Clark is a material handling company that specializes in manufacturing fork lifts. The Clark forklift has an electric ignition that connects to the rechargeable battery, either via an electrical wiring harness or directly to the battery terminals. The ignition switches on older model Clark forklifts are wired directly to the battery. If the ignition switch wears out, as they can sometimes do over time, it will have to be replaced. Replacement takes approximately 20 minutes.
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Lift the seat and use an adjustable wrench to remove the negative and positive battery cables.
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Use an open-end wrench to remove the bolt holding the ignition assembly in place on the back of the dash panel.
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Unplug the plastic wiring harness that the ignition switch is plugged into. Some older Clark forklifts may not have a wiring harness, but instead, wires that run directly from the ignition to the battery and to a ground. If this is the case, use a screwdriver to loosen and remove the ground wire and take the positive ignition wire from the positive battery post.
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Plug in the plastic wiring harness if the model of forklift you are working on has one. If not, connect the positive wire to the positive battery post and then place the positive battery cable back into place with the adjustable wrench. Connect the ground wire from the ignition to any random bolt or screw on a grounded surface on the frame.
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Slip the new ignition switch back into the dash panel hole and then replace the retaining bolt with the open end wrench.
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Replace the forklift’s negative battery cable with the wrench.