bike runs, but no electrical instrumentation

[leghorn1956]

One big problem... My 1200 is running fine ,but in the last couple of days I have lost, intermittently, most electrical on the bike.
Always working.... engine, turn signals and 4 way flashers
When the problem occurs, I loose, every other light on the bike; headlight, running, brake, instrument, gauges and tach. Also the horn and cruise (the power light is on but it will not activate )
The power goes off and then comes back on when it wants. I ran some rough roads and it really didn't affect the bike one way or other. It happens when I am moving or sitting still. Turn off the bike and voila ... sometimes it is there and other times nothing. The bike always starts. Started the bike in the driveway.. no instruments . Bike ran for a couple of minutes and all came back. Turned off the bike with the kill switch and went started it again, no instruments. By this, I deducted that it was not the ignition switch as I had not touched it . This has happened many times. There is no difference if I use the kill or ignition switch. With the bike like this, there is NO riding. Looking for some help. Thank you in advance. Desperate JP

[Scott-(Altoona, PA)]

Jean-Pierre, I'm not sure if this will be beneficial or not but I would start with cleaning all the electrical connections on the ignition wiring harness and adding some dielectric grease to them to prevent any corrosion. My first thought was you got bitten but the wire tie bug where the wire-tie from the factory was too tight and eventually started to break the wires internally in the wire harness which runs along the left side of the frame under the fake tank but if it happens at any given time I would start with the connections.

[Ditto]

Our nephew's 1996 VXII did the same thing, and while we were taking the bike apart to have it painted, we cleaned and dielectric greased every connector we could find. The large connector under the left side of the fairing -- located pretty deep under/behind the fairing pocket -- was pretty corroded, and once it was cleaned and greased, the problem went away. If I remember correctly, this connector is white, or at least light-colored, and has 9 or 10 wires coming into each side. No matter what color it is, if you find a connector that big, that is it. I hope this helps.

[the2knights]

The large connector on left side in the fairing is the place. It is a light blue wire, I had to do mine last March.

[leghorn1956]

We hit the jackpot... It was the black wire with a white or yellow stripe that comes from the fuse box. I could see there was a brown area around the BK/Y wire connection .I grabbed the plug to check it out and the power came back on. Cleaned it up a bit, tightened the female side of the wire, added more electrolyte grease and voila... all energized. There was also some water in the connection. Without taking the side fairing off, it is a little restricted to work on the connection. When I get back from my little trip to Finger Lakes, I will do a better job. That might be splicing, before and after the connection and more grease. We will see once the fairing is off. It is great relief knowing exactly what the problem is. With all the info I gave, it is nice to get replies from people who know what they are talking about...not, did you check the fuses, maybe your lights are burned out...etc.,etc.
As usual, thank you very much guys
JP

[leghorn1956]

Sorry.. it is not electrolyte, but dielectric grease
JP