips... if there are anymore thoughts out there, please let me know. I am going to have them all investigated.

Phil

Breaker tripping usually indicates a short somewhere. Have you recently done anything to the bike?

This happened to me when I had my 2003 Sportster. I can't remember the name of the part ( will look into it later), but it was a plug in module that HG said often goes after 5 years. It's where the little round "5" is, right smack in the middle of the engine.

Thanks Hellboy.

Your help is appreciated. Being a 2003 Dyna, maybe its the same issue. Thanks for checking on the part.

Last year I had to have the postive battery cable replaced. That was the last work that was done prior to the problem occuring.

This may not make sence, how do you turn the engine off? If you turn the engine off with the key switch it goofs up the electrical system. I'm not sure why but it happens. You should always use the kill switch.
A couple guys I used to ride with had almost identical bikes. One guy used the key, the other the kill switch. The guy who used the key had lots of electrical trouble. Replaced the speedo and tach, various sensors. I think he even changed the computer once.
The other guy never a problem.
I think it has something to do with power surges. I don't know for sure.
I use my kill switch to stop the engine and when I turn the key on I wait until the speedo readout comes on. No problems since i bought it new. It's an '03 Super Glide Sport.