The new dash (for my Peg) and the shock (for Jean's) have arrived. I dealt with Jean's shock first, mainly because it is a simple job. The rear shock is held on by 1 bolt at the top and 3 bolts on the linkage plate. It is a simple matter of unbolting, dropping the shock out, pushing the new one in place and bolting it back in. All while sat on the main stand.
Just make sure you note which way round the plate goes (there is a useful arrow on it) or the bike will "bottom out" due to insufficient travel (this happened to us in Punta Arenas).
Jean was made up that she could once more get the side stand down and the angle of lean was the same as mine. The issue appears to have been the spring, and we would love to know exactly how far she rode with it in such a bad state. But it had served us well.
Then I set to on my bike. I plugged the new dash in, turned the keys and .... Insert the I Key (in Italian) was displayed.
I checked with the previous 2nd hand clock, and it still displayed the same. I managed to get hold of the garage that supplied it and they suggested I changed the key "very quickly". It was worth a try, and it worked. To make my life easier I set the display to English and miles.
I left it over the weekend, checking it occasionally and the ignition came on each time with out requesting the code.
Monday morning I set about putting the tank, nose fairing and dash back on. As soon as I switched the ignition on, it asked for the code. It had forgotten the key again. I went through the "learn the key" procedure, and it locked up with "Insert the I key" again.
I took the tank and nose fairing off again, and switched on.... it worked !
So, loose wire then. But which one.
After much jiggling I stripped the loom and started to trace wires.
Each time I thought I had solved it, I jiggled another wire and the code was asked for again.
Eventually I got my head around how the dash and ignition barrel communicated and managed to follow the wiring diagram. This finally lead to finding a corroded wire I had missed when checking the connections. I stripped it out and had new spade connectors put on by Pitstop. Plugged it all back in, and the keys were recognised.
Fixed ? Nope. Jiggled the wires, and the problem came back ......
I was on the case and had a feeling it was the key "antenna". Traced the wires and found *another* junction I had missed, this had a loose connection. More striping of connectors to clean them and a? bit of pliers tweaking to tighten up the female side.
Much wire jiggling later, the ignition still works correctly. As I then lost my pliers, it seemed like a good time to stop and leave things until tomorrow.
