Its black magic I tells ya....

Yesterday I was fiddling around with the bike. As you do. You know a good fiddle always makes a bike run better. Well not this time. Or so I thought.

Due to what I thought was my fiddling I had no electricity through the bike. So I went to the MZ Yahoo Group, the MZ/MuZ Riders forums, my friends at Mono Connection forums in the Netherlands and Michael Barnes. This is what I posted. It will give you an idea of what I was faced with....

I had removed the tacho as one of the globes had come out and was rattling around in the tacho pod. I found that the centre brass bit on the connector that goes into the tacho for the electricity was broken/missing. So I replaced this little bit of brass. Connected the tacho back to the power supply. Turned the key to on. Started the engine and the tacho doesn't work. Disconnect the connector and pull out the bit of brass I had put in there. Reconnected the tacho. Turned key to on and engine on switch to RUN and press starter button. I hear a loud clunk from down near the fuses and the engine won't start. Press the starter button again. Again a clunk and then not power at all. Nothing. No indicators, horn, lights nothing.

I pulled all the fuses out. The 3amp one broke. So I replaced that with a 10amp as that is the lowest that I have. I replaced the 15amp one with a new one which I assume carries the current for starting system.

Still a dead bike.

Anyone got any ideas? Do I have short somewhere? Does the tacho have to be connected for power to flow to all systems in the bike?

What makes this all worse is wife’s car died big time. Auto transmission is gone. This happened Christmas Eve. And the bike is our sole form of transport now. Gets worse oldest daughter starts first job on Friday night and can't get there by public transport so need the bike really bad. :-(

I received answers from members on all of the forums mentioned above and from Michael. Thanks guys for your valuable Christmas time.

I was advised to check the wiring harness for breaks in the wiring and also to check both the starter solenoid and the relay for the sidestand switch. I did all of this and everything checked out fine but I still have none of that black magic stuff that makes light globes go on.

I had the key in the ignition and had it turned on as I was wiggling wires around to see if the power would come back. I made my way from the font of the bike. By now the fairing has been removed fully. I went through all that wiring hidden by the fairing. Nothing. Was back at the postive cbale from the battery and wiggled it and POW, power. Wiggle again. Nothing. As Darth Vader would say…”Now I have you” .. More wiggles and I have power again. So I take a screw driver and put it to the bolt that holds the positive terminal. Oh no! It’s loose. No wonder I had no power. This should have been the first thing I checked yesterday. But I didn’t. D!OH D!OH at me. So now the lights come on again and the engine starts. Shame about my lights being out. ;-)

The upshot of all this is that I now have a Virago Tacho fitted in place of the MuZ waving one. The Virago one works perfect too.

Now I can take my daughter to her first shift of her first job. Also I can take my wife car hunting. I know nothing about cars. Don't have a car licence. I will just be the chauffeur.

I hate anything to do with electricity. Doesn’t help when you are red green colour blind to. ;-)