suspected broken wire in loom

[Dookbob]

HELP. I have a problem that has just showed up, when I switch on the ignition the red and green lights dont always come on, a wiggle of the handlebar then try again fixes it, but it is happening more often now. It,s looking like the broken wire syndrome in the loom behind the steering head. Does anyone who has had this problem ( I know that Utopia has had it on his 750) remember where about the broken wire was, I,m hoping to pin it down somewhat before I start digging into the loom. The main loom splits into four or five smaller looms as it get closer to the head stock. When the ignition fails to switch on , everything on the right hand lighting switch still operates ok, so I,m sure that part of the wiring is ok.
Any comment from members on this will be welcome before I start into it.

[Mr Gazza]

I had one go on my first Monster (it was only about three years old at the time!)

It was the cable from the starter button and it broke somewhereabouts the steering head. Or in other words between the forks and frame, in the bit that gets all the flexing.

I managed for a little while by moving the bars until I found the sweet spot where it would start, that gave me a bit of a clue where it was. You might even be able to narrow it down a bit by massaging the loom with your fingers to see if it will, make or break at any point?

[utopia]

Yep, I did have a wire broken at the headstock.
My symptoms were that the starter button did nothing unless you wiggled the bars from side to side at the same time.
If I remember correctly it was a blue wire with a red tracer .. I can check if you like.
At first I cut into the loom and soldered the break but the repair only lasted a year or so before it broke again, adjacent to the soldered section.
This time I replaced the complete wire.
By disconnecting sufficiently to be able to get the loom lying nice and straight and warming it with a hairdryer I was able to thread the new wire into place without cutting into the loom at all.
This was a much neater repair and I wish I'd done it that way in the first place.
Your symptoms sound slightly different to mine so it might not be the same wire and not so easy to replace in the same way but I reckon its definitely worth thinking about.

I actually ended up stripping the blue wire out of a length of household electrical cable and used that for the new piece.
This was the same or slightly larger total csa, but with a greater number of thinner wires, so it was perhaps both stronger and more flexible too.
I've had no trouble in the two or three years since doing it.

[Darren69]

My S4 was rebuilt at great expense by the guy that used to own Moto Strada, and he explained to me that it had been done with all the latest best practices, his employees were mostly ex Ducati Leeds/Manchester and they appear to have re-routed the main loom onto the other side of the headstock? Not sure why but maybe that was an attempt to avoid the problem you're having now?

I'm probably tempting fate but its been fine all this time!

[Dookbob]

Thanks for your replies, every little bit of info helps to feed the brain before going in with the knife. Don't bother to check the wire colour Jeff. It doesn't,t sound like my problem is going to be the same wire, but thanks very much for the offer.