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Intermittent Kill Switch Thu Oct 13, 2016 11:22 pm
REGerlach
active member
Just sharing my troubleshooting and fix for an intermittent Kill Switch.
Symptom:
Engine would only start after fiddling with the kill switch (pulling the tip of the switch backwards), and when riding, the engine would cut out unexpectedly, but would restart if the tip of the switch was pulled back.
Initial Approach:
Spraying contact cleaner without disassembly did not improve the situation.
Adaptive Action:
Folded a piece of paper an wedged it behind the tip of the kill switch.
It worked.
Disassembly and Inspection:
After the initial removal of the Red Switch Stem (together with the metal switch disk), it appeared that the metal contact disc was not moving freely up and down on the post portion of the red plastic switch stem.
Further inspection: After removal of the metal contact disc revealed a groove in the post of the red plastic switch lever.
The groove had obviously been cut into the post by the rotation of the metal contact disc, and the result was that the disc was being trapped in the groove, preventing it from making full contact with the terminals inside the housing.
Repair:
Using an X-ACTO Knife, I pared down the shaft to remove the groove from the post.
Then also went after the offending metal contact plate.
It had a significant burr inside the hole, that undoubtedly cut into the plastic post.
I took a round file to the inside bottom edge of the hole, and removed the burr.
Result:
SUCCESS!
No further intermittent disconnects!
I hope the pictures made it to the post.
Not sure how I was supposed to upload them.
Best regards,
Symptom:
Engine would only start after fiddling with the kill switch (pulling the tip of the switch backwards), and when riding, the engine would cut out unexpectedly, but would restart if the tip of the switch was pulled back.
Initial Approach:
Spraying contact cleaner without disassembly did not improve the situation.
Adaptive Action:
Folded a piece of paper an wedged it behind the tip of the kill switch.
It worked.
Disassembly and Inspection:
After the initial removal of the Red Switch Stem (together with the metal switch disk), it appeared that the metal contact disc was not moving freely up and down on the post portion of the red plastic switch stem.
Further inspection: After removal of the metal contact disc revealed a groove in the post of the red plastic switch lever.
The groove had obviously been cut into the post by the rotation of the metal contact disc, and the result was that the disc was being trapped in the groove, preventing it from making full contact with the terminals inside the housing.
Repair:
Using an X-ACTO Knife, I pared down the shaft to remove the groove from the post.
Then also went after the offending metal contact plate.
It had a significant burr inside the hole, that undoubtedly cut into the plastic post.
I took a round file to the inside bottom edge of the hole, and removed the burr.
Result:
SUCCESS!
No further intermittent disconnects!
I hope the pictures made it to the post.
Not sure how I was supposed to upload them.
Best regards,
