Im at a loss now?

I went out this morning to fire my bike up, but its acting as though the battery is dead. None of the lights are coming on and it wont even try and turn over. I pulled the battery out and tried it on my neighbors bike and it fired right up, and vice versa his battery acted as though it was dead on my bike. I checked the fuses and they were all good and tried following the wiring as much as I could but didnt find a problem there either. It ran great yesterday though. I have an 82 SECA XJ650 which im not at all familiar with since I just got it about 2 weeks ago not to mention im not even familiar with bikes to begin with!
Im out of ideas, anybody have a clue what I should be checking?

 

Make sure the kill switch on the right hand control is in the on position. I always forget to turn the switch back to on after doing plug chops.

 

I think it is the kill switch. Its in the run position, but when I turn it theres no click/resistance as if the switch is broken.

 

Jump the contacts of the starter relay. If your bike starts then you know its in your main switch, start button, or kill switch (most likely, there are other gremlins out there) Just start to narrow things down using your trouble shooting guide in the manual.
If you don't have a manual think about getting one. If you don't have an electrical tester, you need one.

let us know what happens

 

Check the connections in the headlight. Right where the ignition switch plugs in you might find it there.

 

Fuses, starter solenoid, ground wires, probably in that order......

 

I just jumped the starter relay and it fired right up! For about 5 seconds. But I only have turn signals as far as lights go, no headlight, tail light, or brake light.

 

Sounds like a fuse block problem. Have you replaced the orginal yet? If you have not you better start there. The fuse holders from the factory are just junk.

 

It does still have the factory fuse block. Looks like I have some work to do!

 

My bike had similar issues. When I opened up the ignition switch it was corroded to hell. Some penetraiting oil and electrical grease fix it up in no time. Now I'm fighting a tci box but thats another thread.

 

I tore apart the kill switch and ignition this morning and both were so badly corroded I dont know how they even worked to begin with. It fires right up now with a little messing with the choke.

I have to replace that fuse box though, I resoldered the connections since they were corroded as well.

Has anyone tried switching over to the color coded push-in blade type fuses like the cars and trucks have? Just wondering because I have a little fuse box here with 8 spots on it about the same size as the original one but it takes the little blade fuses.

 

Thats the recommended replacement, Chacal sells them, some have gotten them from other sources, I changed mine to blade fuses and was glad I did, my fusebox (original) was literally in pieces and being held together with rubber tubing.