need help

[hotrod40004]

i am new to the harley world rode other bikes now i finally got me a harley i have a 1987 sporster my problem is that it shut down on on a ride. it cranks but no fire to the coils where do i start? lights and every thing else works fine

[slickone]

First I would buy a manual and then check out the coil. If the coil checks out good it may be the ignition module or the ignition sensor behind the cover on the right side of the motor. I assume your wires and plugs are good. Do a seach of this site. I am sure there is much more information available

[Homarr]

Originally Posted by hotrod40004

i am new to the harley world rode other bikes now i finally got me a harley i have a 1987 sporster my problem is that it shut down on on a ride. it cranks but no fire to the coils where do i start? lights and every thing else works fine

Your problem is punctuation.
It shut down while riding? Hmm...I've ridden with a dead battery before, so dead the lights all went out, but the engine never quit. You sure it's an electrical probelm? I can't resist saying it: check the gas tank.

[James]

I've read that the newer model Sportsters have been known to have problems with the bank angle sensor which is supposed to shut off your bike if it gets laid over. I don't know if your bike has one. If it does, supposedly you can use a jumper wire to get it started until you can get it replaced.

[Archon]

HoMarr has a point. A long time ago I had a mysterious engine problem. The bike would fire up but then stall. I had been on reserve tank but when I shook the bike I could hear gas in the tank. I pushed the bike (it was light enough) for several miles till I got it home. I pulled the gas line off the petcock and even with the bike on reserve nothing came out. I had been out of gas and had pushed it for miles past several gas stations never thinking something so simple could be the problem. The gas I had heard sloshing around the tank was below the lowest petcock setting (reserve) but a little would get into the carb enough to fire the engine but then stall. Boy did I feel dumb when I figured this out. Needless to say I always start any trouble shooting process by affirming the presence of gasoline (above the lowest limit of the petcock) .... Of course with EFI and a gas gauge I don't have to worry anymore... I think....

[LouE247]

I had the problem of cutting out while driving down the highway. I thought it could not possibly be out of fuel since I had just fueled up and only had about 60 miles. Come to find out my carb float level was off just enough to overflow. I never noticed it dripping out, until I looked under while ideling. Put 2 and 2 together and realized I was running out of gas. Felt really silly...damn and I thought it was my ignition...was looking forward to having a good reason to but the High-4 ignition.

[Kags]

What ever happen ? What was the problem? Let us know.