92 K75RT - Electrical / Ignition Switch Issue

[gnebulus]

Hello wonderful people,

I'm currently tearing my hair out over my trusty brick companion. Last fall I went into the garage ready to ride to work and... nothing, no lights on the dash, no fuel pump when turning off the kill switch, no horn, no headlight, just the ever-faithful clock staring up at me.

So I do the basics. Battery is good, fuses are intact, the grounds are still connected. I searched the internet and tried the great advice on previous threads:
- Take the ignition cylinder out and clean the contacts, everything looked great but I did er anyway
- Roll the bike backwards to engage the starter and clean it. This kind of worked to the point where I did get some lights on, but never for more than a couple seconds, and seemed immediately to cease function if I turned the key.
- Took out the starter and cleaned it, this was fun, but unfortunately fruitless.
- The fuses looked and tested fine, but I replaced them anyway
- I cleaned the ignition cylinder again and very carefully re-assembled.

My time budget running dry, I put her away for the winter.

Recently I took her out and started poking around again. I went through the wiring diagrams briefly and discovered that when the key is in OFF, I have 12v between the red contact and everything else. When the Key is ON, I have nothing. I feel like it HAS to be the ignition switch, but I would love to hear opinions.

Thanks!

[frankenduck]

https://www.kbikeparts.com/classickbikes.com/ckb.tech/0.ckb.tech.files/ignition2vclean/ignition2vclean.htm

[daveson]

Spinning the starter backwards helped, but only a little bit. Cleaning the starter didn't help, but the starter brushes might be worn, and too short.

[gnebulus]

https://www.kbikeparts.com/classickbikes.com/ckb.tech/0.ckb.tech.files/ignition2vclean/ignition2vclean.htm

This is the best info on the ignition switch I've seen yet, thank you. This led me to testing the contacts a little further and it turns out all contacts seem to have continuity all the time even while the key is on OFF, so that gets me a good step further.

[gnebulus]

This is the best info on the ignition switch I've seen yet, thank you. This led me to testing the contacts a little further and it turns out all contacts seem to have continuity all the time even while the key is on OFF, so that gets me a good step further.

Entirely possible, I pulled up my pictures of when I took the starter off last year but of course I didn't take pics of the brushes. I'm going to pursue the ignition switch a little more before digging into the starter again

[daveson]

A quick check; do you have 12 Volts at the starter motor terminal with the start button pressed? Yes - then the ignition switch is good and the starter is bad.

[Kaos]

Sounds like a bad/dead/seized relay to me.

[gnebulus]

Well, I've used up all my luck for the summer I think.

I looked at eBay for an ignition switch just to see how much they were and found one for $40 that happened to be a 40 mins drive away. Thought it would be worth a shot, and sure enough she runs again. I've been in that ignition switch so many times either I managed to put it back together the wrong way every time or something was genuinely wrong with it.

Thanks for your help, this is one of the most helpful forums I've ever been on