starter interlock switch

[Anonymous]

A little help here please, can anyone tell me where the starter interlock switch is located, I have two wires green/yellow combination, I believe they go to the starter interlock switch, they come from the starter itself, and the other one comes from the fuse harness, they are bare at the front of the bike in a single harness, coming out under the instrument cluster as with all the other wiring harness's, the bike is a 1986 GS 550.
thank-you

[earlfor]

Re: starter interlock switch

There is an interlock switch on the underside of the clutch lever. You will see two wires leading into the headlight shell. Remove the headlight sealed beam to get to the wiring. The two wires coming from the flutch switch will be plugged into the wiring harness. Unplug them. With the Ignition switched on, take a multimeter and determine which of the two wires in the harness is powered. (one will be power in, the other will be power out. If you have power available, plug the clutch switch lead back into it. Pull in the clutch and while holding it in, check the output side to see that power flows through the clutch switch. If it does, then the problem is not the clutchswitch/lockout. If power does not continue through the switch, new switches are available online or from the dealer and not expensive. As a temp measure, if power is available to the switch and does not flow through it, you can disconnect the two leads coming from the switch and install a jumper wire between the connectors the switch was plugged into. This will get you power, but it will also result in you being able to start the bike with it in gear because you no longer have a safety lockout on the clutch. I removed this switch on both my bikes long ago. However, an old habit is to always hold the front brake lever before touching the starter button.

Also, check that your kill switch is in the on position. :-) Power comes from the ignition, and goes through the clutch switch and the kill switch.

Earl

A little help here please, can anyone tell me where the starter interlock switch is located, I have two wires green/yellow combination, I believe they go to the starter interlock switch, they come from the starter itself, and the other one comes from the fuse harness, they are bare at the front of the bike in a single harness, coming out under the instrument cluster as with all the other wiring harness's, the bike is a 1986 GS 550.
thank-you

[Paul]

Re: starter interlock switch

Also, check that your kill switch is in the on position. :-) Power comes from the ignition, and goes through the clutch switch and the kill switch.

Earl

When those switches came out they caught a lot of people.
I have seen guy's push, & push, & push trying to start their bike with the "engine run" switch in the off position.
Best I can remember was a mate of mine who always rode Ducati's. This was about 28 years ago. He had borrowed his brothers brand new, 25 mile old GT250 Suzuki. Anyway he came to start it to go home - dead. He removed the plugs, no spark. By now panicking, he removed the seat, tank, and had the headlamp out looking for the "loose" wire! After about 3 hours another mate came up to him, asked what the problem was, asked if he had checked the "run" switch.
I have never seen anyone go so red so quick! Mind that wasn't the colour of the air around him - that was definitely blue!

[Anonymous]

Like Earl, I bypassed the clutch lockout switch on my bike, and the ones that preceded it also. Also like Earl, it's a matter of habit to pull in the clutch lever when starting the bike anyway.

The advantage of bypassing it is maintenance. There are times when the bike is on the centerstand and I'm standing on the right side of it doing some maintenance. It's nice not to have to reach to the clutch lever to get the bike started, and then use just the thumb on the starter button.

I also bypassed the same kind of mechanism on my 5-speed Dodge Dakota pickup truck.

Nick