Well, this was truly unexpected and frightening.OK,I already knew a bit about fuel gauges that didn't work well from my friends pulsars but I never had heard a starter relay that went kaput and that too on day 2...read on-
I came back from pune myself all wet and the bike looking like a she just came from ladakh tour.So naturally next on my agenda was to wash the bike before I show it around.Instead of taking it to washing centre I washed it thoroughly then dried and polished.
showed it to my friends who all had ride on it and were clearly taken by its beauty.
Just then one of my friend reported that tail-lamp were not working besides the orange display was not lit-up.I had no clue about it.We stopped to check and turned off the bike.Then restarted the bike and gosh!The engine started making a terrible sound as if someone was rubbing the insides of engine with a heavy-duty polishing paper!(Frankly speaking I was terrified beyond imagination)what the hell?One of my friend turned ignition off...and ...and even more surprise!The engine went dead all rite but scraping noise continued-YES even after I had turned the ignition off and removed the key from key-hole.
I understood everything in a moment that it was the starter that was still trying to crank the engine despite the fact that the engine kill switch was in off position and ignition turned off.But how?that was beyond me.I just stood there out of my senses.Thankfully one my mate quickly opened the left panel,unlocked the rear seat ,took out tool-kit and dis-engaged the battery.Only then did the starter stopped.
what next I thought?P200 having no kick lever meant that to start the bike either I had to start it down the hill or push it hard.We tried pushing but it didn't start.Only option was to connect the battery.So I turned the ignition on and put the engine kill switch in on position.
As soon as I touched the cable to battery terminal, starter got into action and bike started!again I put aside the cable and starter stopped leaving the bike alive.(However none of the electricals were working including headlight).With help of my friends bikes light I reached home all heart broken and ego hurt!
Next day I decided to take the bike to local Bajaj dealer as there is no ProBiking here in Ahmednagar.(word of caution for would be buyers- normal Bajaj dealers wont service your P200/P220).
My fear turned true there.Guys at Bajaj dealership refused to touch the bike.
I was exasperated to say the least.After some requesting head mechanic there came to my rescue.I explained the problem and also showed him "practical".He just looked indifferently as if it was routine!But thankfully he ordered for his tools and checked the wires for any short circuit.There were none.Next, he pulled out the plug connecting to starter relay and then took out the whole starter relay.After that he bought one spare starter relay from P150 and inserted the plug into it(the one he had pulled out earlier).Connected the battery,turned on the ignition and cranked the engine.The bike started perfectly and the starter also came back to normal...
Conclusion? He told me , some water most have seeped in through the gap into the relay making it short thus it drew current from battery directly with no concern whatsoever from ignition switch.
Then he took out that new relay and blew some air into my own relay and deployed it to work.This time the relay acted as if nothing had happened.Every other function also worked perfectly.
I rode the bike home without any problem.
(Coincidentally a call came from ProBiking that day in the afternoon asking me wheather there was any problem.I told them exactly what happened.They took notice of it and promised me to rectify the problem on 1st service)
Note - You might be wondering how the relay got cured all by itself?Well it didn't.The relay was still short.What happened exactly is this - When that mechanic fully disengaged the relay from battery,it went into reset postion as there was no current at all flowing through it.So when it was fitted again,everything was normal.
In the end it turned out to be a minor problem with what only the relay needed to be changed.
(After this incident I created a home made cure for the starter relay's problem of getting wet.Interesting pictures of it are here)
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