i wanted to post my recent experience with a faulty ignition switch. This was a very unusual intermittent problem. I would be out ridding and for no apparent reason the bike would shut off. Almost put me down on a moutain road. I pulled the dash panel off to look at the ignition switch and found the problem. While the front of the switch is nice chrome finish when you pull the dash and look at the back side it is a cheap plastic component like so many items on the newer bikes. The back is a pop in cover held in place by four pinch tabs. One tab had broken lose so that only that one corner was not being held tightly against the front part of the switch. You would think this was minor but here is the problem. When you open the switch by removing the back cover you find a disc with the terminal fingers that have to make contact. When the back of the switch cover become lose it no longer applies enough pressure to the terminal fingers to keep them in contact with the front part of the switch. This was causing my issue. A new switch from HD was priced at over $100.00. After market at JP was around $60.00 But i did not want two keys. one for ignition and one for steering lock. Yes you can replace the steering lock to keep them matched but what a pain.
Simple solution was to repair the back cover on my switch so that it stayed tight. I simple used a small drop of glue at the broken point and then used a piece of bailing wire and pulled the back cover down tight to keep it in place. It was a $2.00 repair job and is working fine. Just want to pass this along in case someone else experienced this.

 

Thanks for sharing info on this and your clutch cable lube post! Good stuff.

 

Nice troubleshooting and repair man. Appreciate you sharing it