The dreaded ignition switch green plug

My K3 thou has recently developed a fault at 55,000 miles whereby the ignition switch was seemingly not working.

After stripping the tank and airbox to get to the wiring loom I pulled apart the green connector for the ignition switch. Lo and behold a badly burned contact and melted plastic. Cleaned it up and the fault has cleared.

After a bit of research it turns out that this is a very common fault. General thinking is that the contacts in the plug are not rated for the current they carry so warm up and lose tension. Then they start arcing and the plastic melts. Result - no contact and no power to the switch.

I'm either going to replace the connectors with something that can handle the current or just hard solder the wires without a connector and heatshrink them. I don't want the bike cutting out when overtaking or on full lean.

I'v had mine cut out on almost full lean at 70mph with someone following me!
Turns out it was a bad connection to the ignition relay etc.

[yorkie_chris]

It's the corrosion and crap in there that causes local increases in current and the melting.

Solder the crimps up, fill the back of the connectors with some silicon grease and ACF50 the pins. Alternatively replace with some weatherproof triple-lip sealed connectors.

My fault was intermittent before complete failure. Sometimes I could get ignition by wiggling the wire entering the headstock, but then nothing. One fried green connector for me too.

[Sid Squid]

Originally Posted by Rocket

After a bit of research it turns out that this is a very common fault.

No it isn't, the above is a huge overstatement.

My experience tells me that it's no more common a problem with the SV, (or any other Suzuki for that matter), than any other vehicle I've come across.

Sid, there's a massive thread on an American SV site about this issue. I've got 2 K3 thous and just pulled the other one apart. Oh yes, it's been getting warm. The connectors themselves are quite well sealed, having little rubber boots around the tags, and there is no sign of corrosion on any of the other pins. I'm sticking with it's not man enough for the job. Connector being taken out of the loop and soldered direct with heatshrink.

[yorkie_chris]

I reckon to keep the ability to disconnect it when needed it would be better to connect the headlights and horn via relays since they're the biggest power hogs on the bike.

Chris, the only time I'm goin to need to disconnect it would be when I want to remove the ignition switch from the bike and let's face it - this is not an oft performed task. Simply hard soldering the wires without the connector will have no effect on the functionality of the ignition switch or the rest of the bike except it will work reliably.

[yorkie_chris]

Of course. Remember what goes up must come down, the orange and the red wires must both deal with the same current.

I'm confused. The Orange/black and red wires are plenty thick enough to do the job. It's the connectors on the ends of these wires that are not.