OEM loom has an light gauge wire earth connection at the front left side of the chassis, but there should also be a heavy gauge lead from -ve battery terminal to chassis close to the battery as per pic in the haynes manual. If the loom earth wire is the only connection from the battery to chassis you have a problem as it is not designed to supply the high current needed for the starter motor.

Without more detail it is hard to tell what the green wire at the rect/reg does, where does it go?

Hey hey, the man doesn't sleep! :-) Thanks Magg.

Ok. We might be onto something then. There is nothing from the battery -ve to the chassis near the battery. Nada.

I thought from this: "The starter motor electrical circuit runs from the +ve battery terminal to the starter relay and then from the starter relay to the starter motor, all heavy gauge leads, the through the starter motor to the chassis and then through the chassis to a lead bolted to the chassis near the battery and through this lead to the battery terminal." .. you meant the positive would end up at that (now empty) after going through starter motor - I was looking for a wire from starter motor to that lug. But okay, that lug is for the -ve side of battery. The starter is earth via the engine I take it.

Should I just get 5mm plus cable and earth the battery -ve to that lug? The battery -ve to chassis appears to have been removed for *some* reason ?

Could there be valid reasons why it might have been removed?

Oh, and the green wire near the rect/reg just comes out the bottom of the rect/reg it seems then goes to the chassis.

Sorry for the confusion. Yes the starter motor earth is through its case to the chassis. To complete the circuit there only needs to be a heavy gauge lead from the chassis to the -ve terminal of the battery, the one missing from your bike.

Removing the -ve terminal to chassis lead is a bad idea and will give the result you have now. It could damage the earth wire in the loom, something to bare in mind if you have further electrical problems. Someone may have assumed that the earth wire in the loom would complete the circuit and, in theory it does, but it is is not intended to supply the current needed to by the starter motor.

The green wire from the rect/reg connector to the chassis should stay, it is needed.

Bewdy, thanks Magg, Josh.

I'll grab some suitable wire and give it a go this weekend. Bike is pretty loud and I am in a quite neighbourhood so it doesn't get started at night.

Thanks again. I'll report on progress.

Should you have a starter motor type problem at the track in the future and do not have time to fix it, try bump starting. Four small cylinders turn easy even in first gear, I speak from experience.

Yep. Done that!

Btw, a local bike wrecker has a VFR400 battery earth cable so one is on its way.

I'll close this off by giving a quick wrap up.

The cable arrived but it was the wrong one, so I spend 5 bucks on some 6mm wiring and a couple of connectors.

The result of putting a good wire from battery -ve to frame is, when pushing the starter, the the bike has gone from sounding strained to being a jumping puppy. It really has made big difference.

Thanks magg/josh. Appreciated.

Greg.

Good to hear you fixed her up. It's annoying when you have an issue like that and it all comes down to a simple bloody wire!

When's your next race planned for Greg?

Hey Josh, I'm at broadford tomorrow (Saturday) with Champions, got another one next month. I'm not sure if I'll get to round 4 of the vic interclub - it is the day before the Ducati Owners Club Victoria day at Phillip Island and those are fantastic days (limit of 80 people accross 4 groups - lots of space). ... but I've got myself booked for the PI VRR round in October.

You?

My next race will probably be in a couple of months at the Pirelli Road Race series at Broadford. The races are much longer, I think 18 laps, so I'll be knackered and falling asleep at work on Monday! I'm in the middle of repairing my RVF, went for a bit of a slide at Broadford 2 wks ago at Hartwells last round. Mainly cosmetic damage after I tried to fly like Superman when the slick tyres slid around too much in the grass and mud!!