Issue With Starting My Harley

By Dennis Santopietro

Q: I have a 2004 Harley Electra Glide Classic and I have an issue with starting my Harley. I am not proud to say this, but the bike has been outside for approx 4 months and even now when I had in my garage for 3 – 4 months it still will not start and when removing the plug wire and grounding it, I see no spark. I have checked all the fuses, connectors, those that I can find and found all good. I also cleaned the ground wires where they connect and still no difference. Help Please.

A: First, be sure to start with a known good, fully charged battery. If you are confident that you have no spark, check for stored DTC’S (diagnostic trouble codes ) in your speedo head. If there is an error code, it may steer you in the right direction. If you can find what the ohms reading should be for the primary and secondary of your coil (without spending aprox $60 on the electrical manual for your bike); test your coil. You can often find this information on line, but sometimes have to read through a lot of forums before finding the correct info for your make and model. Another common reason for no spark, on your 2004, is bad crank position sensor.

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18 Responses to “Issue With Starting My Harley”

  1. THOMAS

    1982 fxwg - voltage draw while bike is off. how to test this. new battery

  2. Willis Saewert

    Have 2000 Fat Boy FLSTF, parked bike for about 5 minutes and went to restart and it back fired thru the carb, sounded like a gun went off. Now the bike will not start and ran fine prior to incident...please help!!! Could you also please instruct me on how to get Codes from bike?

  3. RUSSELL

    My 2000 Heritage softail want start no fire after reading and researching.. Coil was good but the knock sensor took out . Got a .01 ac voltage got part ordered.. By researching should had 3.3 voltage... can give me feed back on it ?

  4. Jeff Smyth

    2004 softail won't start. I have power lights come on etc... When I hit start button nothing happens, also no dimming of lights etc.. Checked ignition switch, checked kill switch, checked start switch. I was on the road when I rolled on the throttle it started to misfire. I let off it ran smooth but upon giving throttle it started to misfire again but it quit this time. I have not started it since.

  5. John Jay

    07 Ultri Classic 1yr storded Replaced Gas Oil & Battery pump primes but won't turn over Security System light is on also oil light PLEASE HELP

  6. randalllbonnell

    I have 2012 FLS. I have no spark. I have replaced crank sensor, coil, plugs & wires, still no spark. Every once in a great while I will get a spark at end of cranking when I let off of the start button. What else could it be ?

  7. Dennis

    No help

  8. Ken

    My ultra glide has a code do2 is not clear. I think that means speed sensor. It wont crank. any help out there?

  9. Ron Stanley

    My heritage softail will start every time but when I start it the engine will turn over one time and hesitate for one second and start turning again and will start.

  10. randall

    1987 fxstc no spark replaced coil still no spark