as some of you know i sold my f4i in the spring, and i picked up this 85 shadow for a beater. i had to put some money into it to get it to run decently, and i got bored waiting for parts so i painted it too. so i put about 500 miles on it, and the ignition switch broke. i searched ebay, craigslist, and several salvage shops near pittsburgh. nothing, all have nothing. so i finally go to honda, here i find out the parts are discontinued, cant even et them. so now i have this bike that seems like its just gonna sit in my garage for who knows how long. ugh...

heres a pic after al lthe repairs




soooo now i miss my f4i and may consider lookin for another used sport bike. i'll still keep this one, cuz then i'll have the best of both worlds haha

 

Tough break... have you looking into having someone fabricate parts?

 

well, the problem with the ignition switch is the base plate where all the wires plug into is shot. not making contact anymore. i was gonna try to just wire in a basic key switch, but there is like 8 or 9 wires coming out of the back of the switch on the 85. it looks like 83,84,86,87 all use the same time of harness, 85 is the odd ball out of course

 

can you disassemble it and make new connections? I can't believe that no one has anything that comes close

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors...ZWDVW

 

thats what i was tryin to see if i can dissassemble it but im afraid the plastic will break. i dont see how that base plate comes apart. i was looking at that ignition switch earlier, not enough wires coming out of the base. i counted mine again to make sure, mine has 8 coming out of the bottom, it splits off into three harnesses

 

time to break out the wiring diagrams and do a small switch or switch panel

 

fixed it!!! had to do a little modifications, but i was able to use the old ignition switch

buuuuuuuuuuuut i think i may still end up wandering back into the sport bike world, i miss that f4i way too much


Modified by danteisme at 5:24 PM 7/8/2008

 

Good job!

 

Looks real good, i'd hate to see my bike just sit too. Check out servicehonda.com i tried looking for your part but wasn't sure if your model was a vt700c or what. They had parts for a 85 shadow under vt700c so check it out.

 

figured i'd update this post, since i really changed the look of this bike over the winter, just finished(well almost finished) last weekend. chopper, bobber, whatever you wanna call it i just made it so it was different and i liked it











the 24 year old rear shocks dont like the new fender, i hit a bump and the tire comes up and smacks the tail light. so i got some new to me shocks on the way. if they dont work, i'll just hardtail it. the list of mods from the first pics to now is extensive haha

what ya think?

 

looks pretty good, im riding a bobber as well and enjoying every minute of it, lol.

 

Hey... red DA!

Did you think about starting a project like that with a Magna instead of a shadow?

 

haha yeah thats my brother's car, mine is the teg in front, then the accord is my other brother's car.

i cant say that i did think about it with a magna. i actually got this bike with the intentions of doing nothing to it haha. is it common to do the magnas up like this?

 

The new pics look badass.

I've never ridden a hardtail but I can't imagine it's much fun. My dad's Harley is a hardtail and he always complains about the bumpy roads around our house.

 

yeah, i'm kinda hoping the springed seat will take some of the impact, i dont expect it to take all of it. might be rough haha

 

Word.

 

BTW nice bike.