I connected up the loom today for the first time and thought I would try to motor the engine over on the starter. I pressed the button and all I got was a loud rapid clicking from the starter relay. It sounds like the relay is opening and closing really fast.
The relay clicks on and off as normal when you press and release the button with the starter motor disconnected.
Any ideas what the problem could be?

battery ?

bad earth ?

[Edited on 25/11/05 by Jon Ison]

almost certainly battery IMHO, the batt has enough power to throw the soleniod, then the voltage drop from the starter causes it to fall open again. Try it on jump leads

Thanks guys. I will check out the battery tommorow as I dont realy want to go back out to the fridge I call a garage tonight. I was thinking that it may have been a siezed starter motor as the engine has not run for over a year now. But your sugestions about the battery would make sense as it has been sat around for a while as well.

dead starter would just be the one click i guess, unless it had a major shortcircuit in it. But a starter is a bit like a short anyway as the resistance is so low.

Lots off clicking is dead battery

usually

Well I braved the elements and checked the battery. 9.7 volts so it is now on charge. I will give it another go tommorow and let you know how I get on.

Don't expect the battery to recover from that voltage depreciation. Never overload charging or danger of explosion. Typically a motorbike battery is not to be treated like a car battery, it should be kept in tip-top shape (100%) using a trickle charger 300MaH. BE VERY CAREFUL!!!!

Charging it too quickly will only knacker the plates and affect it's long term storage efficiancy. Get a new one... don't mess trying to recoup the old one IMO.

Useful motorcycle battery link HERE

They can be recovered with a deep cycle charger like an optimate but it's cheaper to buy a new battery. It would be a good investment as well as a new battery though, to keep it in good nick.

Thanks for the help. The battery has been fully charged and the engine now turns over on the starter. All I have to do now is fit a fuel tank and exhaust and hope she starts. I will take the battery into work and let the battery shop boys run it through a deep cycle charge just to make sure its OK.

One of these has been a good investment for me over the last year, prior to having one of these I was buying a new battery every year as they seemed to die every winter when not used.

Oximiser

£20 and does pretty much everything a £40 Optimate does, hard wire it in so you just plug in a little 2 pin plug and leave it connected 24/7.

Hi, does anyone have infomation, diagrams, drawings regarding the changes needed to the wiring loom, to sort out the different sensors that are no longer need...any help would be much appreciated
thanks
Len

As far as I am aware all the sensors are required....

I had an auto electrician wire mine up, a bargain at £250, to take away the heartache...

Make sure whatever fuel pump you use, you wire it to the existing bike fuel pump relay, not the new car loom, as otherwise you will never get the fueling right....

Len
You will require all the sensors to make the engine run. You will also have to bypass all the interlocks. I found the wiring diagrams from the maintenance manual a great help(copy available on ebay)