Good evening all,
I've been rebuilding my 1983 R80RT this week. The bike has been off the road since March when I removed all the bodywork and left it with my friendly neighbourhood paint sprayer. I picked the bodywork up on Monday and have been rebuilding it yesterday and today.
Whilst the bike has been in the garage I have intermittently had it connected to a battery tender. A couple of weeks ago I fitted a set of HiCap battery leads, a stainless battery tray and other bits of bling. At that stage I reconnected the battery (although there was no ignition switch fitted so nothing worked). I cannot remember whether I put it back on the tender, to be honest - I think probably not.
I got as far as reconnecting all the electrics at the front end of the bike today and decided to check that everything was working. I turned the key - nothing. No warning lights and the clock wasn't working.
I checked the connections on the ignition switch, but they are exactly as they were before the strip down.
Starting at the basics, I put the meter across the battery terminals. Nothing - not even a glimmer. I immediately checked the meter on the Adv and got a fully charged reading.
The battery is a wet cell - I have been so used to gel batteries that I am ashamed to say I hadn't looked at the levels, all of which were below the minimum line. Poo - new battery time...
A neighbour came over and offered a set of jump cables. I parked the Adv alongside and connected the batteries up. As soon as I connected the Earth (second) cable, the RT's starter motor fired. I disconnected and rechecked that the ignition was off, then reconnected with the same result. I noticed that the clock started running - the starter continued to run no matter what I did to the kill switch, starter button or ignition switch. I switched the lights on, but they stayed off (I think they are disabled when the starter operates anyway, but I may have made that up).
It was getting late, so I took the battery out and left the bike for the evening.
Now, let's go back to fitting the HiCap leads. These come as a kit from Motorworks and will improve your starting, make the day brighter and generally improve your life. They are meant to be a straight swap, but they are not (and this may be significant). The earth lead is a straight swap, but the OEM positive lead splits into two, one cable connecting directly to the starter, and a smaller cable running to the starter relay. I called Motorworks about this when I was fitting it and they advised splitting the original positive cable and running the original wire to the starter relay, and running the new one to the starter. I did this with no particular drama.
I do remember that fitting everything neatly under the starter cover on top of the engine was a bit of a struggle and wonder if I've touched something against the inside of the cover or something.
Any ideas on what might be causing this please??
Mike
I've been rebuilding my 1983 R80RT this week. The bike has been off the road since March when I removed all the bodywork and left it with my friendly neighbourhood paint sprayer. I picked the bodywork up on Monday and have been rebuilding it yesterday and today.
Whilst the bike has been in the garage I have intermittently had it connected to a battery tender. A couple of weeks ago I fitted a set of HiCap battery leads, a stainless battery tray and other bits of bling. At that stage I reconnected the battery (although there was no ignition switch fitted so nothing worked). I cannot remember whether I put it back on the tender, to be honest - I think probably not.
I got as far as reconnecting all the electrics at the front end of the bike today and decided to check that everything was working. I turned the key - nothing. No warning lights and the clock wasn't working.
I checked the connections on the ignition switch, but they are exactly as they were before the strip down.
Starting at the basics, I put the meter across the battery terminals. Nothing - not even a glimmer. I immediately checked the meter on the Adv and got a fully charged reading.
The battery is a wet cell - I have been so used to gel batteries that I am ashamed to say I hadn't looked at the levels, all of which were below the minimum line. Poo - new battery time...
A neighbour came over and offered a set of jump cables. I parked the Adv alongside and connected the batteries up. As soon as I connected the Earth (second) cable, the RT's starter motor fired. I disconnected and rechecked that the ignition was off, then reconnected with the same result. I noticed that the clock started running - the starter continued to run no matter what I did to the kill switch, starter button or ignition switch. I switched the lights on, but they stayed off (I think they are disabled when the starter operates anyway, but I may have made that up).
It was getting late, so I took the battery out and left the bike for the evening.
Now, let's go back to fitting the HiCap leads. These come as a kit from Motorworks and will improve your starting, make the day brighter and generally improve your life. They are meant to be a straight swap, but they are not (and this may be significant). The earth lead is a straight swap, but the OEM positive lead splits into two, one cable connecting directly to the starter, and a smaller cable running to the starter relay. I called Motorworks about this when I was fitting it and they advised splitting the original positive cable and running the original wire to the starter relay, and running the new one to the starter. I did this with no particular drama.
I do remember that fitting everything neatly under the starter cover on top of the engine was a bit of a struggle and wonder if I've touched something against the inside of the cover or something.
Any ideas on what might be causing this please??
Mike
). The problem was caused by the battery getting low which caused the starter relay to stick in the open position so it was constantly trying to turn the engine over. I topped up the battery and put it on charge and before refitting I gave the starter relay a few vigorous taps in order to free the sticking contacts as they can get fused together. This freed them up and when I refitted the fully charged battery all was well. Hope that this is a similar problem for you as it is an easy fix. 
). The headlight dipped and main beam do not work. With sidelight selected, I get the front & rear sidelight. Switching to headlight extinguishes the sidelights (front and rear). This is true whether on dipped or main beam. The headlamp flasher switch still operates the main beam correctly.
