Turned on the ignition and 'rs no dash lights or power anywhere. Clicked the kill switch on & off and power came back on... hmmm weird dodgy switch obvs. Filled him up at the gas station and when leaving it momentarily cut out but came back on song so off we went.... To cut a long story short it died completely 20 miles from home and after a 10 minutes of checking fuses switch etc I finally got power back after fiddling with the loom to the ignition switch. Started him up quick and made it home and after removing the wiring connector blocks plastic cover saw this. To be cont...
Looks like corrosion in the terminal has caused resistance creating heat, melting the wire insulation and damaging the connector. 12 way Molex connectors are available from Kojaycat. You will need a tool to de-pin the old connector.
The burnt out wire is the main feed from the battery to the ignition switch. Now, I completely rewired the bike during it's recommission and used 'Mate N Lok' connector blocks that didn't look a great deal less substantial than the OEM fitment. I admit I didn't check their current rating and have subsequently discovered they are around 10A per pin pair. The Grey/Black wire next to it is the return feed from the ignition switch which survived unscathed so was it overloading the pin or, as Derek has suggested, corrosion and/or a faulty crimp from myself. I'm suspecting a little of both. I followed exactly the same wiring routing as oem which strikes me as a little over complex as the main feed leaves the main fuse, doubles back to behind the connector, through the connector and up to the ignition switch. The return then goes back down through the connector block and terminates on the other two fuses. To be cont...
So the solution was to replace only the ignition switch power feed & return wires and terminate them on their respective fuse(s) - the grey/black does have an inline connector so the ignition switch can be removed. This, of course, saved the hassle of having to remove & replace all of the pins & the block it self. As a matter of interest I looked up the current rating of spade connectors and from what I could find a standard 6.3 mm one is around 15 amps. Which is the same rating as the OEM bullet connectors in the ignition switch and the two individual 8A fuses. So why the need for a 25A main fuse To be cont...
When I first put the bike back on the road it was a one button press starter but lately it hadn't been the best. Requiring a few turns accompanied by the occasional pop & bang etc before it caught. And once it had caught it sounded like it was flooded before it started to rev cleanly. I had messed about with the carbs thinking that was where the issue lay. When I switched the ignition on the first thing I noticed was a much brighter neutral light plus it was back to an immediate one press start. This is looking good so lets take him out for a run. Whoa.... the bike was running so, so, much better. Quicker to rev (all relative in a bevel mind) & honking along pulling harder & sharper across the whole rev range. Racy down changes from 5th to 4th and pitching it in were an absolute hoot. I ended up having one of those perfect rides with a clear run on favourite sub dappled swooping bends, old men stopping and turning round to look, children in pushchairs excitedly paddling their feet and smiling, young maidens removing their under garments and throwing them in my path.... well perhaps not the latter but you get the idea So I suspect the connection had been getting gradually worse for some time but what started the rot I wouldn't like to say although the smart money is probably on the quality of my original crimp.
I so understand the « perfect ride » feeling… I had one of those this morning. What will be the next bug? I wonder…
The Darmah uses a very similar wiring as the Pantah which because of the routing of the supply from the battery going through the fusebox main fuse, a multi pin connector to the ignition switch, then back through the same multi pin connector to fuse box where it goes through another fuse, then through another connector to the kill switch then finally back through that connector to the connectors to the ignition modules. Consequently, with all the resistance built up the voltage to the coils suffers. The diagram below shows how I used a relay to shorten that path considerably and improved the voltage available to the coils and ignition modules on my 500SL.
Nice - and pretty much how all 'modern' bikes are wired up. Strangely, in the case of the Darmah, the kill switch feed piggy backs off the ignition switch return feed multi pin connector to a 3 pin connector, up to the switch, back down through the same 3 pin connector & then off to the coils & ignition unit i.e. it doesn't go through it's own fuse. In my case I have a Sachse ignition fitted but doubt that would make a huge difference in current draw although it can survive on a reduced 7.5v. And as a funny aside I also replaced two other electrical components, the kill switch assembly & the indicator relay. The former initially worked intermittently & needed adjustment and the latter failed with 3 weeks. So much for progress...
