A picture is worth a thousand words

A picture, rather two pictures are better than a thousand words. The top pictures is where I started. The bottom picture is where we are now.












There is some way to go in both time and money but at least now it runs.

Click on the pictures for a larger version.

Perhaps the biggest day yet

Last night's triumph has been haunting me all day. Whenever I have had a spare moment I have been thinking about how to get fuel into the bike. When I got home today and after I had my tea [the northern meal taken after work not the hot brown liquid] I went into the garage to way up the possibilities. I had a good look inside the tank and gave it a shake. What I could see of the inside of the tank was rusty. Shaking the tank gave the telltale sounds of flaky rust loose in the bottom of the tank. I thought about when I might get a tank and whether I was prepared to wait that long. The decision was made very quickly.

I had fuel filters in the spares box. I cut down the existing fuel lines to accept the fuel filters. I hoped the filter would keep the smeg from the tank out of the carbs. I then connected the fuel lines up. I had a Jerry can of fuel in the Land Rover. I sploshed a gallon into the tank and checked the petrol taps flowed. One was OK but the other was a bit slow. When turned on the fuel the leaks appeared. After close inspection I found that the bends required in the fuel lines to fit the filter were causing a poor seal to the fuel spigot on the carbs. I took off the carefully made fuel lines and replaced them with the spare fuel hose. No filters this time. I resolved that cleaning the carbs would be a price I was willing to pay if I got the bikes started this evening. I put a bit more fuel in the tank since I did not fit the balance pipe on the temporary fuel lines. I took the float bowls off and checked the float was doing its job. Just as well I checked one float was stuck. It just needed a tap to free it. Float bowls back on. I then dury-rigged and couple of throttle cables with some spare electrical wire. That took a bit of doing but finally got a secure fix. One last deep breath. Then I remembered the spark plugs were not screwed in. That job done and the suppressor caps pushed on I stepped back for a deep breath before the big moment.

I put the choke to full on, switched the ignition on and hit the starter button. The starter motor engaged and engine heaved round and round but it sounded flat. I moved the ignition unit a little and the biked coughed into life but running very lumpy. In fact just one cylinder was firing. I let the engine heat up a little and did the usual sort of tests. I pulled the plug of the cylinder that was not firing. It made no difference which meant that pot was not even tying to fire. I turned the engine off and looked for the spark monitor. I fitted the monitor between the spark plug cap and the spark plug and restarted the engine. The monitor flashed as the spark passed by. The issue must be fuelling. I took off the air inlet tract to the offending carbs. I restarted the bike again and did the old two-stroke trick of putting you hand over the air inlet. Your have to be careful when you do that with a 400cc cylinder. The induction can bend you fingers painfully the wrong way. I noticed the carbs seemed very dry. Engine off, fuel off and the carb dismantled. I cleaned the jet and made sure everything else was working. I had the carbs top off to check the diaphragm. All looked ok. I put the carbs back together and turned the fuel on. I hit the switch again, the engine turned. Using my hand I was able to get the cylinder to fire but only intermittently.

After an 30 minutes of single pot running and one and a half pot running, I stopped. I tidied up and retired to consider the position. Although the bike fired and runs, after a fashion, and that is great, it shows that there are some problems left to sort out. If the carbs are knackered or the wrong ones then it could be expensive to resolve. The mechanicals of the engine sound fine when running which means the engine re-build was a success and that is a major plus point. There is a little oil leak on the sump pan seal. I got about three turns on each of the sump pan bolts. I guess the heat of the running engine made the seal move and the bolts loosen. There is good access to this seal so it should be easy to resolve.

A very, very BIG day

Today was a very big day indeed. Today I had the bike spinning over on the starter button and the spark plugs were sparking. All I need now is some fuel and we could be there!

