Ignition switch issues-defect
 

I started having intermittent start/run problems with my ASW UTV 150cc not long after new. It quickly became obvious in my case that the ignition switch was acting up because I would have to wiggle the key to run the starter. The first thing I noticed was that the back of the switch has a plastic weather boot on the wire harness with a 90 degree bend. This bend was pointing up. I found this odd as I work with electrical and normally I would expect to see the boot pointing down to form a liquid drip loop. I jumpered the plug near the switch and all worked well. I pulled the boot back and found the switch to be full of water and corrosion. I called ASW and told them that it had sat in the rain. At first they said my fault-my cost. I explained that the boot was pointed up and basically acted like a funnel rather than a seal. They said they had not seen this before and sent me a new switch assembly (with wire pig tail harness) under warranty. These swiches are keyed to the hole in the dash and only fit in one position. The new switch was configured the same as the bad one with the boot pointing up. These switched are fairly flimsy and I didn't want to try to desolder/resolder. I pulled back the boot and carefully folded the wires over and RTV'd. So now the boot points down and it works fine.
I would suggest that everyone take a second to check this out on your machine. After all the messing around I realized that it would have been simpler to file another key slot in the dash hole opposite of the original and rotate the whole switch.

I never even paid attention to which way that boot goes. Seems to me it is all contained in a housing anyways isn't it?

I have no idea how many design variations ASW has. My dash panel is a flat piece of sheet metal hanging below a frame tube. The back of the panel is open to the front area of the machine which is covered by a sheet metal hood. The hood is bolted into the open area between frame tubes but still leaves alot of open gaps.