Revised 2-28-2010
Sometimes it is necessary, for perfectly legitimate reasons, to start and operate a GL500/650 without using the ignition switch. The switch may have failed in the middle of a road trip, or perhaps a parts bike was purchased with no key. Alternately, it may be desirable to bypass the ignition switch during troubleshooting.
My approach to bypassing the ignition switch is described below.
(I originally hesitated in posting this information because a potential thief may find it useful. But after thinking about it, a thief with the skills of using the Internet is probably savvy enough to have figured it out for himself anyway. Hopefully the potential good resulting from disseminating this information outweighs the bad.)
A jumper cable assembly was fabricated as shown. The yellow wire lug
attaches to the positive battery terminal. A 30 amp inline fuse is included for
protection in case of a short to ground. The small battery cable clip attaches
to the fuse block located at the handlebar bridge.
A strain relief is included to reduce the likelikood of the battery cable
clip being accidentally pulled loose.
One end of the cable is connected to the positive battery terminal.
The strain relief is screwed into one of the fuseholder cover screw holes.
The battery cable clip is attached as shown to apply power to the bike. This
photo was taken while the bike was running. Note the ignition switch is in the
OFF position.
It's almost scary how easy it is. When parking the bike in a questionable location it would be prudent to leave the ignition switch in the LOCK position at a minimum.