Coil gets hot on my 77 XLCH, need help/advice

[mattantal]

Hey guys... When my ignition and everything is off my coil gets super hot... So then I have to disconnect my battery... Haven't really been able to ride it yet...so just within the time it takes to kick her over the coil gets hot as hell...any ideas? Something maybe shorted? Maybe bad coil? Eventhough it's brand new?

[Tito]

It's getting power somehow. Your ignition switch is probably bad. Take a multimeter and check voltage at the terminals and at the switch.

[mattantal]

Alright I'll have to check that out next. What am I looking for? Power coming out of the switch when it's off?

[53rigid]

if it is super hot, I am also guessing there is a short somewhere in the coil. so a combo between something staying on and then current running through the coil at rest.

[mattantal]

Yeah the coil might be shot cause I was I had everything together and was trying to get it started and it wouldn't start so I started going through shit and noticed wires melted together coming fromy ignition... So I redid the wires but maybe the coil got killed before I noticed those burnt up wires...the bike starts though..would it still start with a shorted coil?