Club Laverda NSW Snowy Rally 2024

One odd issue on this ride.
Speaking of reliability, about 2 months back I bearly made it home on a Sunday club ride. The bike was farting and cutting out every 5 minutes and the coming good. At one point I was riding on the footpath it was so scary doing that bogging in traffic. So I fitted 3 new plugs and then it rained for the next 6 weekends, the bike started and revved fine but I wasn't sure. Just before the 5-day Snowy Ride we did a Sunday ride, my first after fitting those plugs and just after that phone thing so no phone. The bike went ok, but coughed hard twice that day. Anyway, I got a new phone and thought why not? So off I went heart in mouth a bit. Got across Sydney early Thursday morning, we had some delay starting so me and John Kalarney headed off to Nowra to do a later full-ride meetup. On the way my bike backfired and cutout 6 times on the Wollongong Expressway, it would suddenly stop its engine and I would coast to the side of the road and then it would start again in 20 seconds and be fine for a minute or two and then do it again. This happened 6 times, and then it went fine for the next 500ks to Jindabyne. For the next 3 days, exactly the same thing happened, around lunchtime it did that thing again 6 times and then ran great for the rest of the day. And on day 5 it ran all day with no issues. My bike has a gadget called an Electronic resetable fuse. It detects Ignition or wiring issues and cuts the spark just like a fuse and 20 seconds later it resets. My guess is that's what was happening, annoying and dangerous in traffic. I guess I need to do some wiring wiggling. It was fully rewired maybe 20 years ago when that fuse gadget was fitted, since then it's been cobbled about with. Maybe it needs another rewire.
 
Just a thought, Vince, try wiggling the key in the ignition switch, with the engine off, in neutral, and see if you can get the neutral light to flash.
On mine, three or four times over the years, I've had cut-outs which a quick wiggle of the key resolved. A squirt of ACF50 down the lock and repeated operation of the key restores everything to normal, for another 10 years or so.
 
Perhaps take the ignition power off that automatic circuit breaker. I have my ignition circuit on it's own fuse separate to all the other power users.
Generally the contacts beneath an ignition switch are quite separate to the key lock part on top. Usually have to open up the underside to service them.
It does sound like a poor connection somewhere, in a switch or plug or wire, might be hard to find.
 
Vince,

Do you have any other keys dangling from the ignition key? This can put a lot of strain on the lock barrel, wearing it out quite badly over the decades and perhaps causing un-wanted cut-outs etc.

Having a dozen or so other keys (along with a good luck charm and other paraphernalia) hanging from an ignition lock is not a good proposition for reliability. Lots of car ignition locks have died through stuff like this.

piet
 
There are 2 of those Curcit breakers fitted for different circuits. Yes, there are 3 other keys on the ring, plus a thumb drive with the Ingatech ignition curve. I have had wiggly key issues twice before over the years so will look there tomorrow.
 
A friend had similar issues with Zane 650 earlier this year. Tried lots of different fixes but in the end a clean up of the kill switch seemed to cure the problem (well at least for now).
 
Had that on old dirtbikes, imaging a kill switch that works better than it should. Marty mentioned that as well. Got the opposite with my car at the moment, its keyed switch won't allow the car to completely turn off, it won't turn off from the accessory position. Looks like I need a new key barrel to fix that. Be down to a push bike or walking soon.
 
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