DOWN TO EARTH

It has been a time of highs and lows. I completed the connections to the isolating switch. turned the switch to on, turned the key in the ignition and there they were, four bright lights shining on the dash board, oil pressure, generator, neutral and low brake fluid warning lights. I pressed the start button and the engine cranked over, yippee!!!! Just to be sure I pressed the button again and once more the engine cranked. I turned to get my camera to record this momentous occasion and all but the brake fluid light had gone out and no more cranking engine.

Bum!! I spent the next couple of days with my multi meter ensuring that there was power everywhere it should be. I tested the relays, the fuses, everything I could think off, but no joy. I studied an enlarged wiring diagram and noticed that the body of the regulator/rectifier was earthed, but I had mounted it on rubber riv-nuts, so it definitely wasn't earthed and then I thought that the engine was mounted to a thickly powder coated chassis, so maybe that was the problem, although I was getting a buzzing from my multi meter between engine and chassis, but thinking on, the brake fluid light was earthed to the chassis, but the other three warning lights are earthed onto the engine, so earthing the engine to the chassis seemed the obvious thing to do.

The original black cable that had connected the starter solenoid to the battery on the bike, was lying unloved and unused on the bench and it was exactly the right length to connect between a gearbox bolt and the new chassis earthing point for the Lucas battery. What do you know, all warning lights back on and engine cranking. I loved that bit of cable. The mystery though is why did the lights come on and the engine crank over in the first place, still happy enough that they do now and I can get on with the rest of the wiring, not forgetting to earth the regulator.