dadioles

Final report ..... The fuse was blowing because the ignition switch was the wrong one!! It looked at first sight to be the same but it was wired internally differently. There is no way it could ever work although it fitted perfectly. Andy's Motorcycles ad was rather misleading in that it implied (as do many of them) that the switch would suit all YBR125's with a four wire ignition switch, three wires in a block and one loose "bullet type" connector. This is not true. My bike is a 2008 YBR125 Custom Looking at the wiring diagram it clearly shows that there are four connections inside the switch and in the "off" position NONE of the wires make contact, they are all isolated. In the "on" position each of two pairs make contact. For example: "Off" position - no wires make contact - all open circuit. Red (loose wire, bullet connector) main 12v feed from battery. Brown (block connector) Black (block connector) Black/white (block connector) "On" position Red wire connected to Brown wire Black wire connected to Black/white wire The switch that was supplied made one pair contact in the "on" position while the other pair was open circuit, and in the "off" position the roles were reversed. It could never be wired to suit my bike. Physically the switches looked the same (apart from wire colour) and you need a meter to test exactly which wires are switched in which position. It is not easy to source the proper switch, even main Yamaha dealers are confused. Luckily, because the two switches clearly come from the same manufacturer and it is only the contact plates that are different, I was able to carefully prise open the electrical contact plates and swap the correct contacts from the old switch into the housing of the new switch - brilliant. Be warned.

Oh well... I thought someone would have had some advice to offer, never mind. In case anyone else has to replace their ignition switch this is what I did. The two bolts holding the switch are snap off types and to make it even worse they are also glued in place. There is no way to unscrew them. They are absolutely bonded in place. The aluminium casting that the switch bolts on to has to be removed by taking off the handlebars, unscrewing the big bolt at the top of the steering column and loosening the bolts at the top of the forks, it will now slide off easily and there are no problems associated with this. You will already have removed the headlamp and opened up the headlamp housing to reveal all the wiring bundled up inside so that you can pull apart the block connector and single pin connector which leads to the ignition switch, again easier than it sounds. Now you should have the ignition switch in your hand still bolted to the aluminium casting and this makes it easy to take to the bench for drilling out. The two bolts holding the switch in place have to be drilled out and as I do not have a suitably equipped mate to do it for me I bought a cheap bench drill (Sealey SDM30) so that I could drill straight and true and started with a 2.5mm hss drill bit drilled out the centre and then widened the hole to 3.5 then 4 and then 5mm at which point I was able to remove most of the old bolt and re-cut the thread using an M6 tap. The most important part was making sure the drill hole was as central as possible, a cockup here would have meant drilling oversize and probably threading M8 or something. I did try at various stages using a left hand threaded bolt remover but the "studs" just would not budge, they had to be completely drilled out. I bought a couple of stainless steel M6 bolts to screw the new switch to the aluminium casting and now just have to put it all back together again. The bit that is going to stress me out now is finding a short circuit. The main fuse blows as soon as the ignition is switched on and I guess that in the accident wires got stretched and have torn somewhere, aaagghh..... At least mechanically it is sorted once more. Incidentally I bought the new ignition switch on-line from Andy's Motorcycles and included a fuel filler cap and side panel lock so everything still works with just one key, less than £40 inc postage which I thought was pretty good. I have repaired the smashed front mudguard by lining it with fibreglass fibre and resin, it just needs sanding and painting. Now for the circuit tester. Hopefully that may help give someone else the confidence to tackle the same job.

Hello My son has just had a bit of a bump on his 2008 YBR 125 Custom and slid it under a car but minimal damage to him or the bike (lesson learned). The wires at the bottom of the ignition switch are soldered onto a circular plastic disc and this has popped out of its housing which has broken. It looks as though this bottom section can be unscrewed and replaced without having to change the whole ignition lock but then again....? How do I get at it and how do I remove what seem to be tamper proof screws? I have already removed the two bolts holding the two instrument dials in place and dropped the headlamp so there is reasonable access but I expect there is a trick or too to keep things easy from someone who has done it before. How do I deal with the tamper proof screws? Do I need to replace the whole ignition switch even though the part with they key is ok? Any advice appreciated. Les