I have a new to me road king with hard bags with only 4400 miles. Yesterday it would not crank over at all when pressing the start button. You can hear the full pump prime and a relay kick on and the front head light on nice and bright. It eventually started after toggling the tank mounted ignition switch on and off a few times. Today after removing the fuel gauge /ignition switch assembly and probing the switch with a test light I found the switch sometime fails to make a good contact when its in the ignition on state. I also noticed that if after turning it to ignition on and then back the opposite direction just a thin hair the test light would go out. The switch appears it can be taken a part as I see a C clip on it but not sure if that is something I should pursue. I called the dealer and was quoted 160.00 for a new ignition switch and two weeks to get as they have to special order it because its a key switch matched to my fork locks and saddle bags. Is this a common problem others have been thru? No many miles on this so it makes me wonder. Perhaps spraying some contact cleaner in there might help.

Thanks

 

Never heard of this before on a low-mileage bike, but for $160 I would take it apart and clean it up. You have nothing to lose. Wonder if this is a case where the previous owner was in the habit of washing it and then not riding it for a while (so that the water in the ignition switch caused a bit of corrosion).

 

I will try to take switch apart now that I'm back from vacation. I'm hoping it's something simple put not sure how easy it is to take the switch apart. Hopefully someone here might comment on that. I also need to order a service manual for my bike.