Last episode I talked about the oil cooler and how ugly it was, well I have made the decision to get rid of it as the engine is now fully open and should cool adequately without it. I then had to think about how to bypass it and came up with an incredibly simple plan. I would cut off the two banjo ends of the cooler pipes and weld them together so the centers are at the correct spacing to fit on the sump inlet and outlets.
It was so devilishly simple and should look pretty neat. The job was extremely easy, my vernier told me the distance between centers was 45mm so I just cut the banjos so each one was 22.5mm from the center to the end of the pipe. I welded the two ends together with them held firmly in the vice so that I could guarantee they were in the same orientation, otherwise they would not form an oil tight seal.
I used my trusty old arc welder to make sure I got a really deep, strong weld with no chance of leakage – I cleaned both parts thoroughly and degreased them to make sure I didn’t have any problems with contamination. It all went rather splendidly. Once tacked up I went all the way round and then inspected it under a magnifier, I don’t think it will give me any problems – jobs a good ‘un
I put it on the bike – new copper washers were fitted – you can anneal and reuse them but as I had some I used new items instead. It all fitted perfectly and bolted up snugly so I am really pleased with that, it looks quite inconspicuous and a hell of a lot better than the ugly oil cooler obstructing the nicely polished headers.
Yeah, I know the oil filter needs replacing, I have a new one for it but I thought I would leave it until I have finished knocking things about before I fit it and fill up with oil.
So now it’s on to the electrickery with the first job being fitting everything to the old ammo box. It houses the battery, fuse box, cdi igniter and the starter solenoid, simple brackets were made up as needed and pop riveted to the box. I had stolen starter cables off some old solenoids and cut them to the right length. Grommets fitted to the box and convoluted covering material will ensure the cables can’t short out or abrade on anything. The battery is retained by a stretchy strap as used by all the major manufacturers, if it’s good enough for them it’s good enough for me. Some thick rubber will go under the battery to help hold it in place, it will also protect the battery from the bolt that hold the box to the bike – it’s in a bit of an inconvenient place due to a lack of forward planning. Ooops.
One other minor job I must do first is find somewhere for the neutral start inhibit diodes to go. These little jobbies are needed so that I can start the bike when it is not in neutral by pulling the clutch in. You can’t just wire the clutch switch in parallel with the neutral switch as if you did every time you pull in the clutch the neutral light would come on even if you are in gear. So what you have a is a small black rectangular thing with 3 wires – it is basically two diodes – each one allows electricity to flow in only one direction. That way you can wire the starter solenoid to the junction of the two diodes, earthing either one of the other ends of either diode will allow the starter to engage. The neutral switch goes to one diode, the clutch switch to the other so now either going to earth will allow the engine to turn over but the clutch switch won’t turn on the neutral light. Very simple but very useful if you end up in the wrong gear after an emergency stop, for example.
As it’s so small and light I will just glue it to the ammo box with some hot melt glue.
The Cdi and Fuse box are bolted, the solenoid is rubber mounted and fits on a simple u shaped bracket that is also riveted to the ammo box. I now have the delightfully boring task of stripping the old loom so I have lots of different coloured wires with which to make my new loom.
All the wires will enter / exit through one large grommet – the bike is pretty simple in that it doesn’t have aa fuel pump or indicators, I am not using the throttle position sensor, it’s a very light bike and the Cdi igniter I have does not have the circuitry for it anyway. My fuse box has a capacity of 5 fuses, I will only be using four – ignition, headlight, brake light / horn, panel / side lights.
I should get it done over the next few days, I will cover it in the next article, when hopefully I will attempt to start the beast.
Article provided by David Powell of Boston Bike Bits.
