August 15, 2012

Well, I write this with a very embarassed expression. The bike wouldn't start before because I had forgotten to ground the wiring harness to the frame of the bike. Once I connected it up with some alligator clips to test, it started up in just a couple of kicks. Needless to say I was quite surprised and happy. I spent a little time getting the harness properly grounded and finished the evening thinking about what I needed to get done.

August 16, 2012

Tonight I finished connecting the wiring on the back part of the bike which is really just the blinkers and rear taillight. Still, it needed to be done so I could put the seat back on the bike. I then took it out of the garage to let it run a little. There I discovered that while it runs, the carb definitely needs adjusting. I needed to keep the choke out a bit to keep it running and even then it was a pretty narrow range. My plan right now is to get the initial critical items done: Brakes on and adjusted properly, and as much electrical stuff connected up. I'll need to get a battery at some point as well. I plan to take it over to Allen's to get the carb fine tuned if I can't get it done myself. I think I might in any case just to make sure I've got it all together and operating safely.

My brother Dave is going to come over this weekend to help me work on the bike. Especially since I need to head to Allen's to rummage through the junk yard for some of the odds and ends I need.

August 18, 2012

Today was an all motorcycle project day! My brother Dave came over and we pretty much worked on the bike all day. Did we get everything done that we intended? No, but we got some very necessary things done. First thing was to head off to Allen's to see what we could scroung. We picked up 2 brake/clutch levers & horn (all new), a heat shield for the header, and 2 footpeg springs (hopefully they'll work). We got back to the house and got the front brake handle on as well as the clutch. Both of these have mirror mounts in them so now I can get some mirrors.

One thing I didn't mention in the 15th note above was that I suddenly had some fork oil leaking from one of the forks. Figuring that the oil seals were bad, we decided to attack that problem next. We got the forks off easy enough, but getting to the seals was tricky on one of them. The fork bolt at the bottom kept spinning. We tried several tricks we read about to no avail. We decided to leave that one for a bit and tackle the other fork. That came apart much easier, though I forgot to clear the pressure before I opened the drain valve and got sprayed a bit. Dumb! Anyways, we could now get to the seal, but it wasn't easy to get out. It took some hard prying. We went to Allsport, out in the valley to get the seals and fork oil. Chris from Allsport gave us some good tips on our problem bolt. The trick was to use an air impact wrench because it could spin it fast enough to overcome the tendency of the fork tube to spin. So after a bit we got the forks back togther. Before putting the front wheel back on I put the new brake shoes in, put the wheel back on, installed the speedometer and brake cables and got the front brake adjusted. I have the rear brake working a bit, so I think I'm pretty close on that. By the time we got all this done, the day was pretty much over. I cranked the bike up so Dave could see it running. I clearly need to adjust the idle circuit some and it appears to run a bit rough too. I'll look into this, but it may take the guys at Allens to fine tune it.

I still have a lot of electrical work to do, but I think most of the large mechanical work is completed. The picture above is from the end of the day.

August 20, 2012

Each day gets me a little further. Today I connected up the blinkers and installed the footpeg springs. Then I took the hi/lo beam-blinker-horn switch, figured out which wire was which and put connectors on each wire. Then did the same for the bike harness and connected everything up.

August 23, 2012

Tonight I connected up the instrument cluster, then spent a bunch of time getting the brackets readjusted that hold the instruments and headlight in place

August 24, 2012

After work today I bought the battery and got it charged up. I tested the headlight itself, then mounted it and the instruments temporarily so I could see how it all set up. While I had everything in place, I connected up the now-charged battery to see what works. Well, that was a bit disappointing because only the front brake switch worked. I did check and verify that I have power to the horn, so that should probably work. Obviously I have a bunch of troubleshooting to do.

August 25, 2012

Today is Saturday, so I got up to tackle the the electrical problems. Looking at the rear brake light problem first, I discover that the main power wire that links the front and back has an open connection. I end up unwrapping the entire harness looking for the problem. It turns out that the main wire has a completely open spot in the middle of it - I could feel where the wire disappeared in the sheath. So I cut that wire out and spliced in a new one. Now I have front and rear brake lights working. I checked the blinkers next, but they still didn't light up, so I bypassed the flasher unit to test power. Now the blinkers light up with the switch, front and back. I test the flasher and it appears to be trashed. I think however that I'm the one that messed that up. When I did my first test last night and later today with the brakes, I had the flasher connected wrong. In fact today it made the brake lights modulate and the flasher got really warm. So I'm hoping that a new flasher will resolve that. I did connect the horn up and that works just fine.

