Take it up a steep hill run with it, throw it in gear and pray!!!

 

Check your cables thoroughly. Take them off, flex them and check for any "limp" areas in the cables, which will indicate a badly corroded section.. Or better yet, simply replace them before continuing further. Cables as old as yours might well be corroded badly somewhere inboard of the terminals, enough that they are only connected by a strand or two of wire. Then, when you hit the starter that one or two strands of cable still holding act like a fuse under the heavy starter load and burn in two.

 

 

Well, here's a bit of an update on my plight.I've been going through all electrical connections. Checking their integrity and looseness. One stood out as a clear-cut potential culprit. I replaced it but still nothing. While I was checking and tightening all connections I wrenched on the one big nut on the starter solenoid and broke the solenoid. It basically disintegrated. Now I have to replace the solenoid. I took the solenoid out already. So, here's another question for site members - could that have been the source of my electrical problem all along? The short time I had when the electrical was working (before my no electrical at all problem) wasn't totally successful because every time I tried to press the button starter I could just hear a click but it didn't start at all. Typically is a clicking starter a solenoid problem or a starter problem or something else? Plus, is it wise to just change the solenoid or should I do the whole starter? Remember the bike only has 5500 miles on it but sat for 39 years.

 

A bad starter solenoid wouldn't result in a totally dead bike with no lights etc. Did you get the lights back?

 

Put it back in the barn!

 

F*ck that, sell it to ME!

 

Not yet. I'm not getting any power to the ignition switch it appears. I touch my light tester to the ignition switch and it doesn't light up. Everything seems to get routed through those small relays (they might be called something else but Im calling them relays) under the seat. For example, a negative wire from the battery gets fastened to one of them. Everything from the negative side of the battery seems to check out so therefore I thought it must be something with the bike not getting power from the positive side. Does that make sense? Is that feasible?

 

Proviso - my advice is "in general" information on motorcycles - not yours specifically.

There shouldn't be a relay between the battery and the ignition. You need a constant hot there. The only thing between the battery and the key switch should be a fuse. So in short - you need a fused wire going directly from the positive on the battery to the common on the ignition switch - no relay or interruption. There will also be a much heavier gauge cable going to the starter, but that won't have anything to do with whether or not you're getting power to the rest of the bike.I had a 77 Ironhead and I don't recall any relays. In fact I was concerned that the wiring was overly simplistic with not enough fuses. Maybe post pics of the relays?

 

That's a good idea. I'll post pics of the relays. It will have to be tomorrow though since I have a busy day today. Electrical problems are sometimes like finding a needle in a haystack but I'm convinced this is no insurmountable challenge. It will just take some patience. Thanks in advance for your help or to anyone else who has provided any great info. It really is appreciated. Pics will be posted tomorrow.