2006 SMR450 refuses to start

Ok so it is likely a grease of some type that is meant to prevent corrosion. If you clean it off it may be a good idea to reapply a thin layer of grease in there before reassembly. It's possible that the switch has just been used so many times that the contacts are wearing. You mention being able to apply pressure and then move the button to get it to a point where it functions, maybe when you reassemble it you can do so in such a way that it puts the housing in such a position that the switch will work for you consistently.

Grease is gone, issue persists. At this point I'm not sure I care enough to keep messing with it and have it break more somewhere on a remote ride. I'll have to see about getting some basic kill/start switches from the local shop.

Also found some rubber degeneration on the fitting for the carb->engine area, the coolant hoses are showing some age and getting brittle, the battery terminals are rusted, the rear brake light doesn't work (unrelated to thread issue), and the petcock is getting overly stiff to turn.

Long Term Maintenance Time!

I need to order a bunch of parts so that's probably a good idea - but the two week delay sucks since I'll only be down here for a month and then the bike has to be stored again for 3-4 months during the height of the rainy season. This time I'll store it in the shipping crate though - so that should help a bit.

I'm putting the new wire harness on right now since everything is apart anyway. Might as well use it since it cost $289

Ok the new harness is on but there's one small issue: there are two bullet connectors that I can't find a match for - one wire is orange+yellow and the other is white and yellow. They match in connector type but they both come off of the main harness near where the regulator and coil wires come out of the loom.

I've looked at the diagrams and there are color codes but nowhere (that I can see) in the manual describes these two wires on the new harness. The old harness has them as well but I don't remember what they came off of when I took it off (should have taken pics of all connectors before unplugging).

I assume they do not plug into each other - that wouldn't make sense for two loomed wires to connect to each other, yet there are no extra wires on the bike missing connections.

Here are the connectors in question. I've been pouring over the schematic that Coffee posted on page one and I can't seem to locate the Yellow-Orange and Yellow-White connectors that are in the pic here:



Here's the new kill switch, I'm going to take it out and remove it from the equation. I'm almost certain that the black/white connector that it's plugged into (which snakes its way back up to the handlebar e-start/kill switch) is the correct one but please correct me if I'm wrong.

To make it more fun I see wires on the schematic that are labeled with a "P" but that doesn't correspond to any of the translated colors (http://www.italianlanguageguide.com/vocabulary/colors.asp)

Frustration building

I am not at home, gotta work to pay for the toys, I will try to take my tank off tonight and get you some photos or at least a description of where those wires should be going.

Joel

Awesome, that will help immensely. I'll keep troubleshooting in the meantime.

Just got these alternate wiring diagram from my old Husky dealer in NV.

Edit: important note to anyone using these electrical diagrams in the future: if you look at the connector that hooks into the item #17 on the schematic that Coffee posted "TELERUTTORE" the manual says there are three R (red) wires and one G-O. That means Gold Orange I guess or it could mean Green Orange since the schematic doesn't list Gold as a color since Gold in Italian is Oro and Green is Verde -- anyway the real wire looks to me like Orange and Yellow on both of the harnesses I have so my hindsight advice is to take pics of ALL connectors before unplugging them.

It's official - I need to take a vacation and clear my head. The connectors in question plug into the starter/kill pod wires. I had the wires coming off of the pod connected together and they simply are supposed to connect to that section of the harness - adding in the secondary kill switch wire loop had my brain confused.

So now the new wire harness is on, the bike starts, and life is good again.

Thanks everyone for helping - I feel a bit more confident with the electrical system now.

Final question is, since it varies between 75-90% humidity here 24x7 I'm considering putting silicon sealant on all of the external areas of the electrical connections (not inside of course), just where the wires meet the connectors. Is this foolish or will it help prevent electrical issues in downpours and river crossings where 1/2 of the bike gets submerged?

I also need to find a way to stop all of the corrosion without buying a hundred bucks worth of stainless steel nuts and bolts to replace all of the stock fastening hardware -- anyone have any ideas on that? I've just been spraying things down with silicon aerosol and that seems to work ok for flat areas like the cases and forks and what not, but the bolts don't stand a chance and rust up super fast.

This stuff is the best you can get. Apply it to all connectors inside and out. You will never have corrosion problems again.
http://www.skygeek.com/10013.html

Going to be ordering the following parts for long term maintenance. Am I leaving out anything that should be replaced after 7 years of operation? Bike has ~8k kilometers on it.

• the rubber junction fitting that sits between the carb and engine - current one is showing cracks from deterioration
• lithium battery - prefer AntiGravity brand: not sure if I need 4 or 8 cell http://antigravitybatteries.com/small-case-batteries/
• a full set of Stainless Steel fasteners for the entire bike - those 8mm head bolts that are used everywhere
• a new o-ring chain (again) because they keep rusting out after 2-3 months here - must be non-rivet connector type Master Link
• a TC style kill switch for the handlebar
• a stock petcock - the current one is corroding
• a TwinAir air filter so can I have a spare
• a good, sealed, marine quality LED Rear Brake Light - the stocker was ditched long ago and replaced with an LED that has since shorted out, and the ones available here are junk
• any parts or tools required to fix this shifting issue - I have no idea what is needed there (http://www.supermotojunkie.com/show...day-what-could-be-wrong&p=1595458#post1595458)
• case gasket set and any gaskets required to fix the shifting issue ^
• new clutch plates - the stock ones are 7 years old!

Sweet, glad you are up and running!

Hopefully these photos will at least help someone in the future now that you have your issues figured out! Sorry they took so long, didn't wind up leaving work until 1:30AM, took these pictures in my garage this morning before work. The standalone harness images are much nicer than the ones I got of the wiring on the bike.




The area that says "These two wires get connected to the clutch micro switch" that is how the harness I have is wired. The bottom connector of the two that aren't connected together could likely swap with the connector to it's left that is connected to the black with the white stripe without any issue. Same thing in the photo below.

Fantastic pics. The annotation is absolutely useful for anyone having this issue later since the schematic can be time consuming to match up to the reality of looking at the harness on or off the bike.

As I mentioned before, I removed the clutch microswitch and added the hidden kill switch so those aspects added some confusion for me. Now that I know where all the connectors go it makes working on the Husky much more enjoyable -- so much easier to work on than a unicam CRF!

I'll have to get some of that next time I'm in the States -- down here people consider WD-40 to be the solution to everything and finding avionics anti-corrosion spray just ain't happening for me.

Ok, triple sequence post!

In case anyone else is wondering if silicon RTV sealant can be used for waterproofing electronic connections the answer is "yes", see the second response for details: http://electronics.stackexchange.co...insulate-and-waterproof-electronic-components

Be careful when using the silicone to not create situations where water can enter a connection but has trouble leaving.

I also have a Suzuki TL1000 which had issues with corrosion forming in the main harness to the front of the bike, lights, ignition etc., I tried to use some silicone to stop the corrosion problem and sadly created more of a problem for myself. Water could enter the plug on the coupling side, where I didn't silicone to leave the connector still serviceable, but once in the connection didn't have a way out, due to siliconing the wires on the back side of the connector. Over time the water would enter the connector and just sit there corroding away the contacts. Eventually the harness had to be replaced due to this.

A lot of connectors are designed as flow through so that if the water does get in there it has an easy path out and hopefully the contacts are plated with something that is durable against corrosion.

Just something to keep in mind when you are attacking your issue.

Joel

Good point. I'll eventually pick up some of that aircraft anti-corrosion spray and apply it inside of all connectors to prevent that situation.