Was out for a pleasant ride this afternoon, stopped for fuel and when I went to hit the button -- nothing. Gone. Battery is brand new, no issues there. Of course I didn't have any tools with me so I couldn't do anything with it. It doesn't have a kicker and so my only option was a bump start which worked just fine. Got it going and rolled it back home to the shop. Not sure what I'll find when I start investigating but what a huge bummer for a beautiful summer day. Anyone out there had a similar occurrence?

 

Just throwing something out but could it possibly be a bare wire somewhere causing a short and tripping the breaker?

 

I would check the ground wire off of the starter relay if it has one. Those older bikes had the relays on the bottom of the battery box. they probably need a ground wire due to the rubber mounts?

 

I appreciate the suggestions fellas. I'll get to it sometime this weekend and report back with the results.

 

When I bought my 67, the starter button did not work. Ended up with three issues related to the starting system: one starter button wire was toast, two of the fours wires from the ignition to rear terminal plate harness shorted out (looks like from the factory it was too tight going into the terminal box), and lastly my neutral switch was dead (it is directly tied into the starting system.

Before disassembling your nacelle or getting the coil off to check for continuity on those related wires, I would do the easy thing first i.e., pull the neutral switch and test it. There is a procedure in the manual that explains it. If you don't have access to one, let us know and I'll post up the info for you.

As mentioned above, if your bike is equipped with a relay there is a ground wire added to the really mount; if not then there is a ground wire running off the voltage regulator.

Last thought does all your other electrical components operate as intended. If so you can most likely rule out the circuit breaker as a culprit (but it still wouldn't hurt to check).

 

Resolution has been reached. Turns out the starting issue may have prevented a very large issue. Let me explain. When I stopped for fuel and the button was dead, I put it in neutral and walked it over to a parking space so that it was out of the way. One of two things happened at that point. I KNOW it was in neutral because I walked it 50 feet from its starting point but what I'm not certain of is if by "blue" dash light was on because I was in direct noon-sunlight and it's not the easiest light to see. So either I didn't have it in the "right" neutral spot or my neutral switch was faulty. Either way, I know damn well it was in neutral. I bump started it and got it back to the shop. When I got there, the battery box was HOT. Let it sit for a while thinking that it was because of sitting out in the sun and whatnot. Came back a half hour later, battery box still hot. Started checking some voltages and found that the regulator wasn't regulating. Voltage out of the Cycle Electric regulator (brand new) was 21V. I've got a sealed battery on there and I believe the overcharging caused an internal short in the battery. New regulator was ordered, new batter ordered and it'll be back on the road. Pretty scary to find that battery so hot!

So the small issue caught the big issue before it became a large issue. All is good now.