Help with 96 Thunderbird

This guy's just joined the forum and posted his question (correctly) in the Technical Help section but he may have been overlooked - can any of you help with this?

"Hello Everyone,

I have owned my Thunderbird since June last year. I have to say even though I
have had problems with it, it had never set me back like this. I love this bike to death, so it
really bothers me I have not been able to ride it in a month.

It all started when I got off work one night, I believe someone wanted to prank me
and disconnected one of the ignition coils, I did not notice any problems until I was halfway home. The bike ran well on the freeway; But,when I got off it, it started bogging down. It did'n cut off; But, felt not all there. Next morning it would not start, I checked everything I could think of at the moment, fuel,battery, etc. that is when I found the loose coil wire and put it back on. The bike started, it was idling rough and smoke was coming out of the right hand side exhaust pipe, after a while things got back to normal.

The overheat light came on, and I turned it off right away. I had pre-existing problems with the
electrical system. The turn signal relay had blown, actually almost melted a few weeks back, along with one of the wires in the fusebox connector. Since the Triumph dealer had no replacement parts and had to back order from England, I decided to mend that as a temporary fix. It worked fine, actually had no issues at all with that.

Ok, so I got a new fusebox and wiring loom and replaced it simultaneously as the old one was coming off the bike, Paying attention to disconnect and replace each of the wires properly by color codes etc.

I checked all connections and they are the same as they were with the old wiring loom. Only now nothing worked, I could not even get the start switch to do anything. A friend suggested we jumped the starter solenoid,nothing happened, we checked the stand and clutch safety switches, jumped them as well, idling very roughly. I managed to have a ride around the block, no problems (except for the erratic idling) it would be jumping from -1000 rpm to 3200 rpm got back home and after a few minutes all instrument panel lights went off, bike died.

I replaced the clutch safety switch, went back to the old wiring loom,got a new solenoid for the starter, still nothing works, switch controls do nothing, except for the headlight and horn. If I jump the starter solenoid the starter motor engages and engine turns but bike won't start. I really do not want to go to the Triumph dealer, for many reasons, overpriced,waste of time,overbooked,dishonest, etc. I live in The US. So they are not very reliable here.

I feel this may be something very simple, I figured maybe some of you can direct me to the proper fix for my baby. Sorry about the long post, I'm getting desperate. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you"

#1
Manuel Renteria, Wednesday at 10:21 PM