Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums General Tech stuck key switch

Argh. Cleaned and polished the BA up real nice. Now I can't turn the key in the switch. I've tried the lock cleaner with graphite but it still isn't working. Anyone else have this happen? Do these wear out? I'm picturing tearing out the old lock but that seems excessive.... thanks in advance!

There is an off chance that some of the polish got inside the lock and built up on the lock pins, effectively changing the key coding. Try giving it a good shot of WD40 to flush it out.

actually, tearing out the ignition switch isn't such a big deal, really (if you have to)...I did it on the side of the road last year when my igniter module was acting up...the bike would cut out unexpectedly at times, and for awhile it seemed to be related to the ignition switch...so I popped it out, dismantled it, checked the contacts, etc, put it back together and reinstalled...all at roadside with roadside tools...if I can do it, you can too! (if you have to..maybe just using a lightly lubricating switch contact spray cleaner like NuTrol or similar will fix it).

Good luck.

Thanks! I will try the WD40 and/or the NuTrol stuff. If that doesn't work I will take the switch out and see if I can flush it out upside down to help. If it doesn't, I'll be halfway done with replacement.

(I'm getting my riding fixes in on the Duc in the meantime.)

If you were living in Bemidji instead of the Twin Cities area, I'd suggest taking your bike into the living room......so the ice could melt out of the lock. <chuckle>

Hope you haven't bent a tumbler peg. That's a pain to fix. I fixed one once on a car trunk lock that had a wrong key jammed into it. In that case, I just removed the bent peg, its spring, and the opposite side peg and spring, and had a lock with only 3 tumblers instead of the typical 4.

Progress report: tried WD40, and some graphite/lube stuff in a can, and compressed air. No luck over several days of trying. I took the lock out and will be replacing it. (Costs about $190.)

This is the first thing that has failed in over 19K miles, so I'm quite happy with the machine.

Take the unit to a locksmith. If they can fix it, better $30-50 there than $190

An ignition switch is $190?

My $550 igniter box doesn't seem so bad now. Even if the locksmith can't fix it, there must be a cheaper alternative that'll work. It's only a switch. And if you can't find a suitable sub, try Baxter Cycle for a used one. When I went looking for a used igniter, they had 2 Americas in their salvage yard...probably the biggest new Triumph salvage yard in the US.

Hmmm, let me see if I can summarize...I used to live up north of Bemidji so I can appreciate the advice about warming it up (holy cr*p it was so cold up there in the winter: -56 F on the thermometer, without accounting for the frikkin' windchill!!!; past warranty [2002 machine], did take it apart to look at the innards but...).

The bottom line is I ordered a new part ($$) figuring that one stroke of bad luck fixing the tumblers myself or having a locksmith tackle it would not make up for the hassle of an on-the-road tow and ride back home. Plus (and this outweighs all other logical and illogical reasons) the new (and last, I swear by all that is righteous and holy) beautiful and most wonderful woman in my life will be traveling with me this riding season, and it's worth plenty of $ to me to make it back to our home without problems.

3-5 days to get the part from Motoprimo in Minneapolis. Pictures to follow!

(A belated) status report: Got the switch last Thursday. Took less than an hour to put it all back together. It was easy to take apart and intall. Riding again!