who's good with electrical issues?

Hi Guys
I had a weird problem that I think is electrical related happen...
at a stoplight twice today, the engine just started cutting out, (no matter how much throttle I would give it, it would idle fine, so under load it was cutiing out) the tach was kinda jumping around crazy, and the "Tail light bulb is out", "warning light" came on too, so I just shut it off and waited a few minutes, started it up and it drove fine the rest of the way.

(I've got plenty of fuel in the tank)

thanks in advance
Rob

 

What year/size is it? Doesn't sound like r/r to me, so much as it sounds like what happens to a mid-80s model when there's a loose wire in one of the spark boxes, or a crack in the fuse block.

 

I agree 100% with elizilla. These old bikes tend to have loose/corroded electrical connections. Go over the bike and ensure every connection is good and coat with diaelectric grease. Pay special attention to the coils and battery/frame ground connections.

If you haven't done so, replace the fusible link with an inline blade fuse holder. Here is a pic when I did it to my old Magna:

 

it is a 84 Interceptor, also, the battery is only a few months old.

it was wierd, because after I let it set for 30 min, I still had to drive home, it's a 18 mile drive, and it drove fine ???

I will go over all of the connections though, as suggested

thanks guys
Rob

 

Look for little green grounding wires that screw to points on the frame, and make sure they're clean and tight.

Find the fuse box, pull out the fuses, and look at the thing they go into. Look for cracks, corrosion, and that the fuses are held tightly.

The tach runs off just one bank of cylinders, and you say the problem includes the tach needle going wacky. So whatever is causing your problem is on that bank. If you don't find a loose wire, and you want to test whether it is a spark box, you can switch the spark boxes and see if the problem recurs without the tach symptom. If you successfully move the problem, then you have a bad sparkbox and it's the one the tach depends on.

 

thanks elizilla, sounds like you know your stuff,
I'll try all of your suggestions.
what puzzles me is it's running just fine now
oh well.
thanks
Rob