does anyone know how difficult it is to remove and clean the contacts in the ignition switch on an 03 RK Classic? I have a new one ordered from Harley and its going to take two to three weeks for them to get it back as they are going to make sure the keys are the same as what I already have now. The iginiton looks like it is held in with four screws to the console but once I have it out what do I do? I have to wiggle and giggle it to get it to start and im told that its caused by dirty and or cooroded contacts.

randy

 

Don't know if this will help? Go to the Frame: Electrical switches with circuit brakers and it gives a diagram of the switch.

http://partsfinder.onlinemicrofiche....UEL%20INJECTED

 

not familiar with your but you may want to spray some DeOxit Gold on the switch and see if that does the trick .... only cost is for can of stuff you'll find plenty of uses for in the future

 

Does one have to tear the switch apart to spray that cleaner in it?

randy

 

Simple....You may need a 5-8 year old kid. grand kids work also

 

Though this is already an old post I thought i'd share my experience today with the ignition switch in my 2001 Heritage Softail Classic.

I had been having an issue with the switch for the past few months: an intermittent bad contact when turning it clockwise to start the bike. The tachometer lamp would lit, and the odometer would indicate the mileage, but the oil pressure or neutral indicator lamps would not, and the bike could not be started. The problem disappeared by forcing the switch clockwise just a little bit further. So I did just that, and was a happy camper until today, when the switch failed completely, and no extra clockwise force would make any difference, and my bike couldn't be started. Luckily this happened at home, so I just left the bike in the garage and went online to do a bit of research. I bought a brand new switch from a shop in Germany (83 euro including shipping).

The thing is that the switch will not be here before 10 or 15 days, and that is a long, long time indeed with my poor bike staring at me motionless, waiting for the cure. So, I decided to take a closer look, and to see if I could fix the switch, even if only temporarily. And here is what I found.

If you are going to do this I did, you should first of all disconnect the battery. It is enough to disconnect the negative (the black cable). Put some insulating tape around the terminal to prevent accidental contact while you work.
I removed the acorn nut (and washer) that holds the tank console against the fuel tank. Placed a towel over the tank to prevent any scratches and turned the console upside down. Here is what I saw:






Next, I disconnected the 3-pole plug, removed those 4 screws and extracted the switch.
To get inside the switch I had to remove a snap ring. It's a good thing to have the right pliers in the toolbox (which I hadn't) to save time and not to damage the ring (which luckily I didn't).




The switch has a number of small parts inside, so I tried to be extra careful not to drop any of them. I also took a few photos to make sure I could put thing together again.
Obviously moisture and dirt had found their way into my switch over the years. It became evident that arcing had happened in one of the contacts, because some of the hard plastic around it had melted. There was rust here and there. In brief, small wonder that contact had been intermittent, and had ultimately failed completely.










I cleaned all the contacts thoroughly with Aladdin's cotton metal cleaner (in Spain it's called Algodón mágico), and I "rebuilt" the best I could the contact where arcing had happened with a sharp knife and a bit of patience. There was melted plastic around that contact because of the arcing, and that had been giving the switch a "scratchy" feeling when turning it instead of the usual neat "clunk". But it was pretty much OK in the end after a bit of cleaning, cutting and filing.




In this picture you can see the results of arcing (most likely because of moisture) in the contact to the right of the photo, which should look like one at the left. And in the end it did, or nearly...
Everything is now pretty clean and looks much, much better:



I also cleaned the other contacts, which are lodged in the plastic ring to the upper right of the photo. That ring turns inside the bigger one (lower left). This is how the smaller ring looks like with all parts in place:




Each of those 3 "tabs" has a small spring underneath to ensure a good contact against their opposite parts.
Well, I put everything back together again, aided by the pictures I had taken, and reinstalled the switch ib the bike, and everything works very well again with no issues. I will of course put in the new switch whenever it comes, but for the time being I am glad to be on the road again. Hope these notes will be of use to someone some day.

Live to ride, ride to live...