Hi Guys.

May I pick your brains on a problem I am encountering?

I have recently purchased a Yamaha Thundercat YZF600 1998. The bike won't start.

When I turn the key, the gear neutral light comes on, but no ignition lights. But if I keep persevering, the ignition lights come on, and the bike starts fine. This can take anything from 5mins to half an hour or so :-(

The bike has a Datatool alarm (don't know if it's also an immobilizer) fob. I have changed the battery in the fob, but still the same.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance.

EDIT* Forgot to mention. When I turn the ignition on, the indicator lights flash for 30 secs or more. Don't know if this is relevant, but worth mentioning.

One thing that could help you would be to try cleaning up the starter motor, my mate fitted a restrictor to my tcat and when he took the tank off a small amount of fuel dropped on it, he wiped it off and thought that was it. Then about a week later the bike wouldn't start, was really odd as I had just stopped to use a cash machine. We checked the battery and all the other electronic stuff under the seat and it ended up being due to the petrol on the starter motor, my mate just sprayed it with something and Ive had 1k+ miles since without any problems.