NC31 won't start

[johnjohn]

Hi!
I have a NC31 and I took it out for a spin the other day. Anything was normal, nothing special happened. I brought it home, stopped the engine, came back after 15 minutes, ignition on, everything normal, but when I tried to start it, all electrics went off. Nothing. No lights, nothing. It started when I push started it, but could barely idle. The main 30A fuse in the starter relay was blown, I replaced that and still nothing. I tried to jump start it and still nothing. I thought I might ask you before starting to throw money at it.

My hunch is that the problem is with the starter motor.

Any suggestions, any advice? Do I really need to take the tank and carbs out to be able to take the starter motor out?

Thanks a million!

[billgrundies]

Hi johnjohn, my lad had the same symptoms as yourself with his er5. it proved to be a dead short in the ignition connections in the headlight due to water and corrosion of terminals. sounds like you may have a short somewhere, may be your starter as you suspect. if you are going to remove the starter your best removing the carbs for access to the inner fixing bolts. so it's tank off, move cdi unit, remove the 2 airbox bolts, slacken carb to airbox clamps, pull off top hose and pull airbox backwards for clearance. slacken carb to engine clamps, pull carbs back and out to the right. you don't have to pull them all the way out to access the starter fixing bolts. once starter is removed if spun by hand and is stiff or noisy it should be suspect. meter it's casing to top terminal. the unit can be stripped checked and cleaned. if all is ok I put starter across a battery on the bench to test operation. refit in reverse and don't forget to clean and refit the earth strap to the fixing bolt at rear of the starter. hope this is off some help to you.

[johnjohn]

Thank you very much indeed for the details. I will have another go at measuring connections in the headlight and then proceed to the starter motor. Thanks a lot!