My 2003 flhtcui completely looses power & after abt 3 min comes back on again. has any one run into this?

Question

It happened at least 20 times while I'm riding & I have 40k miles on the bike. Harley has replaced the ign switch but that didn't fix it. It does not make any difference whether it's hot or cold (completely random). I've owned it since new & it started at about 10k miles. I've talked with 1 other rider with the same problem but he said Harley hasn't fixed his either. Has anyone else come accross this problem?

Answer 1

If I read the Harley alphabet correctly, your bike is fuel injected.  Some of the earlier ones had a problem with the check valve in the fuel return line located in the gas tank.  A lot of competant Harley mechanics have missed that one.

Now Magz, lighten up.  I guess you've never heard about the 4 cylinder Gold Wings making dealers rich by frying stators right and left, which requires pulling the engine and leaves the owner with a $1500-$2,000 bill.    Or the crappy cam chain tightener failing on 6 cylinder Kawasaki's and letting pistons hit valves, giving the owner the choice of a $1500 repair job or owning a 950 pound boat anchor.  Don't forget the 2nd gear shift fork on the 1200cc Yamaha Ventures that bends so easily it must have been made out of rubber and leaves the rider with a 4 speed tranny and also requires the engine be pulled and ENTIRELY dismantaled to replace the fork.  Or the cheap-a$$ed shrinking rubber plug in the front angle drive on the Suzuki Cavalcade faling out and letting all the lube drain into the crankcase and then locking up, leaving the rider with an 880 pound bike hurtling down the highway with the rear wheel locked up, many times ending up in the ditch.  And these are just four examples of common problems that occur on highly engineered, high quality Japanese bikes.  I'm sure there are many, many more examples covering every brand ever made.

additional, Yes chopper, good point.  I also remember the first CB750's had a tendency to break drive chains and then wad it up at the front sprocket, busting a big hole in the crankcase.  Those bikes were easy to spot because they had a sandcast crankcase with no serial number whereas the orginal was diecast with the #s.

Answer 2

yea could br the check valve, and on the subject of import foul ups dont forget the kawasaki vulkans that had flywheel problems, or the early starter motor problems that the Yamahas Virago had or the Honda C.B.750 which is famous for blowing head gaskets.And having to pull the motor out of a gixxer just to adjust the valves is ridiculous.because the intake cam wont come out to close to the frame. I love it when I get one of those.

Answer 3

it's a harley, enough said...

If i were to take a guess, i'd say you have a loose connection somewhere

harley isn't so much a motorcycle as it is an amassment of problems that have been chrome plated...

Answer 4

It could be a simple tank vent problem. The next time it happens, try opening the fuel cap and if your power comes right back on, that's the problem. There are so many different things it could be. Have you replaced the fuel lines? A friends Honda did a similar thing and it turned out that the degraded fuel lines inner layer was delaminated and it would intermintantly colapse and partially cut off the fuel supply. It's just one more thing to check.

If you go to www.hdforums.com there will be a lot of guys there who can help. I have used them for advice in the past and they really helped.

Answer 5

Your talking about power to the electrics?I had a dresser that did that and it was the main circuit breaker in the fairing.It was a random thing that would just happen,in a few minutes it would be fine.