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[Frank]

Barry. The feed to the starter motor is taken directly from the battery via the solonoid and is unfused. If the fuse has blown it's therefore unlikely to be caused by the load of a stiff engine after a couple of years standing. More likely the smaller wires to the solonoid have worn through and shorting on the metal side panel. It's a very tight fit.

[Frank]

Barry, just to clarify, hopefully, the situation with the clutch lever. Operating the clutch lever has no effect on the valve lifter. You can in fact operate the starter with the clutch lever out, so long as the gearbox is in neutral. In this case the earth for the solenoid is taken from the neutral switch in the gearbox, which also lights the neutral indicator. If it is in gear, and therefore no earth from the neutral switch, you have to pull the clutch lever in which provides another earth source via the switch located in the clutch lever housing. The side stand switch and kill switch are to do with the ignition circuit and the starter will work regardless of their positions. I guess the advice to always pull the clutch lever in when starting is more to do with minimising the physical load on the starter motor and therefore the current it draws.

[Barry_Q]

Thanks for all of the information thus far folks. I've yet to go out and check the Electra X for myself, but I suspect my Dad (who knows nothing of the mysteries of electron and circuit)did something daft when he removed the side stand switch, the air filter box, the battery carrier and other assorted gubbins he didn't like the look of.

[Gwilly]

Thanks Frank, had forgotten about the neutral switch as mine being 2002 never had a switch or neutral light.

apologies to Johno, seems to be a bit of a hijack this thread...

[Barry_Q]

All is well folks. It was the simplist of faults. When the battery carrier was removed (and then replaced), the bolts wasn't done up properly. This resulted in a poor earth. The bolts have been done up and the bike runs perfectly. Getting back to Johno's problem. During my investigations of the Electra X's wiring, I found that it's fitted with 2 fuses (Both are sited on the battery carrier). One is for the general electrics. The other is for the ignition system. Remove this fuse and you won't have a spark.