Kill-switch

Hi guys

looks like I need some expert: Started the bike on a sunday morning, quite early. The beast went to work right away and I started my way home. After around 4-5 kms suddenly everyting stopped. Got to the side of the road, tried to check whats wrong. Used the kill-switch for a few times, and again, here we go.
But just for 3 metres. Same problem again.
Waited for 3 minutes, started it again and went home, driving 4 hours.

Looks like the kill-.switch is malfunctioning. Whats your opinion ?

Thanks and best regards,

Holger

I would imagine that the experience was a tough one at the time. Nothing like losing power on your trek home early on a Sundaay morning, especially with 4-5 hours riding ahead of you.
The hardest thing to do when this happens is to do nothing and assess the situation without turning things off and on. The biggest issues I dealt with as a licenced auto mechanic was trying to determine an intermittent fault especially when a customer managed to "fiddle with things" and got it going. Quite often, it was "time" that cured the situation and not fiddling with things.

When it happened, did you loose any other things like lights etc. I ask because the 10 amp fuse feeds a lot including the yellow/red wire going through the kill switch. We have had a few reports of faulty fuse holders and if you have a high resistance between the 10 amp fuse and the fuse holder, that point of resistance will heat up and increase the resistance until you don't have enough power going through the fuse to feed the loads. Then when the power is not going through the circuit, things cool down and the resistance may sort of correct itself by things moving as they cool.
If you only lost the engine ignition, it's quite possible the kill switch circuit is the culprit so let's not forget the connector between the right handle switch and the harness and at the other end, the harness plug at the ignitor.

I'll have to say, if there was one tool I wished I had bought for my tool box it would be an infrared camera. I bought one for our Control Technicians at the nuclear plant and had them on a monthly basis go out in the field and inspect all of the wiring, connectors, transformers looking for unusual sources of heat, which is points of resistance. Best $3,000 ever spent. Circuits heat up and cool. If a connector doesn't have the ability to expand and contract and maintain sufficent contact to minimize current loss across the connector, then issues will have to be dealt with.

Hi Holger. Glad you made it home ! The problem could be a dirty/malfunctioning Kill Switch.
Check the fuel tank vent. Specifically the fuel cap vent nipple and the grommet that it seals into. If you're lucky you may find the nipple has folded over the grommet and closed off the vent. You didn't mention opening the fuel cap. You'd certainly know if the tank vent was blocked because the in-rush of air would have been obvious. With a full tank, there is very little air in the tank so this situation would present itself much sooner (Kilometer wise) then if the tank were partially full. I experienced an identical issue many years ago and it's the distance you stated you travelled before the engine died that prompts me to suggest this.
As Kawboy stated, it's frustrating when an issue can't be duplicated "in-shop". None-the-less; put a meter across the disconnected Kill-Switch leads and see if there's a change of the resistance readings. That might point specifically to this switch.
Do you have a side-stand lock-out switch? Can't find one in the schematic for your European model, but ? ......Being down low and in a somewhat dirty location, if applicable it could be the culprit.
Open-up the handle-bar switch assembly to check for a faulty soldered connection and to spray some contact cleaner, into it !
Let us know how the diagnostics are going !

Supplement: Just found a schematic showing a Side-Stand switch and I [strike]don't[/strike] think (now) it could create the issue. Going for coffee # 3 so should be thinking better in a few minutes !
As kawboy suggested; a poor connection can drive you crazy ! This may be a situation where you must methodically go through some of your connections and clean them.

The only thing I might add would be the difficulty in finding the cause of the problem once you get home- as previously mentioned. Obviously if you make it home with the bike still running the symptoms are not occurring , so I carry lots of tools- for a while I even carried a spare ignitor just in case. The idea being that I want to find the problem now, on the side of the road, even if the repair isn't totally satisfactory, at least I've got a good understanding where to start when I get home. Electrical and fuel being the two main issues and what tools do I need to get those components apart.

Thank you all for your input.

To be precise when the issue occured I was in mid-ride, approx 50 km/ hour, when suddenly everything shut down. Managed to get to the side of the road (no one on the road at 6am).

This had occured to me once on my way to work, after around 30 kms when suddenly everything shut down. Pull the clutch and move to the side.

My guess has been the kill-switch, will need to have a look into it. Will advise if anything turns out.

Thanks so far.

Holger

Hi I'm having similar issue, but it happens to me when the ignition switch is OFF, bike cold or warm. So when i turn the ignition switch to ON position i get no warning light on or anything else. Once i poked with screwdriver around fuse box to see if anything is loose, and accidental i hit the main switch with it and the lights when suddenly on. It never happened that it died when driving tho. I'm due to remove the main switch next few days to see what the problem is.