Motorcycle Key Will Not Turn in the Ignition

A car that will not start is inconvenient. A motorcycle whose key will not turn is immovable.

You cannot push it anywhere useful with the steering locked, and it is not going on a tow truck easily either.

The good news is that the most common cause is not a fault at all, and you can rule it out before ringing anyone.

Try this first: the bars are under tension

On almost every bike the ignition switch and the steering lock are one unit. When you park and turn the bars to lock them, the locking pin drops into a slot in the steering head. If the bike then settles — on a slope, off the side stand, or because you nudged it — the weight of the bike presses that pin sideways against the slot. The key physically cannot rotate because the pin cannot lift.

The fix is to take the load off it. Hold the bars and push them firmly in the direction they are already turned, hard against the stop, and turn the key at the same time. If that does not do it, straighten the bike up off the stand so it is vertical and try again.

This accounts for more "broken ignition" calls on bikes than anything mechanical. Try it twice before you assume the worst.

Then look at the key itself

Bike keys live a harder life than car keys. They ride in pockets with coins, they get rained on, and they are usually the only key the bike has ever had — so there is no second key to compare against.

Hold the blade up to the light next to a flat edge. A key that has worn down loses the sharp shoulders between its cuts, and a rounded key will eventually stop lifting the wafers inside the lock to the right height. It works, then it works only sometimes, then it does not work at all.

If the key looks worn, that is good news relative to the alternative. A fresh key cut to the lock's original specification — not copied from the worn one — usually restores normal operation without touching the ignition. That is motorcycle key cutting work, and it is a great deal cheaper than a barrel.

Signs the lock itself is the problem

It is the ignition rather than the key if:

• The key turns roughly or needs jiggling in every position, not just from off

• You can feel grit through the key as it turns

• The key goes in only part way, or goes in fully but feels loose and sloppy

• Someone has tried to force or tamper with it — a bent key, scratched surround, or a barrel that spins freely

A worn ignition barrel on a bike wears the same way a car's does: the wafers inside lose height, the tolerances open up, and eventually the key cannot line them up. On a car we routinely strip and repair these — see ignition barrel repair for what that involves. On a motorcycle the barrel is usually a smaller sealed assembly and replacement parts come through the bike's own supply chain, so the honest answer is that we will tell you which of the two situations you are in rather than promising a repair before we have looked.

What we can almost always do, even with no working key at all, is read the lock and cut a key to it. That is the step that gets a stranded bike moving again.

What not to do

Do not force the key. Bike keys are thinner than car keys and snap more easily, and a key snapped off inside a motorcycle ignition turns a straightforward job into an extraction first.

Do not flood it with WD-40. It washes out the grease the wafers need, then holds grit. If you want to lubricate a bike lock, use a dry graphite or PTFE spray made for locks.

Do not let anyone drill it. Drilling the barrel is a last resort and it is rarely necessary. A key can usually be cut from the lock non-destructively.

We cover Hamilton and the wider Waikato and come to the bike — garage, car park, or the side of the road. Tell us the make, model and year and whether the key turns at all, and you will get a straight answer on the phone about which job it is.