Urgent help! GL1200 Ignition switch does nothing!

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I got it fixed this morning. My plan was to run 12 AWG wire from the rotten connector all the way to the VR. When the people I work with (electricans and fellow electrical engineers) heard that they told me to use barrel splices. The reason is that the 12 AWG wire is too large to get hotenough for a good solder joint. (This made me happy becauseI did not want to solder).



When I checked the VR end, the connector was beautiful. Since that still looked good, I decided not to undo the enire harness running from the seat to the VR.



Long story short - I picked up some 14 AWG automotive wire and installed barrel splices in the wires from the alternator to the VR. Since the pigtail coming out of the alternator was not that long, I could not get a good stagger on the barrel splices and used a double layer of heat shrink for chafing protection.



I know - everyone says to solder. Well, if barrel splice are good enough for Navy ships, they are good enough for my scoot. Plus, Idid not use the Radio Shack POS crimp tool and barrels.



I only have two concerns:

1. I forgot to put the cable sheath over the alternator pigtail until after I had crimped on the first length of splice wire. It wouldn't fit so I have the three wires exposed (for now).

2. After heat shrinking the wires under the seat, I wrapped them with electrical tape. And I kind of forgot where the splice barrels were when I routed the harness assembly. Hopefully I didn't put a big bend in the splice ares. We'll see...



BTW, started the bike and measured 14.3-ish volts at the battery. Followed the test from Clymer and verified that the voltage stayed below 15.0 volts with increased engine RPM.



Thanks to all who offered their advice. If I have any more problems, I'll be into the external alternator- I don't have enough wire left from the alternator to make any more repairs.

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Ok, while the alternator connector was definitely bad, I still have a little electrical quirk.



Rode the bike to work today. Once I got home, the wife's car was in the way and I had to I had to park behind it. After about 20 mins, I move the car, put the key in the bike and NOTHING (again). Clock is dead.



Utttered some colorful words, turned the key off, turned the bars to the right to straighten the wheel, try the key again - now it works. Bike starts and I move it into the garage. Quick inspection of the alternator wires show no signs of overheating. Bike will not duplicate



After about 90 minutes later, battery reads 12.7 volts. Bike starts right up and VR holds the voltage at about 15.0 V with increased engine RPM.



Because I lost the clock, Iknow I lostpower from the battery, and I suspect that it was an open in the (+) sideof the battery.



Has this happened to anyone else? I'm not sure who the usual suspectswould be for this symptom.



Thanks in advance (again)for any suggestions.



- Pete

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Over the last few months I would occasionally get no reactions when I turned on the key. No lights, no radio, nothing. I could reach down and nudge the connector coming from the ignition switch into the connector block inside the right side of the fairing, below the dust cover.

This past weekend I went through every connector I could get to and cleaned them, then packed with di-electric grease. After that, my problem got worse. Twice I had the bike shut down while running, once at low speed in the parking lot at work (almost dumped it).

Last night I pulled that connector back out and took a closer look at it. The red wire looked a little burned. On closer inspection, the corner of the connector that contained the red wire was a little melted. I pulled one of my spare old wiring harnesses and found an identical connector, moved all the other wires over and replaced a section of the offending wire along with the spade, cleaned and re-greased the connector. Nudging/wiggling that connector no longer affects anything, everything stays on as it should. Hopefully it will correct the problem.

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The GL1200 Electrical Troubleshooting manual has a really nice schematic of the main power distribution (see attached).



The good news:

I removed the battery and looked at the C103 connector (just downstream of the dog bone fuse). When I took the cover off to look at the fuse, I noticed that the top right corner was all melted and the entire fuse carriage looked a little worn / warped. Note: it may have been like that when I first started haing problems, but it is a black connector, it was at night, and I had really poor light. So I think I found my problem.



The bad news:

The melting had essentially fused the two pieces together. When I tried to take it apart, the whole fuse carriage disintegrated in my hands. So now I am broke - hard. Where do I go to get a new connector and fuse carriage?



Thanks.



- Pete

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The GL1200 had an ignition switch recall. Mine LTD was not in the recall but the switch failed and moving the bars and hitting bumps would make things come and go. I had to repair the ign switch.









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