Smokin Joe

The vent in the fuel filler cap on my ancient GPZ500 is well cruded up. I can poke both ends clear but obviously not the whole way through as it apparently wanders round the houses. I thought of soaking it in one of these cleaning thingies Mrs SJ has in her kitchen, Oxy Magic or some such. It does a grand job on the kettle, would it damage anything in the cap?

Well, a short run today of about 10 miles (Bloody cold and blowing a gale), mixture of flat out and pootling, used all the electrics and held up ok. All the visible wiring looks ok. Age and vibration maybe?

Yep, 25 laps of the block planned for tomorrow.

Right, there's no blackening anywhere on the fuse, but both legs of the fuse itself have broken leaving the U shaped top detached, if you see what I mean. Can't tell if one side has melted or not but it does look a bit burred over. Otherwise the metal is clean and bright.

"BiL the sparks" was a reference to my brother in law the electrician, not the plugs

That chain looks to be jumping in time with the knock. Damaged sprocket maybe?

Don't know yet, got a multi meter tody so I'll have a check round. According to my BiL the sparks they can fail over time anyway and the bike is 21 years young.

It was indeed the main fuse. Sitting in the fusebox conveniently located under the seat is........a spare 30A fuse

Cheers for the replies, I haven't had time to check it out today but the fuse will be my first port of call and I'm over my brother in laws tomorrow (a retired sparks) so I'll borrow a multimeter off him. I might even buy one too

The bike had been standing for three years before I bought it in October, although it started ok it was a bit sluggish so I thought a new battery was a sensible option. It started on the first touch of the button today so I doubt a battery problem (unless it has shorted itself out).

Didn't check at the roadside because I didn't have a spare anyway. All I looked at were the connections to the battery and they were clean and secure. The bike is old and on the scruffy side so I may well have a dodgy earth somewhere. I know fuses generally go for a reason, but doesn't age and vibration also weaken them?

A nice two mile walk today pushing the GPZ500 home. I lost all the electrics and as the battery is newish I'd be looking at the main fuse I'd think?

If you click the button on your link that says "How it works" it will tell you.

I always warn others, and I appreciate it when they warn me. I may have just turned sixty but I'm still 18 at heart. Let's stick it to The Man.