Following this advice, the light didn't come on in any of the 6 pins going to the right handle bar, or with the wire from the coil.

 

Both battery cables must be connected to the battery when performing this test, I failed to mention that in my post...sorry..

 

Yeah, I figured as much. I tested the 6-pinned plug and the wire to the coil with the kill switch in both positions and got no light from the test light.

 

I'm not clear on how to continue. I know that if the test light is hooked up to the positive terminal and I test isolated wires, the light will come on if the circuit is completed to the negative battery terminal through the frame. But since the light didn't come on with the plug disconnected, how do I test the wires before the plug? When I check them, the light comes on for three of them. But they should because they're already leading back to the negative terminal, right?

By the way, the three that light up are the ignition wire (white w/black stripe), right turn signal (white w/brown stripe), and the brake light (red w/orange stripe).

Just for kicks, I decided to test the left handlebar controls, and the wire to the headlight did light the test light. But it should light it up since it's grounded to the frame and the test light is just completing the circuit that the plug would have, correct? Also, it's a custom LED light bar that I installed on my own, but it was installed over a year ago and has never given me a problem.

Any ideas on where/how I should proceed?

 

To check a wire for a short to ground, both ends of the wire must be disconnected, so the only way for the test circuit to be complete is through a short to ground.

You said that the breaker trips when you turn the kill switch on, so that means the short to ground is somewhere after the kill switch. Either the wiring between the kill switch and the start switch, or between the kill switch and the coil/ignition module.

Even though you did not see a short when you tested with the light, it could still be in the handlebar wiring, it could be that the bare wire was not touching ground when you tested...

Have you pulled the cover off and looked at the wiring in the cam cover? I`m not familiar with the way these aftermarket ignition systems are wired...

I suggest you call Sucker Punch and try to get a wiring diagram.

 

I have reassembled the handlebars and can't recreate the problem. It no longer trips the circuit breaker when in the "RUN" position. I'm guessing that's where the short is, so I'll be pulling all of the switches out and inspecting the solder in order to repair it.

I have only pulled off the inspection cover to give me access to the wires, not the entire cam cover. I'll make that my goal for tomorrow night. However, in order to test everything now that there's no short interfering, I tried to start the bike and she doesn't seem to have any spark. It's a brand new coil so I highly doubt that's the problem. If the ignition module(?) did get fried, would that prevent juice from reaching the coil? I know that it can effect timing, but I don't think the timing being off, even drastically so, would prevent spark. When I try to turn the bike over, the engine sounds like it's turning much faster and I can smell gas almost immediately. I'll contact Dynatek to see if there's a way to test it, but by the look of the wires I'm thinking its a safe bet it's bad. If it were my problem from the start, it would still be creating a short, right?

And I did email Sucker Punch to ask for a wiring diagram and haven't heard anything back yet. My local dealer has stopped carrying their bikes and told me they went out of business, but the website is still up and I'm keeping my fingers crossed. But I'm also making my own wiring diagram in the hopes that I can save myself headaches down the road.

One last question. Every diagram I looked at showed the ignition system on it's own breaker like you stated earlier. Should I install another 15A circuit breaker and route the ignition through that while I have everything accessible? This is the first problem I've had in two years since I bought it, but that may have just been luck. lol

Dan, I want to thank you and all of the others who have taken the time to Answer my questions. This is exactly what I had hoped to find within this community, and I cannot thank you all enough for the help you've given me in trying to resolve this.

 

I think that is a good idea.

 

Okay, the new ignition module is on order so I want to go through my connections at the switches in the right handle grip, specifically the kill switch wires. I've removed the housing that holds the kill switch and start button, but I'm afraid to pry it open for fear of breaking it and having to buy a whole new assembly. Is there some trick to it? Or am I just overlooking something?

 

I had a similar problem a couple years ago when my bike died out in the Nevada desert on my way to Tonopah. It was August and hot, not a good time or place to break down.

It wouldn't even crank over, just dead.

I took the right hand tank off and checked the wiring and everything looked good.

With my test light I could tell there was power at the frame end of the gray wire going to the kill switch, but no power reaching the switch.

A couple years earlier, I put a set of 14" apes on my bike, and had to extend the wiring harness.

Being a mechanic, I wanted to do a good job of it, so when I spiced in some longer wires, I neatly soldered them together, then put a small heatshrink on each solder connection. Then I put a bigger heatshrink tube over the all the wires like a harness. Everything looked nice and professional.

Then when I broke down in Nevada, and found there was no power getting to my kill switch, I cut open the harness and the heatshrink on my solder connection on the gray wire, and the wire was broken off under the heatshrink right beside the solder joint.

I then cut open all the other heatshrink joints and several other ones were on the verge of breaking off and were only connecting by a couple of strands of wire.

I learned my lesson that day, that I will never solder another wire on my bike or anything else that has vibration,

Just from the heat of soldering, the wire right beside the solder joint get brittle and will snap off. The solder joint holds fine, but it makes the wire brittle right beside the solder joint.

Now I only use crimp connectors. I use the kind that has the built-in head shrink on them with glue on the inside. These give you a permanent connection that has strain relief and is waterproof.

I have had heated discussions with guys that don't agree with me about soldering, but I've learned my lesson the hard way.

When you buy a new vehicle, you won't see any solder joints, and a friend who is a aviation mechanic says they crimp everything too, as well as marine applications.

Those that say they have had problems with crimped connections either (A) don't know how to crimp properly, or (B) bought a cheap a$$ed crimping tool.

I would like to hear your take on this TwiZted, you've been around the block.

Here are the connectors I use now.

 

I went through hell and back to get there, but I am back on the road. I got to ride for about 3 hours last night and had no issues at all but no brake lights. I'm guessing I made a small mistake in there somewhere while I was putting the wiring harness back together, so I need to chase that down. But that should be an easy enough fix.

My issue, however, was not my kill switch but a very small exposure in the insulation that ran to my ignition module. I'm guessing that was why she only tripped the breaker in the run position. But she is fixed, and I can't thank you all enough for your guidance and advice. I hope I don't need to ask for help again any time soon, but it's nice to know that if/when I do, I know I'll get the help I need to get.