FTR won't start

[Unruly Rider]

Friend got stranded today in the refuge, had to call another friend with a trailer to get the bike back to my house. We tested the battery and checked the fuses, all good. Originally we were riding and the display on his ride command went blank. I figured it just needed to be restarted or maybe a loose connection at the plug. When we shut his bike down, it never started back up. We can hear the fuel pump prime when the key is turned to the on position, but the headlight LED ring doesn't stay on, just flashes on for a split second when turning the key to the on position. Tried swapping batteries with a known good FTR battery, also tried swapping relays and the fuses - still no display on the ride command, and no start. At this point we are starting to wonder if it's an electrical short or possibly a circuit breaker causing the issue. He is about 3hrs from home. Anyone have any idea's?

 

[edgelett]

I know you checked the fuses, but do you know if he has had the recall?

 

[Unruly Rider]

I know you checked the fuses, but do you know if he has had the recall?

Yeah, his bike had the recall performed last week.

 

[edgelett]

Yeah, his bike had the recall performed last week.

in that case I'd call his dealer ASAP - could be something they did when they did the service/recall.
never heard of any FTR's with this issue so dealer would be where I'd be going first.

 

[Fattony]

in that case I'd call his dealer ASAP - could be something they did when they did the service/recall.
never heard of any FTR's with this issue so dealer would be where I'd be going first.

Best part is the bike is covered for the first 2 years, unlimited mileage. Dealer would be my first place especially if you had the recall done.

 

[Unruly Rider]

Best part is the bike is covered for the first 2 years, unlimited mileage. Dealer would be my first place especially if you had the recall done.

3hrs from home though, and dealers are closed on Sundays/Mondays. Working on getting a trailer to get him and his bike back home, the nearest Indian dealer is about 100miles from here.

 

[Fattony]

3hrs from home though, and dealers are closed on Sundays/Mondays. Working on getting a trailer to get him and his bike back home, the nearest Indian dealer is about 100miles from here.

Oh, yeah I forget how lucky I am sometimes. I have one 20 minutes away and 3 that are about an hour out. Let us know what they say.

 

[ferraiolo1]

They closed out dealerships due to the virus. Hopefully his aren’t closed yet.
I assume this is our long lost friend mike.

 

[Fattony]

The one closest to me wasnt taking new appointments. I just got the recall done on mine and my girls FTR this past Saturday. Good luck.

 

[K9F]

Wiring diagram and a multimeter and 'ring out' the ignition contacts through the key barrel at the next available loom connector. I suspect and it is just a suspicion that the contacts within the key barrel may have thrown their hand in if all the fuses are good and from the basic symptoms you describe? After all before the lights go out as you turn the key all appears good up to that crucial point.

 

[Murdock]

Sad to read this ... and I had a similar sad story too with different symptoms but bigger impact. I open a separate thread to collect information about dying engines.

 

[Unruly Rider]

MikieG emailed me this yesterday and asked that I post it up as it might help someone else in the future. Glad that the issue with his bike has been resolved.

As some of you know, we had an FTR go dead last weekend on a group ride. This is very interesting as the bike was barely 24 hours out of its second service. So last Sunday afternoon I was stranded in the refuge, a local rider friend of Unruly's called Indian of OKC owner Scott Conway, for advice. Hmm... so this customer has the personal cell phone number to the owner of the dealership? Not only did Scott answer the phone and make some excellent suggestions, he called his tech "wizard" Joe Currier for advise. Then when all else failed, Scott offered to send a truck and trailer 2-hours away to retrieve the dead FTR! Keep in mind, its Sunday afternoon, and Indian of OKC did not sell this bike. I declined the generous offer feeling that 5th Gear in Tulsa had responsibilities here.

So Unruly's local friend brings out a trailer and hauls my FTR back to Unruly's place, the next morning another rider heads 3.5 hrs back to Tulsa to retrieve a truck and a trailer. What a way to kill a Monday! The Tulsa Polaris dealership has my FTR for the next 3-days. The dealer in Tulsa has an awesome salesman named Miles and an accessories manager named Colton. The rest of the service department are highly suspect. Here's why:

#1 - Bike was sold near 1st of October, yet the service rep says the bike has latest mapping from Indian.
#2 - Both oil changes were filled to the top arrow on sight glass (showed over full when off the stand)?!
#3 - After two inspections/services, they failed to notice the wire that feeds the rear lights of the bike was in contact with the chain.
#4 - After having the dead bike over 72-hours in their service dept, #3 still an issue. They were very sketchy about telling me exactly what happened. Eventually the service manager told me it was a 7.5A fuse inside the headlight. But as we exchanged possession of the FTR, he said the fuse was inside the fuse box.

