After reassembling the engine on the Shadow, I took it for an inaugural ride. As I was heading back to my house, the engine just stopped running. The lights stayed on, and the engine turned over when I pressed the start button, but the engine wouldn’t fire up. The carb was sending fuel to the engine, and there wasn’t anything caught in the airbox. Getting the bike back to my garage, I took the spark plugs out, and tried test firing outside of the engine, against grounded bare metal. None of them fired. I even test fired them on the TW, which uses the same plug, and all the spark plugs fired. At the time I was just about to start moving (I got a new job, and moved all my stuff into storage, and stored my bikes at my dad’s house), so I set the project aside. I figured it was either a blown fuse, a wiring issue, or at worst, some issue with the Crank Position Sensor (CKP), and I might have to replace it. I had issue with the wiring of the TW200’s CKP getting cut due to it being attached to the crankcase cover.
And lo and behold, that is exactly what had happened. One of two things happened: The CKP wire (which goes directly from the CKP, to a connector on the main wire harness, to the fuse box, connecting it to the ignition system) had either touched the exhaust due to poor wire routing, or it had rubbed up against the frame, and the high vibrations of a V-Twin/rough roads of Oregon had caused it to wear during my short ride. I decided to crimp the wire, wrap it in copious amounts of electrical tape, cover it with plastic wire tubing, and zip tie it to the frame in a way that it wouldn’t touch the exhaust, or move to excessively due to the vibrations
First crimp. I’ve gotten really good at crimping wires with all of the wire work I’ve done.
Crimps done. I like using waterproof/heat shrink crimps. You just head the crimp up, and the crimps come with some water proof glue that seals the crimp water tight as the heat shrink heats. This strengthens the repair of the crimp by making it more rigid, and you don’t have to do any additional waterproofing.
Excessive of electrical tape. I wrapped three layers of e-tape around my repair. It makes the repair that much more rigid, and if it rubs, it’s going to be a long time before it gets to the wiring.
Plastic wire tubing. This stuff is great. It makes repairs look professional, and protects the wires from movement. I used it on the battle bus when I rigged up the overhead light pods.
Me test firing the spark plugs to show that the ignition now works, and the running bike. Easy fix. Easy day.