Alton electric foot - starter relay location

I made a little adaptor plate to use Alton's bracket on top of the battery but to move the relay slightly. It's just a small plate with four holes. It is a tight fit but hard to find anywhere else to put it.

Ian

My bike is a Mk2a Roadster, I don’t know if the battery tray was changed from the  Mk1, so this is what I did.

Fitted a smaller battery Motobatt MB9U that was smaller than recommended by Alton,  due to the restricted area,

Fastened the relay and bracket to the top of the battery and-use cable ties to Attach. All fits neatly into place. 

keep the battery fully charged and never had any trouble.

One thing to be aware of, I mounted the relay behind the battery side panel with the terminals pointing upwards, this caused me a problem where I had two of the original relays fail due to water ingress. The operation became hit and miss, the coil would energise and pull in but the relay contacts were high resistance so no starter motor current could flow. If you are using the standard relay don't mount it with the terminals pointing up unless you seal the plastic to metal joint with silicon sealer or put a plastic bag over it, yes water does get behind the side cover somehow when you wash the bike. Having stripped a couple of these relays and seeing that they are not a high quality piece of kit I bought a better quality relay and fitted that - no problems since.

Thanks Andy for giving me that advice on your starter relay.

Having just had my Alton starter kit fitted at the end of last year my bike has not been exposed to any rain or wet conditions up to now, having said that looking at the relay itself and the position it is sitting in I can imagine water could make its way into arrears of concern. 

would it be possible for you  to give me the contact you used and the relay part number for the replacement that you fitted to your bike.

Thanks Neil.

Hi Neil,

  I fitted a TE Connectivity relay part number 1393315-2, this is rated at 12Vdc and has a 130 amp contact rating, this is available from a number of suppliers (RS Components, plus others) and is priced at £30 to £43 depending on where you purchase it. But note that for this type of relay with a waterproof automotive connection you need an AMP connector 282080-1 for the coil connection and suitable connections pins inside the connector (I'm sort of in the trade so have access to these bits, otherwise you would need to order them separately). There should be other good quality relays available that have at least an IP54 level of ingress protection.

Failing all else seal yours with silicon sealant, that should hopefully do the trick.

Cheers,

Andy.

Thanks again for that information on starter relay.

I had another look today and it became obvious that the water can easily work it’s way in there, just shows what you can find out reading and posting on these websites. As I am not great with electrics I have decided to seal the unit up for the time being and at least I have  reference to the parts to upgrade things in the future, should I have to.

thanks again. Neil