Starter switch

[MP]

When the starter switch needs cleaning, is all power off?  My bike will not turn over, battery good, no lights or anything electrical comes on with the key.  Is that what the switch failure does?  Or just the start circuit dead?

MP

[Warlock]

Check the 30 amp fuse in the starter switch. Sounds like it may be bad. That fuse powers all the starting system.
David

[Scott from FL, now in Maine]

If it is the starter switch, you will still get lights in the gages. Most common sign of starter switch trouble is won't start and the headlight doesn't come on. Good Luck   

[Hoser]

MP, unplug the sarter relay behind the rt side cover, it has the fuse on top of it.  /check the fuse first.  It is hard to unplug, when you get it use contact cleaner to spray it, use a blade of some type to scrape the plugs where they go together.  When I got my interstate it had set in a barn for a while, did that, it started right up.  Good luck, Hoser
 

[MP]

I will give that a try.  No lights in gauges, although when I push the starter switch repeatidly, I will occasionally get a quick glimmer of light in the gauges and the idiot lights there, so I am thinking starter switch, not fuse?

MP

[BudMan]

I had the EXACT same problem, including the slight flash when pushing the starter button.  It was not the 30 amp fuse, but rather the socket for the 30 amp fuse.  Same net effect.
Some time in a past life the socket had been mistreated and would not make a good connection to the fuse leg.  This allowed excess heat to build on the fuse to the point that it mis shaped the fuse from the heat. This happened twice, before I realized teh fuse holder was not making a good connection.  I redidi the connection and all has been fine for a couple of thousand miles now.  I intend to replace the fuse block this winter when the weather turns really nasty.  I should do it now, but I can't stay off it long enough! 

[MP]

Thanks for the ideas.  I am in the middle of wheat harvest here, so no time to spend looking.  But first break I get will try out the ideas.  Need to get it going for TAZ's Fall Color Ride Sept 17th weekend!
See you there, hoser (I hope!).
MP

[MP]

Only had a little time to look.
1. 30 amp fuse and plugs on relay look good.
2. 50 amp fuse good.
3. NOTHING when I turn the switch on.  No gauges, lights, etc.
4. Also no power to the fuse block.
5. Does light up a idiot light, but dimly.
6. If Battery tender hooked up, and switch on, oil pressure light will pulse every two seconds, with the tender.

I am thinking maybe I just have a battery that failed quickly?
Has a 3 yr old Yousa.

MP

[Kingbee]

Yup, battery

[R J]

Only had a little time to look.
1. 30 amp fuse and plugs on relay look good.
2. 50 amp fuse good.
3. NOTHING when I turn the switch on.  No gauges, lights, etc.
4. Also no power to the fuse block.
5. Does light up a idiot light, but dimly.
6. If Battery tender hooked up, and switch on, oil pressure light will pulse every two seconds, with the tender.

I am thinking maybe I just have a battery that failed quickly?
Has a 3 yr old Yousa.

MP

More than likely the damn Tender fried another battery,,,,,,,     I fried 3 before I woke up and got a CTECK charger.     

http://www.ctek.com/EN-US/Default.aspx

[MP]

Was not the Battery Tender.  Did NOT have it on.  Just hooked it up after it was dead, thinking I had somehow left a switch on, or my grandson had!  LOL.

I do not leave a tender on.  Just hook it up for a few days a month during the winter when not riding.

MP

[Spirited-6]

Was not the Battery Tender.  Did NOT have it on.  Just hooked it up after it was dead, thinking I had somehow left a switch on, or my grandson had!  LOL.

I do not leave a tender on.  Just hook it up for a few days a month during the winter when not riding.

MP

I leave my TENDER on while the Valk.`s in DRY-DOCK. Never had a problem yet. Using a Walmart tender. Am I asking for trouble ?    I have done this or the last 7 or 8 years.  

[MP]

Put the new Yausa Battery in, and solved the problem.

Never had a battery fail so completely, so fast.  Boom, it is dead.

Bike fires right up now.  Greased the starter relay fuse and connection terminals while I was in there, so that is done too.

See you in PDC, hoser!

MP

[Hoser]

I wish, MP.  With the medical leave I used, plus the Vac for Inzane, I'm gonna have to wait till La Crosse.  Makin good on the local ridin, though. 220 miles Sat. 280 Sunday, 190 Monday, never went to the same place twice, all within 150 miles of home.  Hoser 

[MP]

OK, see you in LaCrosse.  Glad you are getting in local riding.
MP

[fudgie]

Thanks for the ideas.  I am in the middle of wheat harvest here, so no time to spend looking.  But first break I get will try out the ideas.  Need to get it going for TAZ's Fall Color Ride Sept 17th weekend!
See you there, hoser (I hope!).
MP

Wheat harvest? Ours was ready in mid July. Then again I do remember seeing them combine West of Pierre in 08 on the way home from Sturgis. Do they drill it late in the year or what? Just curious.

[MP]

Just the farther north you go, the later it gets.  We have spring wheat here, which goes in in the spring.  Almost all of the wheat south of us is winter wheat, seeded in the fall.  It ripens sooner.

And, it was a wet, cool spring, had a snow in June.  Thank you, GLOBAL WARMING, I am sure it was caused by that.  We are at least 3 weeks behind average.

MP

[fudgie]

Just the farther north you go, the later it gets.  We have spring wheat here, which goes in in the spring.  Almost all of the wheat south of us is winter wheat, seeded in the fall.  It ripens sooner.

And, it was a wet, cool spring, had a snow in June.  Thank you, GLOBAL WARMING, I am sure it was caused by that.  We are at least 3 weeks behind average.

MP

Ok, we do the winter wheat. Sure does look pretty having 1,000 of ac of rolling wheat up there.