Starting

• Basics
  • With the Kill switch in the RUN position, and the Ignition Key is ON the start button is depressed. This will cause the starter to turn the engine and the headlight to go out. As the crank rotates it provokes an electrical signal from the pulsars (under the clutch cover). The pulsars send this electrical signal to the spark boxes. The spark boxes then provide an electrical signal to the coils - which fire and provide spark to the spark plugs via the plug wires.
    • Each spark box controls either the front bank or rear bank of cylinders
    • Each coil controls either the front bank or rear bank of cylinders
    • Usually the yellow wire from the coil controls the tach
      • You can swap the spark box's or the coil's position and see if the swap affects your tach
    • Some bikes only have one spark box
• Kill Switch
• Ignition Switch
  • Symptoms: The key sometimes will not turn on the bike, while riding, the bike will die and wiggling the key brings it back to life, the key is hard to turn
    • As the switch ages, the contacts on the bottom may get corroded or lose their contact.
    • To repair, remove the ignition from the bike.
    • Using the key, turn the ignition between off and on.
    • Push in on the tabs on the side and you can now remove the bottom.
      • Careful, as springs and steel balls are in the bottom
    • Clean the corrosion and be sure to lube with dialectric grease before re-installing
    • If this does not fix the problem, an aftermarket ignition switch may need to be purchased
      • The aftermaket usually does not have the "Park" feature the OEM does. This is not an issue.
      • To prevent your bike from requiring two keys (one for new ignition and one for gas cap/helmet holder), have one side of a blank cut for the ignition switch and the other side cut for the gas cap/helmet holder. The OEM is cut on both sides only for convenience.
• Start Button