Bypassing ignition switch assembly failure

[degoe]

Maybe I’m a bit late to the party. Anyway, I took my ignition apart and now I am missing one of the damn micro springs in there. I re assembled it with one spring missing on one side of the bluegrey/grey connector bar (a new ignition is mega expensive) but on my last drive I had my engine cut out on me. The starter and pump runs ok, just no ignition. After fumbling with the ignition lock I started working again, so I suspect it was due to the missing spring.
As a bypass to this problem Im thinking to just short the wires.
Is it ok to short the grey and grey blue wire together? Is there no risk of battery drain, or other problems?

[The Mighty Gryphon]

The spring that pushes the flint in a BIC disposable lighter may work as a replacement for the one you lost.

[Laitch]

Shorting wires together can be an exciting adventure that's appealing if there's no time for travel but it can lead to burned wiring that's often costly and time-consuming to replace.

The red wire to green wire connection within the ignition switch distributes current to run the engine; losing their connection is more likely the problem. The grey and grey-blue are mostly dedicated to lighting. I suggest you turn the ignition switch to Off, remove it, find a spring to substitute as Mighty Gryphon has suggested and verify that the contacts are lining up correctly with their respective wires according to the position of the switch key. Maybe a watch or clock repair shop—if those exist anymore —would have the spring you need but I've read that certain ballpoint pen springs could be modified to work, also.

All switches like this one and the control switches on the handlebar should be disassembled within a shoe box or some other small confined space to inhibit parts from escaping.

You have entered your Brick's model in your signature; that's a good thing.  Add to that information its year and whether it is naked, an RT, an LT, an RS or a custom, modified Brick because there are variations among models. Let us know which wiring schematics and other resources you are using as reference for this project.

[frankenduck]

The ignition switch on a K75/K100 is a very simple switch.

In the first position it sends power from the red wire from the battery to the gray wire that goes through Fuse 2 to the front parking light and to the BMU to power the tail light.

In the second position it also sends power to instrument backlighting via the gray/blue wire and also to the green wire that powers everything else.

[daveson]

Is it ok to short the grey and grey blue wire together? Is there no risk of battery drain, or other problems?

If you bypass the ignition switch by joining the grey and grey/blue wires, it won't make a difference, unless you turn the key to the park position, which you could consider as an obsolete feature nowadays. If you do want to use that feature, the battery would drain slightly faster than normal cause that would mean the cluster backlights are on as well as the parking lights. But it's usually better to fix a problem rather than to do a bodgie.

Laws vary a bit between countries but many years ago if you parked on the street at night (even if in a parking space, and even if there were street lights) you were required by law to put the parking lights on. This law is no more. In this situation you want to remove the key and you don't need the cluster lights on, so they remained off as a battery saving feature. With the key in park position the red wire supplies power to the grey wire, so the parking lights come on and you can remove the key. Another benefit of the parking lights option through the ignition switch (bypassing the light switch) is to prevent a skylarker from  turning on the headlight to drain the battery.

With the key in the ignition position the red wire supplies power to the green wire, and the grey/blue wire supplies power to the grey wire, so the cluster backlights as well as the parking lights are on. Years ago if riding you were required by law to turn on the parking lights at sunset (via the light switch in park position rather than the key position) and half an hour later you were required to turn on the headlights. Now the law is that you're required to turn on the headlights at sunset, therefore (maybe some exceptions) parking lights aren't required by law for any reason anymore.

 

[degoe]

Thanks for the bic lighter suggestion, will look into it. Currently the bike appears to be working fine since I fiddled again with the ignition, perhaps it was related to something else, time will tell.
My biggest concern was that the missing spring could somehow interfere with the ignition system. Would there for any reason be any effect on that if either of the grey wires is not properly connected?

[frankenduck]

They gray wires only impact minor lighting:

Gray: #2 fuse for tail light and parking light.

Gray/blue: instrument lighting.

A K bike needs neither of them for the engine to run.

[Laitch]

Currently the bike appears to be working fine since I fiddled again with the ignition, perhaps it was related to something else, time will tell.

What do you mean by fiddling with the ignition? If you didn't replace the missing spring, this problem is likely to be recurrent and i happen again in an inconvenient place.

You need a wiring schematic for your Brick so you can understand which wires do what. There are some downloadable here.