Forum

[Blue]

Ok Frank. I get the link now between neutral and starter earth. I can sort that with checking wires or getting a new neutral switch.
Multimeter's in the post Norm so the coil and kill switch will be getting a seeing to. Then I'll be going over every connection on the bike in slow time.
....... do I regret being a 2 week old RE owner? Nope! Will let you know how I get on. Tks again.

[Norm]

Mike,
I would't worry at this stage about the neutral switch, you could just earth the wire out so the starter solonoid will activate but I don't believe this is part of the real problem and I'm not sure you would find an answer with a multimeter, my belief is it is a connector or switch problem. Problem is with an Electra coil is you can't just run a wire from the battery directly to the coil without cutting the brown wire to the coil. If you could do this hotwire it would prove if the coil was the problem after 5 mins of running if it didn't cut out. There is also the possibility the TCI unit is failing after heating up.I haven't heard of a pulsar coil failing but anything is possible

[Blue]

On an unrelated subject, I'm trawling the web for RE info and issues and 'wet sumping' crops up all the time.
Am guessing you guys have thrashed it to death (so my apologies), but - 1. Is my 05 Electra susceptible? 2. Should I not use the side stand? 3. How do I stop it? Tks

[Norm]

Mike, don't worry about wet sumping on an Electra, gear pumps and a good oil ring stop it from being a problem, Running on the sidestand isn't a good idea because the scavenge pickup is in the right side case but it isn't going to cause any problems

[Frank]

Does the starter motor work when the engine cuts or does that stop working as well as the neutral light?. If both fail at the same time as the engine stopping then there has to be a common link and I get back to the earthing of the engine. The neutral light gets the earth from the engine casing via the switch, the starter relay the same and if nothing else in the ignition circuit the spark plug via the head. It seems unlikely but got to be worth a couple of minutes checking. If you have had the bike for only 2 weeks do you know it's history, has the previous owner had the engine out and not clamped itback in tight for instance? A few ohms resistance can make all the difference.

[Norm]

Frank,
the previous owner sold it because of this problem lol

[Blue]

Thanks Norm. That just ads to the hilarity I'm getting from my family - lol.

Bike bought in '05. Clocked up 1500mls till '09 with 1st owner. Laid up till '13 and covered in WD40. Next owner cleaned her up and put another 400mls on her. Immaculate condition. I rode her down from Lancs to Cambs with not a hitch. Then did another 50 mile run on top.

I see the 'connection' Frank in your last msg. Will check it out. Thanks

[Thack]

As a complete newbie to this forum I hate to disagree with Norm, but I can say from experience that the Electra X is definitely not immune to wet-sumping.

In normal use, yes, you can forget about it. But I once left my '06 Electra X in storage for about 6 months and that suffered the problem. It started up normally, but after a few miles I noticed it wasn't running properly. I had a long journey to go, so I pressed on. It ran out of fuel far sooner than it should have done, but I filled it up and carried on.

When I got home I opened the air filter box and it was dripping with oil. The filter itself was ruined and all the inside of the box was soaked with oil - it was oozing out, in fact.

Clearly the engine had pumped the oil out of the breather, which is the usual symptom of wet-sumping. So, if you plan to leave it unused for months at a time, it's advisable to put the piston at TDC. In normal use, or leaving it unused for up to a month or so, it doesn't seem to matter.

[Norm]

Thack,
the problem you had was caused by a blocked breather hose, that is what causes the oil to get pumped up into the air cleaner. The scavenge pump will clear the sump in a couple of minutes. those gear pumps will move a lot of oil quickly. I know exactly how long it takes because I had an oil pressure gauge fitted to the rocker feed and you could see exactly when it cleared because the pressure would drop from 30psi to just about zero and then just flicker up to about 5psi

[Frank]

They do wet sump but as Norm says they clear very quickly. The breather system in standard form is always prone to blocking but particularly so after a long winterlay up when weeks of condensation that has formed inside can't be vented properly and so mixes with the oil to form an emulsified cream that blocks the pipes. Before I modified my system I ruined a few filters and spoilt my newly laid drive when half a pint of oil fell out of the air box when I opened it!