Electrical help please.

[RGP750]

God i hate electrics
Went out on the K0 last night, got to a junction and everything went dead, nothing at all worked.
Checked fuse ,main power to battery etc ,nothing obvious.
After a bit of cable pulling all worked again until i pushed it off of the stand and it went dead again.
bit more fiddling and back again ,this time it stayed so went home .
My thoughts are a switch wire, any other thoughts please .
I will need to be conclusive or i'm going to be worried about it doing it when i'm
in the middle of a roundabout or worse .
cheers

[K2-K6]

Quite often it's the ignition switch internally if it's an old unit.

The contacts get fairly gungy and the assembly can get a bit worn. Try moving the wires around on the back of the switch to see if it'll replicate the fault to confirm.

Because the ignition switch is effectively a "master" there's no other route into the bike from the battery as all subsystems come through that one live switched route. So that usually gives you total blackout.

[BigAl (Alan)]

I quite agree with the previous post, the brown circular key-switch connector can become worn & dirty with age.
A good clean or a replacement (as image) would help.

[RGP750]

thanks Guys
I replaced the wires in the switch when I re built it (it's a recessed one so 1969) I kept
the brown plug but bypassed it by soldering new male and f/male connectors on and using the brown body as a dummy.
I wanted to check that that no other areas of the wiring will give the same effect .
Switch it is then Cheers Rich

[K2-K6]

I've not got experience of the earlier one but for example K2  has the wires coming into the switch terminating in a series of flat copper disc shaped contacts. These lay flush with their plastic surrounding block and are bridged when you turn the lock barrel to make the required connects.

The connections are made by an inverted U (fairly square in form)  flat piece of copper strip with "pimples" on their surface,  which are supposed to make good contact with the wire terminal.  These U sections have a little coil spring embedded into the plastic behind them that forces them into good contact with the terminals,  making a secure switching.  So as you rotate the key,  these bridge the correct contacts.

If those little springs get rusty or gunged up the contact gets iffy.  Also it relies on secure positioning of the wire terminal block else it moves away from the contact bridges,  and so switches off the power.

I've taken them apart,  cleaned and greased with silicone grease to make sure they then work as intended.

Obviously the contacts should be clean as well, but the on off problem you got suggests more mechanical than pure electrical contact.

[RGP750]

Switch seems positive and has been fine for a year.
I'll check one of my joints isn't dry first I think and if it goes again
i'll try a bit of key wiggling to see if I get any result if it
seems it is that I may be back in touch re switch dismantle as I need
to keep the recessed switch.
Cheers Rich