Flyinfool

The JB Weld on the switch should be set up by tomorrow night and I can then put it all back together and head out for a 60 or so mile test ride. I may be doing a lot of 60 mile test rides in the next week. If it is not the switch, then I will have to make and install an idiot light board. It will be a small circuit board with a bunch of LEDs, each one connected to some part of the circuit. I will then be able to tell in real time which part of the circuit is going out. But this is a PITA to implement. The thing that really surprised me through this whole ordeal, was that being in a rest stop parking lot with half the fairing off and scattered every where, in the whole day only one person asked if I had a problem. That one person happened to have a chunk of cable big enough and with the right terminals to make the jumper for jumping the solenoid. There were many bikers that just walked past looking at the show. I don't know if I just looked like I had it under control or was already in deeper than what anyone thought they could possibly help with.

Its been a few years, but I thought that those were shoulder bolts to hold on the valve covers...... They have been known to snap off if over tightened while trying to stop a leak.

Well after my "interesting" ride home from MD, I have finally started in on the bike. I am writing this up to give an idea of one way to track an intermittent issue. I never went to the school of "Throw money into new parts untill the issue goes away" First the symptoms. At random times while on the interstate the engine would shut off. Some times it was just a barely detectable hiccup, other times it would kill long enough to coast from 75 down to 60 mph. Of course if it did a kill thing at lower speed the engine would be stop all together. When the engine would kill the tach would drop to zero, even though it was still in gear and momentum was spinning the engine. With every tiny little hiccup the cruise would kick out. When the engine did die because I was going to slow for momentum to keep spinning it over, the starter would not engage to attempt a restart. It seemed to get worse with the distance of any single leg. When I would leave a rest stop it would be perfect for 25-30 miles, it would then start with an occasional hiccup, by 30-35 miles it was getting near the point of hard to continue. Fortunately that is also about the same distance as the rest stops along the interstate. At least I never got stranded along the side of the road, I was always able to limp into the next rest area. A few times coasting with no power. So now I know that I have an intermittent issue, that I believe is electrical. If it was fuel related the tach would not drop to zero with the engine spinning. What I did while on the way home; Bypassed the side stand switch. Removed the side stand relay. Added a jumper to run the starter motor when needed. After a lot of studying of the wiring diagrams I determined that there are only 2 components that could cause all of these symptoms. First is the ignition fuse, it supplies power to all of these circuits. Second is the kill switch, which when open turns off the ignition, the cruise, the tach and disables the solenoid. I have also determined that it is not one of the safety systems. None of them have the ability to disable the starter, just the ignition. Then there is the dreaded third option, an intermittent bad wire or dirty connector somewhere in that same circuit. So this is where the journey begins. I started by inspecting the fuse panel. I do have an AGM fuse panel in place and the contacts in the fuse holder have good tension and are clean. I then went right for dissembling the kill switch. The contacts have a slight discoloration to them but not bad, and some old dried grease, again not bad. It did not look near bad enough to cause an issue. But stranger things have happened. The next thing I noticed, well actually it was the first, but there is a small piece of black plastic (pic of it in my hand) was floating around in there. It fell out as I opened the switch to expose the contacts. After some head scratching I determined that it is from the top of the black triangle that the wires attach to. it is the pivot point for the switch rocker. Me thinks we might just have a smoking gun here. If the switch rocker is able to move around it could lose contact and turn things off. So now I get to start hunting for a new kill switch plate. In the meantime I will attempt a temporary repair of this one till I find a replacement. The broken switch does not explain why after every rest stop cool down all was good for the next 20 or so miles then it would start acting up again. I think there may be more issues. But I will Repair or replace anything faulty that I find while working on this. To this end I am going to install a temporary over ride switch that will put battery power direct to the TCI, and disable the safety systems so that during testing, if it should cut out and not want to come back, I am not stranded somewhere. I will also wire in a push button switch direct for the solenoid, again bypassing all of the safeties. Once I isolate and fix the problem ALL systems will be returned to normal with all safety systems in place and functioning.

Most people over tighten plastic ties. Over tightening will cut wires.

I'd rather have :snow2: :snow2: :snow2: SNOW!!!

If you had hid all of the frying pans from the warden BEFORE you mentioned the Idea of another 1st gen rescue mission, your brain might not hurt so bad. You might have gotten off with a light concussion instead of a brain injury.

You have to remember that there is a big difference between a static load and a dynamic load. It is easy to pull 4-5 Gs going over a bump. That 20 lb load just became 100 lbs.

If you can get me some approximate dimensions of what you need/want I can do some more dumpster diving for scraps. You will have to do your own forming and drilling.

Its not a 1st gen Venture motor, It is a 1st gen V Max motor going in there.

A cloth measuring tape like what tailors or dress makers use works well for measuring around corners and not scratching the paint.

