Control switch repair?

Is it possible to repair the control switches on a 550/650? The previous owner of this bike had jury rigged a high/low toggle switch so I know that at least that feature of the left control switch is not working. I can see that there are a couple of screws on the bottom, although I suspect those just clamp the unit onto the handlebars.

 

It will depend on what is wrong in the first place. You are correct, the screws help to clamp the assembly to the bars. I would open up the switches and see if there is something obvious wrong like a pinched or severed wire.

 

The control "pods" can be disassembled and repaired. Internally, they are all held together with screws, you just need to be careful.

 

I had the exact same issue, my left control no longer worked. 25-30 year old solder was coming loose. You can indeed crack open the control, remove all the old solder, and re-solder the wires back onto the control. It is really delicate work, and it is easy to mutilate the inside of the control if your not careful with the solder iron. (I over heated part of mine and melted the plastic block that held the wires for the blinkers, luckily I had another control for spare parts.)

The inner workings of the control are pretty simplistic, I would repair all of the connections while you are at it.

 

This is all great info! I'm going to pull that control off this afternoon and see what I find. I'll post back with my progress. Thanks!

 

Well, I was able to almost completely disassemble the control. The only component I didn't remove was the horn button. It looked like I was going to have to bend one little plate to get that out so I just left it.

All solder joints looked very good, actually. I cleaned everything up and made sure all contacts were nice and shiny. I also tested continuity between every contact and the connectors under the fuel tank. All were good so the wires are fine up to that point.

I don't think I'll be able to do much more until I have a new ignition switch and can start rewiring the hotwire job and rat's nest of splices behind the headlight created by the previous owner.

Thanks for all input!

 

PM me with your email address if you'd like a set of wire and cable placement/routing diagrams from the factory book.