Probably the only weak point in this bike

[Micha]

And I mean (of course) the Ignition switch plate inside the headlamp, the one that is activated by the key.
Had some issues with it after facing electrical problems. I went straight to that plate as I know its history, at least on my motorcycle. I purchased it new several years ago, after its predecessor (the original plate) was no longer salvageable.
It is a very pricy part.
After several months of riding, I parked the motorcycle and only recently, several years later, revived it again.

I took it apart yesterday and noticed that when tightening one of the poles against a wire, it puts pressure on its soldering point from the other side, causing the soldering point to tear or detach from the system.

Another pain in the #ss are those stupid headless terminal bolts, that on one hand need a straight bladed screwdriver, and on the other hand it should be a long one in order to get enough torque, but guess what - there's not enough room inside the headlamp's shell... So I replaced them with stainless Allen bolts I had.

The marking on the plate of the various poles is also not something to write an exciting success story about. It is very difficult to see the writing, the imprinting is bad and because it is such a small inscription, it would have been better if that stamping had been filled with some color.

Well, the list can go on and on, but I assume you got the idea of how I feel about this system
I think it would be nice if everyone would write down here the problems they had in the area of ​​the ignition plate, and if they were able to overcome them safely.

Editing:
Of course we must also mention those silly tabs that bend and hold the whole thing in place.
I have long ago replaced them with 3 or 4 mm bolts, which I cut off the head and soldered to each corner. Extra long nylon nuts are used on those threaded rods.

Every time you want to work on this plate, for example if you want to change a wire, you actually have to disassemble it from its place otherwise you can't see what you are doing, since access to it is limited and in fact almost impossible. And this brings us to the big problem when we want to reassemble the ignition key with its spring...

etc... etc... etc...

[ds69]

Hello.
Coincidentally I was just having a conversation with my father regarding ignition trouble on his 1969 R69US. It has an intermittent issue where pulling the "key" out does not stop the engine. His mechanic looked inside and said the contacts appear to open when the key is removed but somehow it's still running after the key is pulled. This bike has sat a long time over the years but other than that is in quite good condition.

We're not sure what to do at this point and there are other ways to stop the engine when this happens intermittently so I guess until it gets worse he's hesitant to buy the new part.

[schrader7032]

Welcome to the forum, ds69! I, too, have an issue with my R69S and my way of killing the engine is to just whack the throttle open which leans the mixture way out and the engine stops.

But it's probably something that needs to be looked at. This was discussed recently and Vech offered up a potential problem and solution...maybe something for both of us to check out. The post was here:

viewtopic.php?p=84990#p84990

[wa1nca]

Quote from Vech :
When you pull the key up, that plate on the top of the moveable arm, comes in contact with a plate that is off of the ground wire terminal. If they do not come in contact with each other, when the key is pulled up, the engine will not shut down.

[ds69]

Thank you! We'll check these items out and report back.

[wa1nca]

I also have a 69US
As you know r69us has a horn on left/right handel bar switches
On mine I keep the horn on the left side and moved the wire from the right hand switch for the horn and connected to #2 on the switch board so I also can kill the engine when I press the rewired horn button it will kill the engine

[ds69]

Reporting back on my intermittent problem where pulling the key wouldn't always kill the engine...the mechanic took this advice, started wiggling wires and found one ground wire loose into the terminal. The clamping screw had fallen out and the wire was sitting in the terminal, likely making contact only part of the time. He replaced the screw and hopefully that mystery is solved.
Thanks!

[Micha]

Well I'm also reporting back
After some adventures with this plate, I think that there is only 1 good solution, and that is to take it out, clean it thoroughly and examine carefully. For example - I found 2 solder points that where loose. The solder drip was there but I was able to peal it of with a screw driver, so I went and checked all of them and found another one.
I soldered them back with home-made speed flux and now they are fused into their seat. I also replaced a wire or 2, soldering them back to place and then cleaned the whole "module", scrubbing it with a stiff brush and paint thinner. Don't want any traces of acid flux.
I replaced all bolts with stainless Allen type. As Vech once mentioned a long time ago, special care should be taken while installing back the plate, one should check that the nail key is making the way down correctly. That plate should not be too low but also not too tight up as it can bend under force, but I can adjust this as I replaced the bending tabs with threaded rods (made from bolts).
I added 1 drip of oil into the ignition key slot and I memorized myself to be gentle with the key and not to slam it in.

That solved all the issues I had.