First things first:
2003 Silverado
BAK
V&H Longshots
Barons Tach

Here's the story
I ride everyday to and from work when in town.
I have been out of town for almost two months but came home twice in that period and rode a few times
the last stretch was 20 days.
On Sunday night I pulled the battery tender out and hooked it up to the bike since it hadn't been started in almost three weeks and I would be riding it Monday.
Monday morning I disconnected the tender backed the bike out and turned the key
Instrument panel lit up and went through it's deal but I didn't hear the fuel pump kick in.
Hit the starter switch and nothing
Toggled the kill switch and then I heard the pump kick in
Bike cranked right up and I drove to a gas station and filled the tank.
Bike started after that with no problems and I rode to work 35 miles away.
When I got near work and came to a light my tach was freakin out at idle. Like all over the place.
I have seen it do this once before when my battery was bad
Got to work, hit the kill switch
At about 530pm I got on the bike and turned the key and Nothing. Zippo, Zilch, nada
Popped the seat hooked up some jumpers to a car battery and still nothing
Turned on the car and nothing
No lights, no horn, no pump, it's like the I'm not even turning the key.
I also noticed that my fuel gauge is still sitting over at full.

Popped the side cover off and checked the ignition fuse and it's intact. Swapped it out anyway and still nothing.
Pulled the instrument panel off and the three connections (the two under the panel and the single two conductor lead at the tail of the tank) all are in good shape and clean.

Battery shows good voltage on a meter and it is less than a year old, leads look good and clean.

Currently have it loaded into a box truck for the ride home tonight and then have four days to play with it starting Thursday. I'll throw it up on the lift and start pulling things apart but I am at a loss.

Any ideas guys?

Clean the battery terminals and the cable ends mine did that once and it wasn't making good connection at the terminals. If you have a car charger that kicks out about 6 amps then put that on for a couple of hours and then hook everything back up and try it.

Might look into this: Honda reccomends NOT using the kill switch to shut off the bikes. The switch does not have a high enough durability contact for daily use, as it is an emergency control. They say to always stop the4 bike with the keyed ignition, as the contacts there are designed for this. You might take a look in the switch housing and see what you see.

I only say this because you specifically referred to the kill switch.

Other than that, big 'ol ground wire since so much is out.

Hi jd do you have a link to that honda site where you read about not using the kill switch i would like to read it
as we teach our students to use it on bikes so if they are ever off on the side of the road and use the kill switch to turn off the bike the tail light stays on
Thx AJ

I see a major issue with your story... youi said you started the car to charge the bike or to start it... IF you did not ruin your stator and or rectifier/regulator, you will be lucky... a motorcycles charging system can't handle the load put out by a vehicle alternator... bad idea... I found that out the hard way a long time ago...

Now, from the sounds of it, it sounds like your kill switch is bad... you can bypass it in the headlight bucket and that will tell you it is bad or not by if it starts or not... if you do get it started, the first thing I would do is to check the stator and rectifier/regulator...

Hope this helps

jd750ace wrote:
Might look into this: Honda reccomends NOT using the kill switch to shut off the bikes. The switch does not have a high enough durability contact for daily use, as it is an emergency control. They say to always stop the4 bike with the keyed ignition, as the contacts there are designed for this. You might take a look in the switch housing and see what you see.

I only say this because you specifically referred to the kill switch.

Other than that, big 'ol ground wire since so much is out.

I have never read this anywhere I but have heard this same theory for over 20 years. The emergency kill switch is just that, an "emergency" switch. Ever notice how they are almost always marked with red so they stand out from the other switches? Always use your ignition switch to turn your bike on and off. That's what it is designed to do.

My 2 cents anyway....

BT

Quote from Road Star owners manual page 3-5
"Set this switch to (O) before starting the engine. Set this switch to (X) to stop the engine in case of an emergency, such as when the vehicle overturns or when the throttle cable is stuck."

So now I have read it. JD & the advice I had received are spot on.

I typically just put the kickstand down while it is in gear. Is there an issue with turning the bike off in this manner?

I agree and I always shut the petcock off too.

TReynolds wrote:
I typically just put the kickstand down while it is in gear. Is there an issue with turning the bike off in this manner?

I only do that if parking in gear. Like on a slope or uneven surface where it might want to roll. Otherwise I use the key. Keeps me from forgetting to pull the key too. I have seen plenty of folks do that as well.

It was a topic of discussion years ago on Hondashadow.net. A forum member had a similar failure of power to get anywhere, and it ended up being a welded contact in the kill switch. We soon discovered there were several more.

Your Road Star Owner's Manual, page 3-6 states as above, "set this switch to X in case of an emergency, such as when the motorcycle overturns or when the throttle cable is stuck"

This circuit is usually to shut off all of the primary power to the bike, eliminate the possibility of the engine grenading, the bike's powertrain still moving, or the possibility of a spark igniting fuel, resulting in a fire.

I read a summation of the switch function on American Honda letterhead that someone had supplied, after filing a service difficulty report for a number of these failures.

I hope this helps ya get sorted.

Check out 3-18 in the manual as well