Replace ignition switch with toggle or pushbutton switch

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Mojogameplay
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Replace ignition switch with toggle or pushbutton switch

#1

Post by Mojogameplay »

Has anyone here replaced the ignition switch with an on/off toggle switch or push button switch? I'm considering removing the stock key ignition to give clearance to an aftermarket headlight. I'd like to have an on/off button. Don't know what park or accessory settings do and I don't use them. Just need the switch to turn the whole bike on and off. Is this difficult or complicated? I'd like to make something that could plug into the wiring harness the same way the old ignition switch did.
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Re: Replace ignition switch with toggle or pushbutton switch

#2

Post by Toehead »

It's possible . You'd need to look at a wiring diagram and connect the correct wires together.

The easiest way would be to use use two relays to make the connections and a pushbutton that energizes them to activate.

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Re: Replace ignition switch with toggle or pushbutton switch

#3

Post by ole496 »

This should not be that hard at all. I don't have the wiring diagram with me at the moment but you'd need to move a few wires from the switch after removal - to your new on/off switch and a push button start.

You can keep the starting button on the handlebar or disconnect that and mount a different button somewhere else. Run the wires that would be connected to the start button on the handlebar to the location of the new button and it should work no problem.

The keyed switch on the bike has several wires that run in and out of it. You need to look at the diagram and use the wires that run to the switch on the power side of things and complete that circuit. Those wires just need to be attached to your on/off switch to replace the keyed switch.
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Re: Replace ignition switch with toggle or pushbutton switch

#4

Post by marteney1 »

I did this when I built mine. I changed the gauge cluster to just the speedo and removed the ignition since it looked like a unicorn. I ran some wire to a toggle switch in the glove box, so it was still behind a key. No one ever had any idea how to turn it on anyway after I did that. I just looked at the wiring diagram and found the wires I needed to make hot and put a switch on one of them. I'll see if I can find a picture of my setup and put on here. Worked fantastically well.
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Re: Replace ignition switch with toggle or pushbutton switch

#5

Post by Mojogameplay »

Okay. I was looking at the wiring diagram. Looks like three wires have to be hooked together on one switch and two more on another. The first three are power from the battery, connected to power to fuse block, and something else starter circuit maybe. The last two are the lighting on the bike as far as I can trace. Only reason not to just hook em all together, as far as I can tell, is to keep the lighting running off the fuse block instead of off straight 30amp fused battery power. So easiest way I could think to do it safely. Maybe use a double pole single throw switch. Have the group of three wires energized on one pole of the switch and the group of two wires contact on the other pole. this is the best I can come up with.
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Re: Replace ignition switch with toggle or pushbutton switch

#6

Post by Toehead »

That should work.
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Re: Replace ignition switch with toggle or pushbutton switch

#7

Post by Mojogameplay »

Another option might be to connect all the wires permanent at the connector and activate the bike with a battery kill switch on the battery. I kinda like that idea. Don't know if all the electronics would like the hard shut off but I can't fathom it being much different from flicking the key off. You could just build a jumper connector to mate with the ignition switch connector and use it as a key of sorts.
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Re: Replace ignition switch with toggle or pushbutton switch

#8

Post by marteney1 »

When I did it, I had 2 switches based on what I thought I needed from the wiring diagram. One was ignition, and the other one made the tail lights go on and off when the first switch was on, did nothing else. The only problem I had at all was that I put them in the glove box, and things would slide around in there and hit the switch the lights were on. The first time it happened, I spent 2 hours going through my wiring trying to figure out why my brand new LED tail light wasn't on!
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Re: Replace ignition switch with toggle or pushbutton switch

#9

Post by Mojogameplay »

20161227_094006.jpg
20161227_094006.jpg (62.23 KiB) Viewed 762 times
My new ignition switch/key. Just ran solder bridges across the contacts. Plug in and go. Or leave plugged in and use the battery shut off. Unfortunately the aftermarket headlight still didn't fit. So yeah. I'm extending the headlight brackets anyway.
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Re: Replace ignition switch with toggle or pushbutton switch

#10

Post by Sidecar Bob »

I used a keyswitch for a CT-70 on mine. It is much smaller & easier to find a place for and you can still use a key to turn it on & off like normal. And it only has 2 positions so you can't accidentally leave the tail light on and kill the battery (easy to do when the keyswitch isn't right in front of you). It DOES NOT have an Accessory position so you won't be able to run the battery down by using the stereo when the bike is off either. It should be connected to the red & black wires.

As for the tail light/parking light circuit, it all depends on where you live. If parking lights are required you need to have a way to turn them on but if you are in the US or Canada you can just connect the appropriate wires (2 brown/white wires IIRC) together so that the tail light is on whenever the key is on.
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Re: Replace ignition switch with toggle or pushbutton switch

#11

Post by Track T 2411 »

Mojogameplay wrote:20161227_094006.jpgMy new ignition switch/key. Just ran solder bridges across the contacts. Plug in and go. Or leave plugged in and use the battery shut off. Unfortunately the aftermarket headlight still didn't fit. So yeah. I'm extending the headlight brackets anyway.
That's kinda cool! I like that idea!
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Re: Replace ignition switch with toggle or pushbutton switch

#12

Post by Mojogameplay »

So the whole point of the ignition switch removal was to get this headlight installed. I found in the build your own headlight page at 4into1.com. It didn't fit without removing the ignition switch. Then it didn't fit without modifying the gauge bracket, mounting the gauges up close to the rider. Moving the gauges interfered with the airline between forks. So I moved up the fork tubes a centimeter. If I had a time machine I wouldn't buy the headlight again. But it fits.
Attached is a picture of the gauge bracket bolts extended and the headlight installed. Probably upside down. :)
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20170101_124316.jpg
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Bike new headlight.jpg
Bike new headlight.jpg (103.04 KiB) Viewed 707 times

Resized and renamed the photo on my phone. Apparently that keeps it from going upside-down. ☺
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Re: Replace ignition switch with toggle or pushbutton switch

#13

Post by kerryb »

Looks like you could gain mounting room by flipping the headlight brackets to the other side of the tubes. Lower the headlight a couple inches.
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Re: Replace ignition switch with toggle or pushbutton switch

#14

Post by Mojogameplay »

That might be a project for another time if the steering turns out to be too positive. The lower headlight would probably look faster.
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