A week or so ago, I removed a bolted on starter switch on my new 82 and replaced it with a good used BMW replacement. The old Frankenstein switch was wired (with brown lamp cord) to a starter terminal and spliced into a switched power wire in the harness nearby. It worked great but was so offset from the throttle it made giving it gas with the starter button pushed was a two-hand operation. It also looked ridiculous
Anyway, I removed the old right combo switch assembly and replaced it with the used one –plugged right in to the socket and mounted on the handlebar with one screw – so easy, perhaps too easy. Ever since then, I’ve had some lack of consistent operation with the starter relay. When the trouble first happened, the afternoon I replaced the switch, I took off the tank and looked at the relays. I found by listening which relay was not always cooperating, and found I could coax it to work by tapping on it. Although I have become very good at popping the tank off and on in under a minute, I decided that I really wanted to get it working without having to remove the tank and tap the relay every time I needed to start. (You get strange looks from passers by when you do that on the street in the city.) While pulling the relay out to investigate it further, I accidentally pulled the relay cover off, exposing the inner workings. I reconnected the battery ground strap and to see what happened when I pushed the starter switch. I could see the electromagnet was pulling the copper relay contact arm as the button was pushed, but contact was not being made at the point. If I pushed on the copper arm with my finger, it did contact and the starter engaged just fine. So I pulled the naked relay out and brightened up the contact point with a little fine sandpaper, reinstalled the relay and cover and it worked OK. Unfortunately, I could not get it to start yesterday morning and was forced to drive my car to work, missing a rare70-degree January day of quality cycling time. When I got home I got back into the relay and saw the same thing -action but no contact- so I slightly bent the metal tab carrying the lower contact point to reduce the distance the arm would need to swing to make contact. Seems to work OK now, but we’ll see over time. There was also some hesitation on the part of the turn signal relay to work consistently when I first did the switch replacement, but that problem seems to have disappeared.
One the other thing. Ever since I replaced the switch, the neutral indicator light comes on every time I pull in the clutch lever. I am clueless on that and have done nothing to investigate that or fix it. There have been no problems with the engine once it gets started (provided I remember to turn the fuel petcock on, something I forget to do with embarrassing regularity).
For information, I did disconnect the battery ground strap when I did the switch replacement. I did not use electric contact cleaner or dielectric grease on the socket connecting the switch cable to the harness on the frame. I also did not check the wiring in the used replacement BMW switch.
Anybody have a similar experience or advice for a baffled newbie? Is a new starter relay in my near future? The existing one appears to have a 9/81 date on it, so if I did have to replace it, 26-plus years of service would not be too shabby. Is the neutral indicator light a foreshadowing of future learning experiences and more opportunities for me to get intimate with the bike?
