Dead Electrics

[bizzywizzy]

I bought a 1978 Sport that had been a Strada at the beginning of June from the for sale section of this forum. It had been off the road for a few years with fuel sitting in the carbs. They have been stripped ultrasonically cleaned and rebuilt. I started her for the first time on Monday and almost immediately all the electrics stopped, So I checked the fuses, of which there were three, a brown 15amp had no continuity so I changed it. Still no electrics, so I checked the battery, it was only putting out 8 volts, so connected a 12v charger. With the charger on all the electrics came back to life. I bought a new motobatt and fitted it this morning, all the electrics worked fine when standing on my drive warming up. A few mins into the ride the red ignition light flickered a few times then went out. All the electrics are gone again.

Fuses checked, all are fine, new battery giving out a healthy12.75v.

Any ideas of what to look at, or what I might be missing?

Thanks,

Mike

[MarkB]

Most of the electrical problems I've had have been poor earth connections. I'm sure you know the ignition light's meant to stay on all the time.

[bizzywizzy]

So I got my Sport setup today with the new throttle and cables, I balanced the carbs and took a test ride. During the ride all the electrics came back. So I'm not sure what is going on. It seems like its all or nothing! Perhaps it is a bad earth, through I have cleaned them all and made sure they are securely connected.

[mbmm350s]

Hi
Dodgy main switch? Note the ignition system is completely separate from the 12v so the engine runs even when the battery is flat.
Mark

[MickeyMoto]

Fuse, the one that is loose under the side panel? My 500 did the same. The spring in the fitting was weak.

[mbmm350s]

Unless it's been modified all the fuses of 1978 sport are located in the fuse board under the right hand side cover but it's definitely worth looking further I had exact same problem in the 250 with its in line fuse which also had a wimpy spring. Perhaps Springs were particularly wimpy in the 80s?
Mark

[MarkB]

When the electrics on my Sport started playing up and then died in Germany, I found out that the fuse board itself had fractured across the back, meaning that all the fuses had become intermittent.

[acemorini]

I have also had problems with fuse boards, well worth checking.
Regards Pete.

[mbmm350s]

Hi
MarKB and Pete may well be onto something.

When the electrics on my Sport started playing up and then died in Germany, I found out that the fuse board itself had fractured across the back, meaning that all the fuses had become intermittent.

Here is a fuse board taken from a 1978 sport(CEVXXXT) which intermittent fault, its not so obvious, there is no cracking.

fuseboard3.jpg (227.15 KiB) Viewed 7247 times

At the top left fuse , I can move the fuse holder left to right, this should not happen!
Closer inspection shows that the rivet in the middle of the two fast-on connectors
is loose, its sunken into the plastic. The plastic has melted at some point and made the rivet loose.
So please check that the fuse holders cannot be moved side to side.
It may be possible to re-rivet or rectify with a screw and nut after drilling out the rivet, or bridge with an inline fuse.

Any used ones are likely to be poor condition. There are also variants of the fuse board depending on model
with either the 5 pole or 6 pole main switch.
If the fuseboard is unservicable then perhaps better to use something that can take standard blade fuses
and a multi-pole connector block, try vehicle wiring products I used one of these on my 350

http://www.vehicle-wiring-products.eu/p ... e-fuse-box

Mark

[mbmm350s]

Hi,

Its the Berkshire section Meeting, at the Bell Aldworth Berkshire tonight from about 7:30
3 Ambury Rd, Aldworth, Reading RG8 9TL

I guess you wouldnt risk the Morini, but if there is anything you would like checked electrically.
George and I will be there, I can bring a meter?

Mark

[bizzywizzy]

Hi,

Its the Berkshire section Meeting, at the Bell Aldworth Berkshire tonight from about 7:30
3 Ambury Rd, Aldworth, Reading RG8 9TL

I guess you wouldnt risk the Morini, but if there is anything you would like checked electrically.
George and I will be there, I can bring a meter?

Mark

Thanks Mark. I didn't see this until this morning so didn't ride up to the Bell. It may be just a little further than I'm ready to venture yet with the bike still being sorted.

Thanks again,

Mike

[bizzywizzy]

Just wanted to give an update as I have today finally sorted the issue.
Three very kind volunteers from the Motorcycle Restoration team at Brooklands Museum (just up the road from me) came over this morning and worked through various things on the electrics. They eventually determined that the ignition switch was the culprit. One of the insulators on the spade connectors had just about completely melted and another was on the way. With that info I sent them on their way and said I would try and source a replacement. Over lunch I decided to strip the ignition switch and discovered that one of the small springs was loose inside the switch and was causing a short. I gave it all a good clean and assembled it all tightly back together, rewired it into the loom, turned the key and bingo full electrics are restored.

So now with lights, signals and horn I can take to the road and start to think about getting her in better tune to run well at low revs, at high revs she is smooth and pulls like a train, at low revs she bogs, splutters and backfires from time to time on deceleration. So one big problem down, now on to the next!

Mike

[Daddy Dom]

Very satisfying sorting one thing, isn't it! Then moving onto the next chapter

The last job I did was fitting a NOS CEV fusebox I found online, at a very reasonable cost. It only needed altering very slightly with the Dremel. I worried I might unleash all hell in swapping them over but no, all is well; lights a bit brighter, indicators a bit faster.