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So, I've pretty much given up on the finish for now. Fed up with it. Time to crack on with getting the sealer in. I took the tank into the shower to give it a degrease and a good wash,inside and out, in preparation for the sealer and of course the water started pissing out of it!! a big hole on the rear left hand corner and another one behind the right side frame mount.I got all the laminating gear out again and patched it up also laying some extra on the rear right hand corner and the other frame mount just to be sure. Another shower and all was well. No leaks.
 For shits and giggles,I put a strong LED light into the tank. Talk about starry night!! Loads of pin pricks of light.Very surprising. I guess this is why the sealer is so important.Another strange thing is that the inside of the tank is still wet. Its very warm here at the minute and the tank has been well drained. I was expecting it to dry out pretty quick.Dont know whats going on there. I do know that it needs to be totally dry before I put the sealer in so I'm going to have to wait another day or two for that.

 Anyway,as the weather has been so good, I decided to unwrap the bike and pull it around the back of the house to give it a good clean. I've been dreading this as the bike has been sitting for a year,maybe two and I was expecting some serious corrosion problems. The good news is that the bike is in pretty incredible condition. A good wash and a bit of polish and it came up really well.
 
Very happy and surprised about that. Of course the brakes were seized. I managed to free up the ZXR brakes on the front and give them a bit of a clean but the Gixer brake on the rear was dead. No pressure on it at all even after a lot of pumping. I took it off yesterday to have a good look and the seals are totally rotted away but for the rest it seems good. Maybe the problem is in the M.C. I'll look at that next.Very glad I fitted stainless pistons to all the brakes. No problems there,so, a bunch of money saved on them.
 As the bike was out and clean, I thought it would be rude not to pop the tank on and get an idea of how its going to look;
 
 
Not too bad, eh!  Though I have to say......I do prefer the old paint job to the carbon look. Even if the carbon is nicely finished its a bit...black! The paint has a bit of a zing to it.
 Ok. Thats it for now.

Spring is springing. Time now to try and find the time to work on the Z. The story so far, Carbon tank is still the same. I haven't touched it since last year. It's just been sitting in the workshop.So I've still got to either put a finishing clear coat on it or just paint it. I'll have to give it a good clean though as I'm sure its full of sawdust by now. I tried a last hoorah to at least get the bike started. I fitted a remote fuel feed,threw the carbs on and charged the battery. Pushed the button and ...nothing. Tried a different battery and the same result. As the weather was turning, I called it a day (Year) and put the bike away again.
 So,now,the mission is to get it turning over and take it from there.I pulled the starter motor off and opened it up. All looks well and the tests twixt the commutator bars check out and the bars and the shaft.So that all looks good.The brushes themselves are good,plenty of meat left on them.
 The problem though is that I have continuity twixt one brush and the cable mount on the housing but not on the other brush and the cable mount. I noticed that the brush with the continuity has insulation on its wires but the one without continuity doesn't.
 Any advice,suggestions,remedies would be appreciated. As I've said before,electrics are not my strong point.

When you talk about the cablemount I assume you mean where the cable from the solenoid attaches ?
A motor is like any other consumer and needs a feed and ground. The connector supplies the feed to one brush (the insulated one) you should find the other brush has continuity to the starter casing (ground)
Are you using your meter on continuity/Diode test (audible beep) or on Ohms - On Ohms you should have a resistance reading from the connector post to the starter body (this is going through the field coils and to the positive brush, the armature and then the negative brush) the reading should fluctuate as you rotate the armature
If you look towards the back of my fault finding guide (link is in my signature) there is a test plan for the starter circuit

Thanks Wookie. I had a look at your file (and even understood some of it!). I'm bench testing the starter, wired direct to a battery,so the only circuitry involved is that in the motor itself. Using the test meter set to ohms, I have continuity twixt the insulated brush wire and the connecting bolt for the starter cable and I have continuity twixt the uninsulated brush wire and the starter body. I tested the armature bars in pairs and from each bar to the shaft and all checked out. The mica levels look fine and the brushes also. When I connect to the (fully charged) battery,I get nothing though. Not a twitch. Surely the starter would turn if all was ok?

davido wrote:

Thanks Wookie. I had a look at your file (and even understood some of it!). I'm bench testing the starter, wired direct to a battery,so the only circuitry involved is that in the motor itself. Using the test meter set to ohms, I have continuity twixt the insulated brush wire and the connecting bolt for the starter cable and I have continuity twixt the uninsulated brush wire and the starter body. I tested the armature bars in pairs and from each bar to the shaft and all checked out. The mica levels look fine and the brushes also. When I connect to the (fully charged) battery,I get nothing though. Not a twitch. Surely the starter would turn if all was ok?

If everything else has checked out ok the problem appeasers to be between the brushes and armature. Have you checked from the connector post to the uninsulated brush with an ohmeter ? ( this checks the full internal circuit including the connection between the brushes and armature) it sounds like the armature has tested ok (the only way to fully test this is with a "growler" but only an auto electric shop or motor reconditioner would have one of these) it is probably worth cleaning the face of the brushes with some 240 grit to scuff them up. Is the "mica" lower than the segments (if it's flush the brushes can "skip" over the surface of the armature) I have always found the easiest way to "undercut" the mica is with a piece of hacksaw blade approx 100mm long, tape up the end as a handle and grind to the required thickness.

Well, I pulled it apart again,re-tested everything,all was good,so I gave up and took it to an auto-electric repair shop.Nothing wrong with it! Says it works like new!? So, I'm happy with that,though baffled as to what the problem was.Spare battery is on charge now but I'll have to invest in a new one for the bike.Then I can connect everything up and see if it'll turn over. Thanks for the help anyway Wookie.

On a side note. I went gone done bought this a couple of weeks ago;