Random Photos

     Last Saturday we left semi early, had a big breakfast and took all the curvy roads we could find between Little Falls and Grand Rapids.  It was a 340 mile day and the first time Troy had ridden his chopper more than 15 miles.  It was also his first ride this year since tearing a ligament in his shoulder a few months ago.

Out with the old and in with the new.

     I'm proud to say Ton'y bike is finished!  He took it home tonight and is probably freezing his ass off riding in the crap misty weather we have had for the last week or so.  It might be 45 degrees out at the warmest.   We (Tony, Troy, and myself) got the bike running Saturday and I finished up the last few things Sunday afternoon.

     The finished wiring job:

     A shot of the bike.  2001 Buell motor in a Paughco frame.  I think it is +6 in the down tubes and 40 degree neck.  So far I have rebuilt the front end, replaced the rear wheel bearings, rewired the whole bike, and serviced it a couple times.  I'm pretty familiar with it now.

     I rode it around the block in the rain yesterday and put 12 miles on it tonight before I returned it to Tony.  It sure is a fun bike.

     My next project belongs to another friend.  Troy's bike needs a stator and voltage regulator replacement, a new front tire and a few changes that he has in mind.  He just bought the bike this spring and this will be his first summer with it.

We've got spark!

     Last Friday night we quit for the night a little disappointed.  The headlight works, the oil light works but the bike didn't have spark when we cranked it over and the neutral light does not work.

     I traced the neutral light wiring all the way back to the switch behind the front sprocket and when I ground it i get the N to light up.  Bad neutral switch bad.

     Then we tested for spark.  I had not completely by passed the bank angle sensor at the ignition control module.  I did some google research and found that the green/yellow wire at the ICM needs a path to ground for the bike to have spark.  By connecting that wire to chassis ground voila we have spark.

     After I verified the ICM was functioning  I spent the rest of the night routing and installing the wire loom for the back half of the harness.  Everything is coming together nicely.

     This is where I left off for the evening.  Back at it again tomorrow

The starter works

     Just a quick update today.  I didn't take any new pictures.  I got the starter relay wired in and enough of the bike is wired I was able to test the starting circuit.  It worked!  On the first try.  I used some information from this website to make sure I hooked the relay up correctly and it was VERY helpful.     http://www.ripper1.com/tech/wiring.php     Ripper is a guy on The Horse forums.  He's always willing to help people out with tech questions.  His diagrams made hooking up and explaining the theory of how to use a relay easy to understand.  More pictures tomorrow.

Making some progress

     Tony's chopper is starting to come together.  I can see light at the end of the tunnel.  It's taken me longer to finish than I would like it to but I'm getting close.  The handlebars are wired on both sides, the fuse block is mounted, and everything is looking pretty good.

     The weather is finally getting nice enough to be riding everyday.  I've been working on the bike one or two days a week for about 6 weeks.  I need to hurry up and get his bike done because I have two more in line waiting for some work.

     Here is a picture from dis-assembly.  I tried not to cut any wires out until I knew what they we for and if they had a purpose.  But eventually you just have to go all in and get out the side cutters.

     The stock harness was a butchered mess.  Everything I looked at was electrical taped together with bare hot wires just waiting to cause a short.  Wires changed color for no reason, sometimes to three different colors in the same run of a single wire.  Not to mention the miles and miles of extra useless wire that mostly did nothing.  Did I mention everything was covered in electrical tape?

     There were no useful connectors anywhere on the bike.  Everything to the handlebars was hard wired, with the wrong colors.  I have restored the bike to proper color coding on the harness so that if anything should ever go wrong a sane person should be able to figure it out.  There will be a connector for right handle bar, left handlebar and headlight.

     The bike doesn't have a horn and Tony doesn't care if it has one.  I removed the switch from the back side, made a little aluminum bracket and drilled some holes.  It took me a few tries to get it the way I wanted it and the lights to both fit.  At first I made a plate to replace the horn switch and have the lights recessed into the housing like I did for my chopper.  The problem with that is the lights were to long and hit the handlebar before they were installed all the way.  I trimmed the horn button cap down and used it as a spacer to get the required clearance and epoxied it all together.

     These are the switches for my chopper. I showed them to Tony and inspired using the same lights on his bike.  I like them.  A neutral light is a lot more handy than a horn in my opinion.

     The indicator lights are originally meant for an FXLR Low Rider.  Here is what they look like inside the switch housing.  I did not have this much room on Tony's bike because they are replacing the horn instead of the turn signal.

     The new fuse block is going to be very easy to remember what they are for.  SHIT I blew a fuse.  It is a 4 fuse panel and they are wired in the order of:

Starter

Headlight

Ignition

Tail light and turn signals

SHIT that's easy to remember

     The last fuse is wired to the accessory position of the key switch so the tail light can be turned on without powering the rest of the bike.  The starter relay is going to mount right above the main circuit breaker and the turn signal flasher right below it.

What a mess.

     This is my friend Tony's chopper.  The bike ran with this wad of wires stuffed behind the battery tray.  It was all pretty sketchy and lots of unused extra wires present.  It seems to be the complete Buell wiring harness rolled into a ball and electrical taped together.

     Even had an extra harness zip tied to the left front down tube.  the only thing that came out the bottom was the turn signal wires for the front.  There were also some connections tied together that led back to the ignition module.

     I have a service manual on the way to sort out the ignition system and get the bike to a bare minimum of wiring.  I'm also going to add in some connectors for the handlebars and headlight.

First ride of the year 2015

     This years first ride was a lot less dramatic than last years.  It went from really cold to 50 degrees over the weekend and highs in the 50's all week long.  Spring is here and the snow is almost gone.

     Same as last year my first ride I was chasing a tag for the GLMC photo game.  My objective was to take a picture in front of a tax office this time I got it and picked the new tag.
http://www.glmc.org/GLMC_Garage/showthread.php?tid=43&page=47

I also replaced the bad stator in my Electraglide and that bike is up and running again.  No pictures though because I already posted some of the big bike with the primary off.