Toukakoukan

In at the deep end

Starter.

June 18, 2008

Aaah, a beautiful day at last, sunny after many days of rain and dark skies, a good omen!
I do my daily excercises and waddle down to the local internet cafe to check the online tracking my starter motor.
Status: Out for Delivery
Fuck yeah! About time, it should have arrived days ago, but yours truly typed a 5 instead of a 6 in the postcode of the campsite he’s staying at while ordering the new starter motor, and this delayed matters somewhat.
I buy my measely €4 worth of groceries and try to force myself not to run back to the camp site, instead maintaining an easy saunter.

“Hi.. Any post?”
“Ah! Yes!”
Woohoo! I run over to my bike and tear off my old starter motor and oh-so-carefully fit the new one.
Right, moment of truth… Key in, turned…
*Pushes start button*
*click*
AAAGH.. Bugger… Oh well, it’s probably just a flat battery.
So I wheel the bike over to the start of the hill that leads conveniently into the campsite and push the blasted thing up it.
Sweating profusely I get to the top, wheel it round, leap on and whoosh, starts first time!
I sit it by the side of my tent and give it a bit of time to charge up the battery.

Flicking through the Oddyssey I decide it’s probably best if the revs are above idle, and grab my mole wrench to jury-rig the throttle open.
I pull back the throttle *PHUT WHIRR BANG*, a huge black cloud of smoke issues forth from the exhaust and the bike stalls.
“Hmm.. that’s not cool”
I tentatively try the start button again, still clicking.
“45 minutes was enough to charge it anyway I’d have thought… must be the relay..”

Where was that relay again?
In the process of wrecking the bike I discover that the airbox had a certain amount of oil in it, a gobbet of which probably got sucked in and caused the earlier stall, apparently this can be due to overfilling the oil (which I may well have done).
I eventually pull out what I assume to be the relay, as it’s situated between the battery positive and the starter.
Proudly I present my trophy to the local mechanic who sets about it with a battery and a multimeter.
“Si, working”
Eh? So wtf is wrong?
I retire to the internet cafe and learn a number of things.
1) I just tested the solenoid
2) The location of the relay
3) 45 minutes at idle probably isn’t enough to recharge the battery.

So once I leave this internet Cafe I need to get back to the bike, reassemble it, bump start it again and leave it running for a few hours.
Fingers crossed eh?

  • Jenny Vaughan

    Well at least the delay is not sitting around in Sussex! Have an absolutely brilliant birthday, James and I will raise a glass to you tonight, I’m sure you’ll have more than one! Love Jenny