The delivery I had been waiting for turned up yesterday but I had to go fencing that evening. This evening I had time to fit the new purchases. The wiring sub-loom to the oil pressure switch and neutral switch that came with the bike was shot, all brittle and cracked. I bit the bullet and bought a new one. I took a little bit a fitting as it seems a little long. However I got it fitted but the neutral switch turns out to be damaged. I made a jumper connection to the circuit across the sub-looms connections. I had to clean up the main loom connectors for the sub loom. They went together just fine after cleaning. I hit the starter button again. Just the relay clicking. In then had a look at the connectors for the brakes. I put jumpers across the connectors on the loom. I hit the starter button again. Still the relay clicked. I took the air filter housing off for the umpteenth time. I also took off the starter motor cover. I know that starter motor works. The starter was not turning yet the relay clicked, it meant the power was energising the relay but not getting to the solenoid. Sure enough the wire from the relay to the solenoid was not on properly. I gave the connection a good clean and squeezed the connection grips to give a tight contact. Whilst I was there I fitted the cable tidy that I had bought that fits in front of the starter motor cover. It was a small item but it made a neat job. This time I did not refit the covers. I pushed the spark plugs into their suppressor caps and left them lying on the cylinder heads. Turned the ignition key. Another look at the dash lights. The full set are on so. The neural light is a bit dim but it is on. I pushed the starter button.......the starter engaged and spun the engine and as hoped the spark plugs sparked. Fantastic. The oil pressure light went out and stayed out. That is a good sign. I could not help but give a "woo hoo". If I had petrol and the carbs working then the bike might actually fire up. I am that close. I got H and showed her it spinning. I think she was impressed.
I check everything over again and set about reassembling the bike covers once again. I am not going to tempt fate and say this is the last time I will have to do this. I fitted the air filter housing and refitted the air inlet tracts. I gave the starter another go and it still turned over. It is such a thrill.

One of my other purchases was the gear lever linkage. It took a bit of fiddling to get on but now I can select gear with the lever. I got the special set screws and the rubber cover for the rear brake light switch. It took half an hour to fit the wires through the boot and fix the switch to the bike. Small things but more small steps. I turned out the spares boxes to see what I had in the way of front brake system. It seem I have most of it except the expensive bit, typical. I tidied up and binned the bits I would definitely would not be using. Whilst rearranging the boxes I found a rubber boot that covers the gear lever linkage so I fitted that. H brought in a brew but I was done for the evening.

We have light!

I spent a few hours during the week preparing the wiring. I also went to Maplins after work to buy some wire shrink sleeving and some crimp connectors. Today was really windy and it had been thrashing down all night so it was going to be too wet to go to the lottie. That was handy for me. The perfect excuse to go into the garage.

I set about connecting the wires that I had identified over the past few nights. The bike was a faired bike so I had a little dashboard with a Voltmeter and a Clock. I removed the clocks from the dashboard which was the easy bit. I stripped down the wiring sub-loom being careful to remember which wires went where. I have decided that I would fit the clocks in pods, one either side of the speedo/tacho unit. To do that I had a trim the wires from the sub-loom. I was able to squeeze the three wires for each clock down a shrink sleeve. When I got the sleeve positioned I heated it up which made the sleeve shrink onto the wires making a nice finish. The sleeved wires were then to feed into the headlight shell and connect up the wires.

With things going so well I decided to take a major step, to connect the battery. First the negative lead remembering to pick up the negative lead of the battery charge lead. I then made sure the ignition switch was in the off position. I connected the main positive lead along with positive battery charger lead. There was no smells of burning. I took the big step and turned the ignition switch. Nothing much happened. I saw the glow of the lights on the instrument panel, voltmeter and clock. I found a headlight bulb and put that in its socket. I flicked on, one at a time, the handlebar switches. The front indicators , head light responded to the switches. The ignition light came on as did the panel lights. I tried the starter, the relay clicked but nothing else. I was not surprised really as a number of switches such as neutral, clutch and oil are not connected. These items need to be in place to allow engine to run.

