XII stumbling like bad gas or carbs then totaly dying with no elec power.

[wolftaz]

I have had couple months of occasional starter struggling to turn. Also occasional stumbling while running which I thought it might have been bad gas. Until yesterday while coming home from work my bike was stumbling at interstate speed and then at two blocks from home it just shut off. No power except for four-ways. I rolled to a stop and started trying to figure out what happened. Turning the key, flipping the kill switch but nothing. After about 3min the dash lights came back on. It started right up and I went home and parked the bike.
I couldn't find anything for a while. I was starting to think it was the alternator even though that shouldn't have turned everything off. Finally I did find that wiggling the wires going into the bottom of ignition under the key would shut the bike of. Although it didn't turn the power off. I have now struggled and removed the ignition from the bike with help of my ten year old who's arms small and slender. After stripping the shrinkwrap and popping the bottom off the ignition, one of the white wires was loose but being held against the solder by the other wires. The end of the wire was browned and there was a burned hole in the solder where it should have been.
Questions: Should I just solder it back on and put it back together. Do I need to check my starter and alternator also or would this wire have caused all my problems? I have most areas exposed right now because I was checking grounds and wires on the starter and alternator.

[triton28]

I suspect just re-soldering the wire should solve your problem. Try the "wire jiggling" test before buttoning everything up.
If it doesn't solve the problem come back on and let us know. Your alternator should be fine as the bike wasn't running with the battery out of the charging circuit; and the starter should be a non-issue for this problem except for perhaps being a 2 brush starter which is draggy in nature.
However, since you are checking systems out, and this is an easy test, hook up the 2 probes of a voltmeter/multimeter set to 20 Volts, to the 2 corresponding + and - terminals of your installed/connected battery and start the bike. At idle, (800 RPM ), there won't be any higher voltage than that contained within the battery. Once you start raising the engine RPM to around 900-1000 RPM you should start to see increased voltage of around 12.5 or so; and after 11-1200 and higher RPM, it should show 13.5 Volts up to 14 Volts.
Dave

[cranky]

... and just for grins, put the probe on the battery terminal, then try the battery
post, to see if anything is lost in the connection.. JM2C

[wolftaz]

Ok, It took me a while but motorcycle is fixed. I had to take the ignition out. I had a white wire that had to be re-soldered and yellow stripped wire that needed spliced where it broke on the inside. I am no longer loosing my presets on my radio. The motorcycle is no longer stumbling, no loss of power and the starter didn't struggle. It seems to me that wrapping wires around the steering column that bends the wires back and forth is not a really good Idea. I might get a extra end for the wiring harness. Then I could unplug the ignition and plug in a on/off switch in inside the head set plug door if this happened again while out.
The battery and alternator are still good.