Hitchcocks Forum

Hello to you all, - My mates's Electra X 2005 has a really strange problem - hold the starter button down and it wont spark until you release it, sometimes theres enough spark for it to catch - brand new battery, coil and TCI have not solved the problem - I am asking as he is at the end of his tether and is not computer literate - any ideas ?

New starter button? New solenoid?

Now that is interesting for I have just been musing on a similar symptom with my Electra X. I also find that if I use the kickstart it invariably fires up on the first compression stroke even from cold.
I have a theory that the electronic ignition circuit is failing to work while the battery voltage is low. (It will be about 10v while the starter motor is running.)
I propose to see how it starts if I connect a temporary external 12v to the ignition unit.

The battery needs to be able to hold 13.2 volts for the electric starter to work properly.

To do that the battery would have to have zero internal resistance.
Produce one and you will make a fortune!

Well all decent 12 volts batteries when fully charged and working properly show 13.2 volts.
Most starting problems on Hardly Dangerous's are down to batteries not holding 13.2 volts.

It's a shame RE India went for a TCI ignition on the Electra-X and didn't fit CDI (electrically separated from the rest of the system), it seemed to work fine in the 350 kick-start lean-burn models on the Indian home market.

Is the starter turning over on demand, regardless of any spark? If so, we can discount the solenoid or the neutral light switch, which can cause problems.

My suspicions at the moment would be an intermittent wiring fault, and bearing in mind his Electra-X's wiring will be at least fourteen years old (the 2008 models were actually imported in 2007), that's plenty of time for deterioration to creep in. He'll need to go through and check the wiring between the battery and ammeter, ammeter and ignition switch, ignition switch to TCI and coil, also the wiring from the TCI black or green box to the TCI trigger in the primary chain case. Mine had a mystery electrical failure which I traced to the ammeter feed in the wiring loom, the wire in question had gone brittle where the loom flexed around the headstock. An esay-ish way to check would be to rig up a temporary ignition circuit with some decent wire and see if he gets consisitent sparks back.

The OTHER option is to strip the engine and machine the right-hand crank case to take a full set of timing gears and a nice magneto, the rest of the electrics can do what they bl**dy well like, then!


A.

It might be that an earth connection has degraded so it has relatively high resistance.

My Electra X had a different ignition module fitted from Hitchcocks which changed the timing etc at start on the electric foot which improved mine amazingly I wonder if they still stock them?? I know it helped with backfire destroying the spray clutch but it made starting really easy.

There is some relevant information on ways of getting full 12v to the ignition during starting on the other forum.

http://www.midlandbullets.co.uk/smf/ind ... 1#msg89251

Been meaning to do something about mine for some time, "Rushour" has prompted me to do something about it