153 replies to this topic

[laughin in a windstorm]

I got all the home made stainless parts polished (damaged and undamaged), I did three stages of polishing in all but never went to full final polish as I have learnt that it is a waste of time, the first time someone rubs an admiring finger across the surface it leaves fine scratch marks, plus there is the inevitability of stone chips, road dust, low lying animals and flies that commit suicide on the surfaces and discarded sandwiches thrown from car windows etc., but I am happy with the results,

the parts with raised additions have had the raised parts 'brush' finished by use of a drum sander in a drill, before that can be done all the areas that need protection are covered with a minimum of five layers of masking tape, a sander will cut through quite quickly and ruin the job if not adequately protected,

once all the parts were acceptable I removed the tape and gave everything a wax job

 

all items final polished,

covered in tape for 'brushing',

the method I use to achieve 'brushing'

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the underside of the clock/ecu housing, I took two pictures as it is hard to photograph a reflective surface

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Edited by laughin in a windstorm, 17 October 2025 - 04:34 am.

[Snowbird]

 

[leehenty]

Bench sander is good

[laughin in a windstorm]

I'm just using what I have  , the thing I like about the drum sander is that it is an abrasive belt on a sponge so it forms to the shape of the surface (within limits of course),

something with a hard base below the abrasive belt could leave curved grooves if you are not consistent with your movements, but as I don't have a bench sander I don't really know what they are like

[laughin in a windstorm]

been trying to tape up electrics but had to undo some block connectors under the air box, they were really tight and when they did come apart they were covered in blue/green dust, so I'm getting some contact cleaner to sort them out before carrying on  

Edited by laughin in a windstorm, 18 October 2025 - 05:12 am.

[dapleb]

A commmon 9er problem that one LIAW.

Boike seems to be progressing noicely. I think it was in the Carpe calendar a lonnnnnnng time ago. Probably almost 20years ago now.

[laughin in a windstorm]

that's good to know, I thought it might just be my bike that is dissolving  , unfortunately I never got to see it in a calendar but I feel honoured that it made it into one,

 

 

I've been gradually tidying up loom parts and fitted the ignition barrel back in place, next I was going to fit the clocks back into the housing but first I had to get rid of an annoying cobweb that was on the temperature gauge needle (it would drive me nuts as I rode), luckily the clocks come apart quite easily so I was able to remove the cobweb with a soft brush,

the clocks were fitted back into the housing and the housing was then fitted back to the bike,

next I re-fitted the original block connectors to the relevant loom parts so a neat fitting to the original indicators could be had, it seems that a lot of splicing and dicing had been done since I last had this bike and it took me a while to remove a lot of unwanted bits to neaten everything up, the indicators now work fine and all the measuring has worked out good as they sit neat and level, I took up the bit of excess space by use of an o-ring around the indicator stem, I'm not a confident person with electrics so I am pleased how it is going so far,

I have also tidied up the wiring for the ECU by taping it up while in the needed 'bent' positions to stop any unwanted stress on the gazillion wires that come out of it, I fitted a piece of inner tube onto the block connector to keep the worst of any water away, and then bolted the ECU back in place on the inner part of the clock housing,

the loom from the ECU is the thickest bundle and is the main problem of trying to restrict turning by bunching up at the fork leg, I have helped ease this by removing some of the hard coverings of the loom and taping it up again while in the required bent position, this allows the loom more chance of being pushed through the frame hole when the fork hits it, it acts a bit like a spring now,

the unfortunate thing is that the bottom of the air box touches the loom and grips it, this is because the bottom of the air box is 'waffle' like in design and as such has many edges to grip the wires, I hope I have got around this by sticking a thin sheet of plastic to the bottom of the air box to lessen friction,

 

 

the cobweb on temperature needle, fitted back into housing, ECU bolted back in place

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dirty connectors, indicators sitting level

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ps. I sorted the block connectors out with contact cleaner, fine abrasive paper and a bit of grease

Edited by laughin in a windstorm, 19 October 2025 - 09:04 am.

