When I bought my Rappie last year, I brought it home in a trailer. After unloading it, it wouldn't start, although it was ridden into the trailer. That was due to the sidestand switch just being missed by the sidestand lug - something must have given in transit (actually it was a horse box, not a Transit
. I think it was the actual bracket that had given in transit (it definitely looks slightly bent). From my limited engineering knowledge, I thought better of trying to bend anything back (as mentioned above, doing things to cold metal is not recommended, and heating will undo any heat treatment, not that I think any of it is heat treated).
I also noticed that the stand had worn where it strikes/meets the mounting bracket such that when it was raised it was higher than it would have been when new. I figured that this could also be putting undue strain on the switch itself as the switch could be pushed to the end of its travel and end up taking all the loading from the sidestand springs, i.e., the switch became the sidestand stop (I hope this makes sense). There was also some wear on the mounting bracket where the sidestand rests against it. Oh, and the sidestand pivot mounting had splayed out (tightening the bolt fixed that, though).
Anyway, I ended up: cutting off the part of the flange that should have actuated the switch, but leaving some of it in place; making a neat (?) little flange in mild steel (from a cardboard "pattern"), but larger than the original so that it would have some leeway for further bending of the mounting bracket (and allow for me getting it a bit wrong); then, for the price of a couple of packs of beer, had a friendly local metalwork company weld it into place
onto and behind the existing flange (behind in relation to the switch – so it was further away from the switch). Oh, I'd cadged the mild steel from the metalwork people beforehand.
They also filled the worn part of the sidestand so that the switch could just be a switch again. (Actually, I had asked them to overfill the worn section so that I could file it down to suit but, being professionals, they filled it, filed it to the stand profile, and sprayed it black for me. Fortunately, it did the job just fine.)
Sorry, I don't have any piccies (no camera). Still, I hope this helps. I suppose my point is to check out the whole arrangement: stand, mounting bracket, and switch, especially that the switch has a little additional movement available after the stand is up or else it is under constant additional strain via the stand spring (the switch doesn't have to be fully home, it operates before that - there again I used a cheapo meter to check continuity, so I knew where it was operating).
Sorry to be so long-winded.
Thinking about it, that was my first posting here, when I had even less idea how these things worked. So, thanks to those that helped me out then
) and an hour or so later SOS motorcycle rescue chap arrived and tightened the stand nut bless him. [/waffle]
).
) with the stand, I believe I'm going to have to go for the extended fix.
