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There is no good title, so I'll try to explain.
So the bike is running fine. Get out on the road and the Speedo goes dead as well as the bike. The ignition switch wasn't working at all. No power to the bike in the ON position or the accessory position. I trailer home and try to troubleshoot later that evening. My first thought is a bad ignition switch. So I unplug the switch and ohm it out. seems to be working fine to me. Here is where it gets weird. After plugging in the ignition switch, I get an engine light and the headlight is super dim for a second and those lights quickly fade out completely. I fiddle with the switch for a bit and eventually turn to the on position and I have full power. I tap the starter button and lose all the juice to the front of the bike. I do this twice and the same results. So I am in a quandary of what to check next. all fuses are good BTW. I did not look into circuit breakers or anything of that nature. Anybody else have this type of issue?
I have a buddy that had issues with his ignition switch on the same year and model bike. My train of thought is saying ignition switch, but at the same time I checked the switch and it seems to be working. I did attempt to tie the red, red/grey, and red/black wires on the ignition wiring harness on the back of the ignition harness to see if I would get power (this would mimic the switch being in the on position). I did so with my multi meter leads and did not get any lights on the speedo or headlights. This leads me to something after the ignition switch. I just don't know where to go next.
Just to be thorough, did you check, even just grab and try to wiggle all battery cable connections, and main ground lugs?
Assuming those are good, there is only so many things that can 'kill' the whole electrical system, bad battery connections, circuit breaker (which generally would not 'dim' anything, they are either on or off), or your ignition switch. When you say you tested ignition wires, which ones did you jump, and did you try this through your meter, or just by using the leads somehow? I don't have a book in front of me, but Red is main power, Red/Gray and Red/Black are Ignition or Accessory (again, can't for the life of me remember which is which).
So, instead of multimeter leads, find a piece of wire, or even a heavy paper clip ( DO NOT TRY TO START BIKE IF EITHER ONE OF THOSE WORKS, JUST FOR TESTING IF SWITCH IS BAD ), jump the Red to Red/Gray and then Red to Red/Black and see if it works. One will only give you accessory power up, so no headlight, basically just your tail light and odometer light will indicate, the other should turn on everything you're used too seeing when in Ignition.
Just to be thorough, did you check, even just grab and try to wiggle all battery cable connections, and main ground lugs?
Assuming those are good, there is only so many things that can 'kill' the whole electrical system, bad battery connections, circuit breaker (which generally would not 'dim' anything, they are either on or off), or your ignition switch. When you say you tested ignition wires, which ones did you jump, and did you try this through your meter, or just by using the leads somehow? I don't have a book in front of me, but Red is main power, Red/Gray and Red/Black are Ignition or Accessory (again, can't for the life of me remember which is which).
So, instead of multimeter leads, find a piece of wire, or even a heavy paper clip ( DO NOT TRY TO START BIKE IF EITHER ONE OF THOSE WORKS, JUST FOR TESTING IF SWITCH IS BAD ), jump the Red to Red/Gray and then Red to Red/Black and see if it works. One will only give you accessory power up, so no headlight, basically just your tail light and odometer light will indicate, the other should turn on everything you're used too seeing when in Ignition.
Crotonrz,
Last night I traced all my battery connections. from the battery to the grounds to the starter. No to say I didn't miss anything, but I traced what I could. Now as far as the switch is concerned. I made a jumper out of wire and 3 female spade connectors. I plugged installed the spade connectors onto the 3 male connectors on the bike (the female plug coming from the ignition switch. When I connected, I had full power to the front end. Meaning headlights, dash lights, as well as tail lights. I hot the start switch just to see if it would bump over and immediately lost all power as soon as the starter solenoid kicked. So right now I am contemplating a battery. I pulled the battery and am going to see about getting it checked out. It is only a year old and has a 2 year warranty. I am getting 13 volts out of it, but that shouldn't necessarily mean that I couldn't have lost a cell. That is assuming it is like a lead acid battery. If it isn't the battery, I will start retracing wires.
I know this is old, but I just had this same issue tonight. For anyone else who has this problem, it is usually the three, female spades in the plug on the ignition switch side.
The females lose tension and cause loose connections and it makes the bike go absolutely apeshit, with gauges and lights going on and off and the motor shutting off and no starting and it even somehow drains the battery rather quickly to the point it cannot run the starter. If you can grab the harness where the plugs meet, wiggle it and see your headlight flicker, dim and get brighter, this is your trouble.
My solution was to depin the females, and use a small pin to bend their spring back into position to apply tension when plugged in. This picture is not the best, but if you look closely, you can see what to bend in order to restore tension, and if you look into the plug with the females in it, you can easily see if they are in need of adjustment.
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