[fixitsan]

been trying to tape up electrics but had to undo some block connectors under the air box, they were really tight and when they did come apart they were covered in blue/green dust, so I'm getting some contact cleaner to sort them out before carrying on  

One of the best things you can do for older bikes to keep electrical gremlins at bay is to annually open and close the connector blocks, which rubs the internal contacts together to remove any oxide buildup, after first of using contact spray as you did.

 

It won't do any harm at least !

Edited by fixitsan, 20 October 2025 - 08:20 am.

[laughin in a windstorm]

thanks, I will take that on board, this bike probably won't go out in adverse conditions again so hopefully not much more corrosion should appear, although condensation can never be ruled out,

 

I now have the wiring sorted out so some more parts can be fitted back onto the bike, the underside of the clock housing to keep the ECU safe and some wiring, the headlight brackets fitted in position, and now I know the length of wiring needed to reach the lights I could tuck the excess between the mounting frame rails and refit the front cover plate,

now the new lights can be fitted back into the brackets, I have fitted new LED bulbs into these

 

bottom plate and headlight brackets fitted, cover plate fitted, headlights fitted

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ok now a question for any one who understands electrics, (I don't)

when I originally fitted lights like these 20 years+ ago they were fitted with H4 halogen bulbs (still are), back then I wired them up to work together,

this was a problem because as the standard set up has one light for high beam and one for low beam it meant only ever having two bulb filaments working at most, with my set up it meant that four filaments were being used when high beam was used as low beam just always stays on, this blew the lighting fuse within seconds,

to get around this and to keep my twin light set up I snipped a wire from each bulb feed and had one light for low beam and one for high beam,

 

on these new ones I have fitted H4 LED bulbs in a hope that as LED lighting draws much less power I would be able to use both lights as low and high beam, and it works but..........

and now my question -

 

can LED bulbs have 'both' low and high filament equivalents working together ?

 

I ask this because I have them all wired up together just as I did with the earlier ones and they work on low and high, when on low beam setting just the low beam shows, but on high beam setting just the high beam light shows and the low beam goes out where as it should stay on, they can be switched low to high repeatedly and only low or high will light up, the same as when the 'pass' button is used, the low beam goes out and high beam comes on, release button and vice versa,

this isn't really a problem as I'll probably never ride at night anyway, just curious 

 

[Snowbird]

I'm no expert on led headlights but don't they have issues with getting too hot? It seems to me a bulb with both beams on will get much hotter and fail sooner than one with just one beam lit.

Of course on the original setup you could have run a spare higher rated cable with seperate appropriate fuse to the headlights and used relays from the original wiring, would still work with led's but look into my first line abour heat before doing it.

[Catteeclan]

You could wire in a relay cut the power to low when you switch on high.

Edited by Catteeclan, 21 October 2025 - 12:42 pm.

[laughin in a windstorm]

thanks for the info above, I did try a relay once on my SUZUKI FREEWIND 650 when I fitted twin lights, I did it as instructed by someone who said they knew, unfortunately on one ride to work it flattened my battery so I'm dubious about doing it again, especially as I don't understand electrics  ,

I did a quick test today by unplugging both bulbs and fitting an ordinary halogen in one of the lights, I plugged it in but left the other unplugged (so not to blow fuse), with the halogen in place and high beam switched on both low and high filaments were lit, putting an LED back in and it was back to only high beam or low beam and not both at the same time,

as far as heat goes there was a massive amount of heat in the halogen bulb after being 'lit' but the LED was still cool after being lit, I will have to wait and see how they go on a test ride and whether they pass an mot (which ran out today),

I couldn't do anything today as we had a power cut all day  , was hoping to get the horns done

[laughin in a windstorm]

cold weather is slowing me down now and I'm glad I did the paintwork first, still got to get that out and give it a light rub down and polish up yet though,

I have managed to get my twin horns fitted and now hopefully I'm done with the electrics,

I made a relatively simple stainless bracket that bolts onto the lower yoke, and two pieces of wiring attachments to plug them into the existing connectors, I kept the original connectors in place just in case....

