Hi - brought my 850 Commando back to life (at last!) after it had a few electrical gremlins back in 2004 (backfiring and then loss of spark altogether). Thought it was Boyer related so replaced a few items that a friend had surplus (new coils, Boyer 'box') and fixed kill switch (which had broken). Replaced all oils, cleaned out carb, got a newish battery from same friend and kicked away. The bike started in about five kicks and ran faultlessly, couldn't be happier.
A week later, go out in the garage to start the bike again to go for a quick ride and no electrics - no lights, horn, blinkers etc , all that worked was the Parking position on the ignition switch. Checked battery and still giving out 12.3V. While testing battery performance, I also noticed that while the ignition switch was on, the negative battery terminal got very hot to the touch. Thought it may have been bad contacts or suchlike in the ignition switch so bought a new switch and installed - no change.
So I assume I have a short somewhere, but, can anyone hazard a guess why that could happen? After all, the bike had just been sitting there for a week, doing nothing, after running perfectly. Any idea where to start looking? I'm an electrical dolt so tracing the whole wiring loom probably isn't a suggestion I can carry out!
Many thanks
Ken
A week later, go out in the garage to start the bike again to go for a quick ride and no electrics - no lights, horn, blinkers etc , all that worked was the Parking position on the ignition switch. Checked battery and still giving out 12.3V. While testing battery performance, I also noticed that while the ignition switch was on, the negative battery terminal got very hot to the touch. Thought it may have been bad contacts or suchlike in the ignition switch so bought a new switch and installed - no change.
So I assume I have a short somewhere, but, can anyone hazard a guess why that could happen? After all, the bike had just been sitting there for a week, doing nothing, after running perfectly. Any idea where to start looking? I'm an electrical dolt so tracing the whole wiring loom probably isn't a suggestion I can carry out!
Many thanks
Ken