Hi Gents,  I've not used the forum for many many moons. My K11 has developed an intermittent problem with the engine quitting with no warning. its totally intermittent, it may happen three times in a couple of hours, maybe once in a month. it doesn't seem related to road speed, engine revs, or ride time.  

When it quits the tacho and speedo are still working. Pulling the clutch and hitting the starter button turns the engine, so the starter section of the electrics are till functioning. 
Pulling the clutch so the engine stops spinning, the oil light comes on ( as you'd expect ) so that part of the electrics are OK. The temperature and fuel gauges continue to work OK.

Switching the kill switch off and on whilst your still moving in gear ( with the engine spinning ) produces something very odd. The lamp failure globe pulses, it fades and brightens at about 5hz   .

if I switch the ignition off and on while its moving and in gear will clear the fault and she runs purrrrfectly till she dies the next time. 

I don't think its a faulty side stand switch or flaky connection, it wouldn't reset every time ignition is turned off. 

I've had the fairings off and opened every connection and cleaned with electronic cleaner. They all look good. Including the relay box under the tank. And when the fault occurs its not feasible to start poking about with a meter at the side of the road.

My gut feel is a relay is dropping out or maybe something locks up in the fuel injection controller.

I want to mount half a dozen LEDs on the handlebars and wire then to various circuits to see what looses power to cause the problem. and start eliminating the circuits.

Where I'd appreciate some help is with the wiring diagrams. I've got the clymer manual, and would appreciate more detail on the relays and switches. for example which terminals are the coil and contact of the relays and which wires are used the kill the engine from the right handlebar switch. 
And who knows, maybe someone has seen this weird problem and has a solution.

Regards
Malcolm(t)
Parys
South Africa

Have you checked out this connection - component. (ignition amplifier at side of battery)
This was causing me intermittent problems like yours , and I have now fitted a new one with replacement thermal compound, I am not sure if replacement thermal compound would have fixed it but on my way to k fest so not taking any chances.

From people I've helped with ignition amp issues and my K1:

It is heat related.  Bike quits consistently at about the same period of time after startup.

Cleaning out old heat sink compound and replacing it with new fixes the problem with no need for a new ignition amp.

For intermittent problems, a usual suspect is the fuel tank connector.  Take the right side cover off and then shake the fuel tank connector while idling the bike to see if that causes stumbling or dying.

Where's the heat sink compound Duck?

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It goes behind the ignition amplifier which is that thing pictured. Remove the 2 small bolts holding it and scrape the hard layer od crud (old compound) make sure alloy is bare and apply new heat sink compound then tighten the 2 bolts. Make real sure the brown earth wire connects the battery cradle to the gearbox or the ignition amplifier wont get the correct earth potential which is important for good running.
HINT always remove the earth from the battery first because if you short the positive terminal to the hold down clamp that brown wire goes up in smoke real quick. I know I did it and it took quite a while of brain bashing to work out what happened to burn out an earth wire that in theory takes only micro amps at best.
Anyway how ya going Nods haven't seen you about for ages, I thought you must have jumped ship.

And even if the ignition amp is not the root cause of your problem it is still a good idea to renew the heat sink compound because after 25 years it is most certainly getting old and ineffective.  I do this on any K100RS4V, K1 or 93 or earlier K1100 that I buy and consider it to be routine maintenance.

Going well thanks Rick. Got a new job a year ago and that's been busy, along with commuting 4 hours a day and looking after the youngn's, so the K project has been on the back burner. I got the tank blasted last weekend and it needs a bit of bog then a mate has offered to paint it.

Still got the red Triumph that I took down the snow with you Krew.

But sorry for the thread hijack, I hope this intermittent cutout problem gets solved!

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Gees 4 hours commuting not sure I could do that. Keep going you'll get it done and we'll catch up on a ride or two.

Thanks for the replies.
The ignition amp has never been touched, its time it was checked.
I have the paste in my workshop, I use on electronics I dabble with.

I can't see my problem being related to heat. The bike has cut out minutes after being started.
When its cut while ripping down a freeway for an hour, turning the key off then on fires it up immediately. and it probably wont quit again for a week. 

My next step is connect a wire to each relay coil under the tank.
And see what changes when she quits.
That may point me to the area causing the problem and I'll narrow it down from there.

Cheers
Malcolm(t)

For what it's worth you might try cleaning the ignition switch contacts.  Dirty contacts there can cause all sorts of havoc including random shutdowns.  Been there, done that...

Jim

Hmmmm.
That's a good suggestion. And would explain why cycling the ignition switch brings her back to life.
Got no time this weekend. I'll definitely do it next week when I check ignition amp.
Thanks 

+1 on cleaning the ignition switch.  I have had to do two of them now.  There are articles around on how to disassemble and clean the contacts.  Even when the rest of the electrical system is in good shape I had problems with that switch

IMO it's something that should be part of every restoration of an old brick.