Will the bike start with the fairing removed? YES!

[Chas]

I recently acquired a "new" Black 1987 Aspencade with a nice helping of chrome. Very good looking, but had the original brake lines so I purchased some from Phillip in Canada and replaced them. In the process of doing the lines, I removed the fairing. After putting the fairing back on, the bike will not start. It turns over, but there seems to be no spark. I pulled a plug, connected it to the plug wire and grounded it to the engine and got no spark. So it seems I have messed something up in the process of removing the fairing. I was going to take it back off and see if I can find the problem, but I'm wondering if it will start without the fairing or if I have to put the fairing back on and plug in the fairing harnesses to retry starting the bike.

FYI - the bike does not have an EC harness. I assumed it was not the dogbone fuse because the starter and all electronics seem fine, but I checked it anyway and it's fine. (Figured I'll replace that once I get the bike running again along with installing the Poorboy kit that came in the mail today).

[unionjack]

Start by checking the wires coming from the pulse generators to the coils. It would be very easy to knock one of them loose.

Obviously there are a lot of wires going to the dashboard and radio systems, including a couple of fuses under the left pocket too.

[admin]

Is the kill switch in the off position? Seen it happen more than once.

[Chas]

I did check the kill switch. Fairing coming back off today to see if it's a simple disconnect somewhere. It was running fine before I started the brake line job.

[Chas]

With the fairing off, the engine still turns over but no spark. So seems like it might start IF I can find the problem. Don't see and hanging or cut wires anywhere. I have seen the posts on tracking this kind of problem down. Most of it is greek to me, but that's where I'm at so time to learn some greek!

[Chas]

Following the troubleshooting in the manual for the engine turning over but not starting, it tells you to follow the black and white wire in a 9-pin red connector, which happens to be near where the kill switch plugs in. Testing there, the wire was good. The next step is to test the black and white wire on a 4 pin white connector, which is on the opposite side of the bike. There, I found that my test light didn't go on. I wasn't sure if that was the right connector, so I pulled the cover off my running bike (87 Interstate), and found that the wire in the same plug on that bike worked. So I then bridged the connection on the Aspencade for the black and white wire from the red connector to the white connector, and voila! It started up! I had to hold the clutch in to start it even though it was in neutral. I am guessing that is because I have the fairing off and so obviously no neutral light --- apparently that is needed for normal functioning of the starting system.

Prior to today, I didn't have a $3.00 test light. Picked one up at Harbor Freight and found it quite helpful. Very glad that I didn't have to get into testing the pulse generators and such --- that looks a little more complicated than using a test light.

[Chas]

Scratch the thing about holding in the clutch. It wasn't in neutral. Now that it's in neutral and the black-white from the first red connector to the 4 pin white connector is in place, the bike starts. I will see if it behaves any differently with the fairing back on --- maybe I fixed something else by accident.