Unfortunately, money sowing up in your PP account is not as good as gold. A popular scam on PP/eBay is to buy something, pay for it with PP, once the scum receives it, they immediately file a PP claim stating that the item is not as advertised, or defective or some other lame excuse, they tell PP that they just want their money back, so PP tells them to return the package, they send you back an empty box, or a box of rocks to get the weight right, just for the tracking info. as soon as PP sees that the tracking says delivered to you, PP then refunds their money from your account. If you have already removed the money from your account, they will take it from your credit card or bank account or where ever else they can find it. In a dispute PP is most likely to side with the buyer. I never heard of this on a vehicle, but then I never looked for it either.

To help avoid the swirls, always wipe straight up and down only, use a micro fiber cloth and never use a dirty cloth. I use a cloth only for 1 cleaning and then it goes in the wash.

If no one fell for it they would not keep doing it. They are getting a good ROI.

All those great pics and none of the dreaded pond monster.

Not all bad memories for sure. Once home and safe in bed I can look back and chuckle at what some other travelers saw. Did I ever mention that I hate Chicago......... I hate Chicago more than Big Tom hates SNOW Actually I was wondering if my eternal wish had been granted and that all of the Chi regulars had been beamed to outer space. Kenosha had more traffic. Maybe they all knew my planned travel itinerary and had given up and gone home figuring they missed me this time. I never seen so few cars on the road. This was even less than at 3am. I'm so confused. Maybe they heard of my troubles and felt sorry for me. With the intermittent engine I was really worried about getting thru Chi and always wanting to be in the very right lane in case the engine shut down and I had to dive for the shoulder. Then there were the road destruction areas with nowhere to go.

If nothing else all of the time spent in the rest areas gave me a lot of time to eat ice cream. The Ice cream was for medicinal purposes, to help me cool down.......

That has always been a popular CL scam. I now always put a disclaimer in all of my CL adds as part of my contact info, "Scammers, I know your games so don't bother" Most must read it and move to the next add, I get very few scam responses since I started this, I used to get many for every add.

ANY dealer that can diagnose a toasted motor BEFORE it gets there (unless you mention something obvious like a rod sticking out the side of it) is one to never speak to again. There are a lot of small things that can make an oil leak and/or a no start. Especially after sitting 3 years.

If you are measuring a short to ground on both sides of the fuse and there is no smoke coming out of anything or the main fuse blown. Then their may be something wrong with your meter or how you are using it.

Thanks for all of the well wishes and advice. I left Dons at 8:am and got home at 10:15 pm to cover 425 miles, that made for a trip average of 29 mph. The good news is that there was a nice tail wind and I got 36 MPG pulling the trailer with the cruise set at GPS 75 for most of the trip home. When the bike was running it ran great. I will start a separate thread on what I go thru trying to diagnose and fix this the right way. I haven't revisited the schematics or the bike yet, but the number of things that had issues is leaning me to start by checking all of the grounds. I forgot to take a pic with the left faring apart in the rest area. It looked like a bomb went off in the bike, I had parts everywhere, But then my mind was more on getting home. Through all of this there was only 1 person that offered assistance and he was very helpful by having heavy enough cable and connectors to run new power direct to the starter to get it to crank. I was kind of surprised, even many bikers (riding many brands) stopped to look at my debris field but kept walking and never said a word. Maybe I gave a false impression that I looked like I knew what I was doing...... I haven't revisited the schematics or the bike yet, but the number of things that had issues is leaning me to start by checking all of the grounds.

Thanks Don and Eileen, you are wonderful hosts and I really appreciate all of the effort that must go into this event. I had a great time, met a lot of new friends. I have no idea how that might have happened.........

I have never hit the kill switch during any normal activity. I have accidentally hit it while doing other work on the bike like cleaning or pushing the bike around or other maintenance, and it then was the reason for the next no start. If the bike ever does not start that is the very first place I check for the problem, after all it is both the easiest, fastest and cheapest possible fix. I have to ask, do you grip the bar that close to the switch assy that you can accidentally hit it? Just from looking at its location and how I grip the bars, I can not see how I could ever accidentally hit it while riding.

It died one last time about 100 feet from home and would not start again. I separated the trailer and pushed each one the rest of the way home. For now I need my bed. I'll post more later.

Had to make one more stop. I am at the Lake Forest Oasis now. This is about 70 miles from home. Bike is running good once I can get it started. This stop was because it is getting cold, I am tired, it looks like rain ahead, I'm hungry, and i neede a gas stop anyhow. One more start and I am home free in abo ut an hour.

Progress The wiring now looks like what you might get if Rube Goldberg and McGuiver mated. But at least I am now at the last rest area in Indiana. So onc e i get a fill of gas, I have to pull the tank cover and go jumper crazy to jump the ignition and th en jump the solenoid to crank. Fingeres crossed that it starts AND this tank makes it home.