Hi All,
I'm a bit of a lurker here. I've had a 2002 V11 Lemans since March last year - bought as NOS with 8 miles on the clock, now up to 5000+ mainly because work keeps us apart
I recently read about Guzzichondria where you start to worry about all the things that could be wrong
I use the bike a bit over winter but not much. Come spring this year the battery had lost its charge, so I quickly gave it a blast with my car's (old) charger. That got the bike started but it wasn't holding charge - clearly a bad charging circuit, so I take the tank off, battery out, battery tray out etc. etc. clean-up all the contacts / earth points etc. and reassemble. Jump start the bike and go for a short run. When I get back the battery voltage is OK if not great (12.5v after a 2 hour wait). Try and start the bike - nothing. Ah-ha! clearly its the relays (although I had replaced the originals with the recommended 'good' ones). Swap them all back and .... nothing.
OK its not the relays - will it jump start? Yup no problem. OK so the battery must be a bit sulphated, time to get a proper bike battery charger / conditioner. So off to town to buy a nice new Optimate. Sure enough it diagnoses a weak battery so on overnight charge it goes.
Next morning dawns beautifully sunny so its battery back in and go for a ride - no joy on the battery ar$e! Oh well jump start the bike and go for a short ride to empty the tank so I can pull everything apart again. 5 miles from home the bike starts cutting out, will only run below 2000 rpm and that not reliably, eventually dies for good half a mile from home. Time to push!!!
Back in the garage I check the battery voltage - 12.4v WTF? SO I turn on the ignition and the fuel pump won't run (damn those relays!). Try the original ones again - same result. Now I think about checking the battery under load - 7v (hmmm that's not right ...)
The experienced of you will have already picked up that I used a crappy battery charger on a sealed for life battery. I now have a 12v lead acid battery that won't deliver more than about 1 amp . Time for an Odyssey PC545
Fit the battery, check voltages, vroom!!!!!!!!!!! Check voltages, 13.1v just off idle, rises to 13.8v and no further. Time for a ride!!
So I get about a mile from home and the oil pressure warning light comes on . Time for a push home... Check the oil, hmmm fine by the hand book, low based on the advice here. So I top it up, start the engine (battery is still working at least) and the oil light stays on eek. I'm getting quite quick at hitting the kill switch now.
Obviously it's the oil filter spinning off, or the oil pump drive has sheared, or etc. etc. So I came on here again and found the thread about oil pressure switch, don't get dirt in it, keep it dry. Back out to the bike - sure enough with just the ignition on the oil pressure light is flickering. Reading back a few lines you'll see that I cleaned up all the contacts on the bike with the tank off. Including lots of dirty, soapy water between the V just beside the crappy Oil Pressure switch. So I give the switch a tap and with great trepadation re-start the bike - no oil pressure light result!!!
So I'll get one of those ordered, now should I worry about the transmission spring?
Back to happier times ...