Troubleshooting guide My motor is sputtering and backfiring between idle and 3k rpm. I also was riding home last night and I lost all electrical power on the bike and the motor shut down. I just replaced the battery and I am thinking that the negative battery terminal wire is broken and not making a good connection and causing these issues. I ran the bike at idle for 20 minutes with no problems at all, then I started to ride home and in the 3.5 miles home the bike died with loss of everything electrical. So I pulled over sat there for a minute or two and then I had power again, fired the old girl up and started riding again. Made it home safely. it is a 1996 Harley dyna super glide. any help would be great. I am going to start by replacing my negative battery cable.

Thank you for the responses. It turned out to be a rather simple fix. although not the best fix. I have three wires going in to a connector under the seat. I am guessing this was done when they put the apes on my bike and had to redo the harness. These wires became exposed when the electrical got old and slip up and away from the the back of the connector and my negative battery cable was also pushed up against the frame right at the connector, which caused some more exposed wires due to electrical tape failure. I have gotten a longer cable and routed it differently through the frame. I for now until I have some more times on my hands have just re-taped the three wires, but I did do them individually before cocooning them up for extra protection. To be honest this was kind of a fun problem to troubleshoot. Some of the other symptoms where as follows. 1) even after being warmed up the bike was sputtering in the rpms below 3000. 2) would lose all power to the bike (only when actually being ridden, if i was just sitting there idling (because i ran for 20 minutes at idle) the bike would run fine) I have taken it on a 60 mile round trip and back and forth to school since and "Harriet" is running just fine. I thank everybody again for your help. Thank you for the responses. It turned out to be a rather simple fix. although not the best fix. I have three wires going in to a connector under the seat. I am guessing this was done when they put the apes on my bike and had to redo the harness. These wires became exposed when the electrical got old and slip up and away from the the back of the connector and my negative battery cable was also pushed up against the frame right at the connector, which caused some more exposed wires due to electrical tape failure. I have gotten a longer cable and routed it differently through the frame. I for now until I have some more times on my hands have just re-taped the three wires, but I did do them individually before cocooning them up for extra protection. To be honest this was kind of a fun problem to troubleshoot. Some of the other symptoms where as follows. 1) even after being warmed up the bike was sputtering in the rpms below 3000. 2) would lose all power to the bike (only when actually being ridden, if i was just sitting there idling (because i ran for 20 minutes at idle) the bike would run fine) I have taken it on a 60 mile round trip and back and forth to school since and "Harriet" is running just fine. I thank everybody again for your help.