Now I assure you, EVERYTHING in that fuse box was inspected more than once by two sets of eyes. Trust me on this. So I guess service to these guys is simply replace a fuse and send it down the road. As you may have already guessed, the bike made it less than 6-miles down the road before Ride Command blacked-out again. So being done with these clowns, I decided to haul the bike to Indian of OKC.

Fast forward to Friday night. So after getting to Indian of OKC, Scott welcomed me, and the shop stopped everything they were doing to focus on this dead FTR, even though they close in 1 hour. So I tell Joe everything I can about the problem. He says "I plan to start at the tail tidy installation". Literally, 15-seconds later, from 5-feet away, he says, "I see your problem". He spotted the wire way up inside the front of the chain area. That fast! So I pulled the seat and the wire. Sure enough, the chain had diagonally abraded the wires in two places!! Very hard to see, even with the wire pulled out. So he a cuts the affected length of wires out, soldiers in new, shrink wraps, and reapplied the woven harness abrasion armor. And lastly, zip ties the loom to the frame.

While he is staying after to do all of this, Scott has me test riding the Indian Chief and the Scout. At this time they are officially closed remind you. After the staff have gone, Scott and I were engaged in conversation. He is passionate about Indian Motorcycles. He is a 31 year retired GM employee. This guy breathes AMERICAN cars and bikes. He said the difference between OKC and Tulsa dealerships is that OKC is an Indian dealership, whereas Tulsa is a Polaris, BMW, and other stuff dealership. This is why OKC is in the top-10 in the country.
OKC's inventory is so vast, that they have between 10 and 15 FTR's at all times. He disagrees with the notion that FTR is not selling and will be short lived. His commitment to FTR is deep enough that Indian of OKC has a full blown FTR race-team and has the #5 rider in the series!! He has already sold more than fifteen FTR's locally!
Finally two hours after close, I am on my way home.

I am happy to announce that my FTR is back to it's normal nasty self! Even the stalling which will happen 4 times before ever moving, even at 207 degrees!
The new tune will go on next time in. Sadly I will have to drive over an hour to get it done. Indian of OKC for the win!!

 

[ferraiolo1]

Why would he have to drive an hour for the tune to be installed? He can do that from home.

And did he install his tail tidy?

 

[SURLY]

Two hour trip for retune? shit PV3 30 mins done and dusted. Glad to see its a fault caused by the tail tidy not a bike fault.

 

[mark.lb]

I don’t have tail relocation on my FTR but I did go to the garage and check closely with a flash light to make sure there are no loose or dangling wires anywhere near the chain....

 

[SURLY]

Got one on mine so checked to be on the safe side.

 

[Unruly Rider]

Why would he have to drive an hour for the tune to be installed? He can do that from home.

And did he install his tail tidy?

He hasn't purchased a PV3 tuner yet. He is talking about the Indian revision map that helps with the cold start issue. They were supposed to load when he took it in to the Tulsa dealer, but they told him it was already installed... this couldn't be possible as the revision was released sometime AFTER his 500-mile break in oil was removed. He isn't dealing with the Tulsa dealer anymore and will have to come back to OKC in order to get it loaded. I believe he installed his tail-tidy, though I am not sure. The tail-tidy had been on for a few months without issue, I'm just glad it wasn't a serious electrical gremlin.

Two hour trip for retune? shit PV3 30 mins done and dusted. Glad to see its a fault caused by the tail tidy not a bike fault.

Yeah, he still hasn't ordered a PV3 tuner to resolve the mapping issues. I know when I finally tuned mine I was kicking myself for waiting as long as I did. Exactly, glad it was something easy and not something expensive or serious.

I don’t have tail relocation on my FTR but I did go to the garage and check closely with a flash light to make sure there are no loose or dangling wires anywhere near the chain....

I checked my Corbin tail-tidy after hearing about all this, the wires are all routed about an inch or two above the chain and there isn't much slack. But I could see that if I hadn't pulled the wire taunt up and around the tank during the relocation, that there would have been enough to possibly get snagged by the chain.

 

[ferraiolo1]

Ahhhh he wants the new factory update.

My dealer didnt know about the new update ether. So its not really a surprise his old dealer would BS him about that.

 

[Unruly Rider]

Ahhhh he wants the new factory update.

My dealer didnt know about the new update ether. So its not really a surprise his old dealer would BS him about that.

I kinda figured it was something like that, not sure if my dealer in Norman knows about the factory update either.

 

[SURLY]

No factory remap recall in the UK so far (and no circuit breaker recall either) and if I get a remap recall I will be telling my dealer I do not want it installed my bike runs so sweetly with the Dyno Jet canned (cheapskate) map I want it left well alone.