does bad starter relay = no lights/power when key is on? where am I going wrong?

[Big T]

You should check the back of the fuse box.. Disconnect the red power wire from the battery, unbolt the fuse box and take the cover off. Also, the path you should follow is battery --main fuse- igni9tion switch- 3 fuses and each of those 3 circuits. You should have 12 V at every point

[salty_monk]

Maybe a break in the wire at the steering head…

if you can read the wiring diagram you can rule out the switch by shorting the contacts in the connector with a small length of wire….

[robinelwood]

As I always suspect: I was doing it wrong.

Multimeter showed everything good except the ignition switch/puck, even though all leads on the puck had continuity.

Further investigation showed that I had (as a previous poster warned) reassembled the internals 180 degrees wrong. I should have trusted my disassembly pictures. You'd think the narrow arm on the key barrel and the skinnier arm of the 'plus sign' in the electric switch would match up..but no. the skinny arm goes in the fat slot. After reversing the internals, everything works beautifully. Thank you all for your assistance.20230312_124828 (1).jpg

[robinelwood]

20230312_124819 (1).jpgThe narrower arm to the left would be a good fit for the key barrel...but actually, it goes in the wider one to the right. Go figure.

[Rich82GS750TZ]

Yep, I made the same mistake. Fortunately, now that you know, you'll never do it again. Glad you got it sorted.

[rphillips]

Problem fixed and lesson learned... A good day, congrats

[robinelwood]

Guys. Guys. I spoke too soon. It stopped working again.

At this point, I have two ignition pucks; they both do the exact same thing.

1) jumping the wiring harness at the 4-pin connector brings the lights/ignition/etc on every time.
2) Plugging in either of the pucks, I get a solenoid 'click' but no lights/starter, except rarely and randomly.
3) jumping the brown and red wires on either ignition puck brings the lights on every time.

I've disassembled and cleaned contacts and checked springs etc on both ignition pucks multiple times. Ditto the pins in the connector.

SOoOOOOOOOooo.. it seems to me that the problem is not the fusebox/wiring harness (works consistently when shorted at steering head).... And its not the connector, or wires from the puck to the connector. (short the contacts on the puck, everything works.)

But...the pucks are cleaned out, shined up and reassembled. They're an 80 and an 81, so they even have different copper sprung contact arrangements inside. Yet they do the exact same thing...pass power, but not headlight/starter power. Except on rare occasions when they each work fine.

What stupid thing am I missing?

[Suzukian]

Does the motor turn over when you jump the starter relay? It should do that whether the bike is turned on or off.

[robinelwood]

sure does. but doesn't start unless ignition is on.

[robinelwood]

FWIW: For now, I've simplified the ignition wiring by soldering the brown, gray, and orange all onto the orange terminal: All 3 have 12+ volts when key is in 'on' position now, although I don't have the tail-light only setting anymore. Bike is back on the road. I'm still mystified as to why the switches were both not passing power to brown and gray in any position but maybe I just have 2 identically defective units. Everything from the back of the ignition puck on tested correctly with a multimeter. But now its a problem for next fall, I hope. Thanks again for all the assistance previously.