In the beginning, I didn't say the clutch interlock was bypassed because it WASN'T. FYI, I have an Associates in Electronics, and was the Electronics Technician in the Nike Sport Research Lab for nine years, until I moved over to supporting I.T. in the Footwear Development department.
Here's the sequence of events:
1) Replaced the American-style throttle/switch cluster with a used factory European assembly in order to get the top-exit throttle cable arrangement because I had previously added European-style low bars and the cable guide tubes were hitting the fuel tank. I replaced the starter switch in the Euro assembly with the one from the American assembly because it was in better shape. Kill switch was in good shape, so I left it alone. I also left the headlight on/off switch in place, but put heat shrink tubing over the terminals that were no longer used when I switched the others over from the 6-pin Euro connector to the 4-pin American connector. The two terminals were isolated from each other by the heat shrink tubing.
2) Noted that the bike started and ran normally when the neutral light was on and the clutch was pulled in. Didn't try starting with the clutch lever out or the transmission neutral indicator off because that's not how you start a bike.
3) Noted that the bike would pull away from a stop normally as long as I kept the clutch lever less than fully released. When I fully released the clutch lever, the engine died instantly as soon as the clutch interlock switch opened.
4) Bypassed the clutch interlock by disconnecting the two leads from the wiring harness, adding a jumper wire between the two male connectors and further adding a tie-wrap to bind the two male connectors tightly together. The starter would now presumably engage even with the clutch lever released, but that's not how you start a bike.
5) Never tried starting the bike on the center stand because the area laughably referred to as my "work area" is a gravel strip on the street side of the 8" tall (no kidding) "sidewalk" separating my front yard from the street, and the surface is too uneven to allow the center stand to be deployed without a crane of some kind. Bike starts (as usual) with the side stand either down or up, and I see no sign of a side-stand interlock switch. Didn't spend much time verifying that the bike would start with the sidestand down, because that's not how you start a bike, but did try it a couple of times (I think). Most times, raised the side stand before trying to crank the engine in neutral, because that IS how you start a bike.
6) The bike really is in neutral when the indicator so indicates. When the bike is fully warmed up, I can ease away by feathering the clutch, but as soon as the clutch lever is released fully, the engine dies instantly. (Of course, this was before I bypassed the clutch interlock that prevents the engine from even cranking without the lever pulled in).
7) When the clutch interlock was still functional, and after, the engine shutoff and the starter button worked as they normally did before I swapped in the new cluster.
All clear? I'm still stumped.