when I first tried the horns plugged in and not yet attached to the bike they both worked great, even together, but when they were fitted to the bracket only one worked !,

after a bit of fiddling with the 'setting' screw on the back of the horn I managed to make it go wahwahwahwah instead of beeeeeeeeeeep 

luckily with a bit more fiddling of that screw and now they both sound solid and loud,

why fitting them to the bracket should've stopped one working is another thing added to my ''I don't understand electrics'' list

 

 

horns and bracket,  horns in place (I took this picture of them actually being 'beeped' so you can see what they sound like) 

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[dapleb]

horns and bracket,  horns in place (I took this picture of them actually being 'beeped' so you can see what they sound like) 

Wow. That actually works, thems do sound loud. I didn't include your picture in the quote above in fear of blowing up speakers.

I'm with you on the electrics, the most unreliable, troublesome and fiddly components of all. Wac convinced me to buy some of those magic sticks to help diagnose electrickery problems but they are no more use than me guessing so I took them back.

[leehenty]

I usually rely io my old AVO 8 mk6 for bike electrics. It seems to give readings that make sense. If it moves life is in there somewhere

[Catteeclan]

I do have digital meters but it's more fun using one like, https://www.ebay.co....ction=view_item

My Dad had one many years ago and one came up on eBay which I nabbed. Didn't pay anything like that figure though.

[laughin in a windstorm]

great, I'm glad the picture worked, maybe I should use it at mot time,

I have had 2 multimeters before, the first one ended up in the field next to us once I realised I don't understand how it works,

the second one I had I was given instructions on how to use it by my local bike shop, but apparently I put the connectors in the wrong holes and burnt it out, it is now somewhere in the field next to us but much further away as I was even angrier that time, both are well ploughed into the soil now and pushing up wheat,

 

on a lighter note my torch has been recharged, oh no not that, I have made a start on my new radiator cover but it is taking more...........um thought than I imagined 

[laughin in a windstorm]

to make my radiator I bought some new mesh and used an old piece of stainless sheet from my 'store' area, this has been an interesting challenge,

I measured the size I need for the whole front area and marked it on the sheet of stainless,

to bend over the sides as it is would require quite a big sheet folding tool which I don't have, so to make the bending easier I used a thin cutting disc in a grinder to cut half way through the marked out lines (like scoring cardboard), after removing excess material at the corners I was able to bend the sides to the required angles,

I welded up the corners to keep the shape and measured and drilled holes in the sides for the mounting bolts,

I cut away the corner where the radiator cap goes and offered it up for fitting,,

I marked the side design I wanted and cut away the areas I didn't want, then welded in an extra piece of stainless in the gap caused by cutting away for the radiator cap,

I then measured the size of the area needed for the mesh and cut that away, then all the corners and cut edges were smoothed and straightened to tidy it all up,

to get the front lower mounting holes marked I ground a couple of bolts into spikes and screwed them into the radiator thread holes, with some tape on the inner sides of the cover and the radiator area spaced out correctly with tape etc., I fitted the cover back on and pressed the areas where the spikes were, when the cover was removed I had the exact location marked into the tape where the holes needed to be drilled,

once it all fitted correctly I cut the mesh to the required size and spot welded it in place on the inside, I also welded some washers over the lower mounting holes to give the correct spacing and keep the mesh slightly proud of the radiator surface,

when I was happy with this I spent 4 hours polishing it all up and now it is fitted back onto the bike,

 

(this job was a lot more involved and complicated than what I've written here, I have simplified it as my finger would be worn out typing it all, more and better pictures with better explanations are on my face book page if you wish to see the whole process)

 

 

starting materials, after bending sides

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radiator cap area welded in, all welds ground down and centre area removed

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mesh welded in, all polished and fitted back on bike

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[Snowbird]

Sweeeet! That bike will be twice the weight by the time you've finished.

[laughin in a windstorm]

Sweeeet! That bike will be twice the weight by the time you've finished.

 

possibly a few pounds heavier but don't forget I've removed all the original silencers, fairing and bracketry which weighed quite a lot, besides I'm not doing this to create a speed machine, it's about looking different while going slow, how will people notice my crazy style if I pass at 100mph