I tried looking at the headlight next. The problem is that according to the schematic, the headlight power comes from the generator, not the battery, so the engine needs to be running for the light to operate. I mentioned it to a friend of mine and he says that his first bike (from the 1970's) worked that way. So that's what I'm going to assume for now. So tomorrow I'll get a replacement flasher and see if that gets the blinkers working correctly. Next will be connecting up the instrument cluster and see if I get lights from that. I think I should because I believe the neutral indicator light should be on when the key is on and the bike is in neutral. While I have the electrical stuff in mind, I'm going to check a few of the components such as the AC Regulator. My DVOM is showing it to be bad, but I don't trust it so I'm borrowing another meter from a friend at church. I'll check the regulator again tomorrow. Once I get everything working like it is supposed to be, I'll wrap the harness back up better than it was before and reassemble the bike.

August 26, 2012

I borrowed a better DVOM from a friend of mine and verified that the AC Regulator is toast, so I'm going to head to Allens on Monday to see if I can find one there first, and maybe check Recycled Cycles over near Rathdrum also. But there was still things I could do today, so I did a little shopping. I installed a nice 10A inline fuse using the mini type instead of the old style glass ones. I took the heat shield and cut and reshaped it to fit the header, painted it, and put it on today. I also bought a replacement flaster relay so now the blinkers are working, if blinking a little fast. I probably need a different one that has a slower rate, but I can replace that anytime. I fashioned a spring for the rear brake switch, so now both brakes trigger the brake light. The one thing through all this process that I've noticed is that the ignition switch is a little flakey. Unfortunately it's sealed and I can't take it apart without destroying it. I like the fact that it is the correct switch for the bike and it allows the front wheel to be locked, but replacing it with a new one is kind of expensive - $60 from the UK. I could go with a cheaper one that was just a keyed on/off switch, but I'd rather have the normal one.

August 27, 2012

Rode to Recycled Cycles to look at the AC Regulator that they had. Measuring it and mine, both looked the same. Neither showed any type of connectivity - they looked open. Rather than buy the one there and risk not needing it, I decided to keep the one I have and test it with the engine running. Low and behold it works just fine! While running I checked the charging voltage and it looks correct at about 14.3 volts. So next it was time to look at the instrument lighting. I discovered a missing connection showing on the schematic that would normally be a part of one of the connectors. So creating that connection made the turn signal indicator work, but nothing else. So I checked the bulbs. Both speedo lights were burnt as well as the high beam bulb. To check the high beam, I replaced it with the one from the neutral indicator and found that the high beam indicator is fine. So what I'm left with now (once I get replacemen bulbs) is to figure out the neutral indicator problem, which could be a bad wire, and to fix the flakey ignition switch. I've got nothing to lose by taking apart the switch, so I worked bit on that. The switch itself was pretty dirty and the springs that keep things in contact were a bit compressed from age. So I cleaned it up, sanded down the contacts to expose clean copper, and pulled the springs out a bit. Of course nothing goes that smoothly - I cracked the plastic cover that holds the switch together. I bought some heavy waterproofing rubber spray a couple of days ago, so I've sprayed that on it to see if that will keep the moisture out. I think I'll see about some type of strap to help keep it together and then spray that too. The electrical part of the switch is no longer flakey so if I can get the thing to hold together I'll be done. Some time in the future I'll buy a brand new one. Once the neutral switch problem is figured out, I'll wrap the harness back up and get things permanently installed. Hey, maybe I'll be able to ride this soon!

August 29, 2012

Yesterday I picked up the relacement bulbs I needed as well as some black adhesive plastic to put on the side panels and little fairing. It was a small scrap piece not more than 12" X 36" and somewhat irregular in shape, but it was enough for what I needed. Last night I had taken some JB Weld to repair the right side panel that had a pretty large crack around the hole that you attach it to the frame. I put some on both sides then sanded down the outward-facing patch. It's not perfect, but it should hold and that's the important part. So tonight I cut and put on the black plastic like it was originally. It's a gloss finish instead of flat black, but for $10 I'm not going to be picky. Besides, it looks just fine. While I had the JB Weld out, I tried to build up one of the points on the back part of the side piece that pop into a rubber grommet in the frame. I'm hoping it'll bond well enough that I can shape and sand it so that it'll hold in the grommet. If I don't do that I'll have to put a hole in it and use a bolt to put it in place - something I'd rather not do.

This will probably be the last entry I do here until September. The next two evenings I'm going to be busy and then over the Labor Day weekend I'm headed to Canada for a weekend ride with some friends.