I positioned rear mudguard and plugged in the rear lighting loom. The rear light came on and one of the indicators worked. I am waiting for the lower sub-loom to get the remainder of the plugs hooked up. Perhaps then the engine will spin. It cannot start since there are no provisions for fuel as yet. That the next thing.

I have had a moment

I have had a eureka moment. All this head scratching, fiddling and headaches with the wiring loom has come together. The final piece of the jigsaw has been sorted out. Sorted in the sense I know where the wires go and what they do. After a great deal of wrestling I got the ignition relay bracket dismantled, cleaned and fitted back on the bike. However it took another three refits before the bracket, connectors and loom finally decided to play ball. It is cold in the garage so the wiring loom is stiff which is not helping. I am sure the stiffness is due, in part, to the age of wiring. Things will be much better when I get big cable ties to hold the main wiring harness in position. I also discovered where to route the loom round the rear down tubes onto the rear brake light. As soon as the screws for securing the brake light switch turn up and are fitted I will secure the cables to the frame.

It is odd but the wiring looms seems to be from a US spec bike. The wiring diagram on my wall has the UK and US wiring options marked. I keep coming across spares wires that seem to be for the US spec elements. The US elements just do things like keeping riding lights on. I guess as long as the bike with runs and the lights work in a UK style I can discard the US wiring elements. [touch wood]. Lets hope I do not regret making this statement.

A quiet evening in

100 channels of TV and nothing to watch. Luckily I have other things to entertain me. I found the breather pipe for the bean can and fitted it. I knew it was in one of the boxes. I wanted to finish off installing the Boyer B ignition. I had to fit the coils so that I could position the ignition unit. The connectors on the coils were grubby so I dismantled them, gave then a good clean and put the back on. Having fitted the coils I discovered I had the earth strap on the wrong side of the bike. Most of the wiring harness seems to go the left hand side of the spine tube. Repositioning the earth strap made the other wires from the coils drop into place. I figured that the work on the top of the engine was done so to make the bike look a bit more together I fitted the engine top cover and refitted, for the umpteenth time, the air cleaner casings.

I remembered that the rear brake switch was located on the right side of the frame down by the swing arm pivot. I remembered the switch was pretty grubby. I spent fifteen minutes cleaning the switch and connectors. I tested the switch with my new multimeter. I found it was working, switch and multimeter. I trimmed back the damaged end of the lead and made a new connection. I could not find the screws to secure the switch so they have been added to the "want list". The plug that connects into the looms was corroded but I managed to clean it. Another continuity test showed that leg was working. I offered the loom up and did a dry fit of the wiring. It looks OK.

I still have a few too many loose ends on the loom. However there are less than before. I guess I just have to keep tracking and connecting switches and tags until they are all connected or what remains can be taped up and hidden in the loom.

I have to turn the bike round, on the stand, as the starter relay and other relays are fitted on the left side of the frame. If I can get this bit of wiring sorted then I will well on my way to getting the bike started. I might even put the handlebars on. I got a lot done in two and half hours.

A Tiny Job

When ferreting about the in the box the charging and ignition kit came in I found the small packet that contained the float bowl seals. I knew I had ordered them and had in fact seen them but I could not find them all summer long. It took less than five minutes to fit both the seals. I just had to ping off the float bowl retaining clip on each carb, drop out the bowl, position the seal, reposition the bowl and refit the clip. Another job ticked off.

Boyer Bransden

I have always wanted a Boyer Bransden electronic ignition system. It was fairly expensive but I hope for great things from the unit, not least of which is not having to set the points every couple of weeks. Click HERE for the Boyer Bransden website.

I read the instructions through several time during the summer but without actually doing as the instruction said it was hard to figure what they where talking about. I got a brew and a stool and laid out all the bits on the bike lift. The ignition unit on the BM is the "Bean Can" type. I followed the instructions to dismantle the inner gubbins of the bean can. There is no way anything was going back in that can once it have it out. It would just be too fiddly. I followed the instructions very closely. Some items did not seem to work but it is Boyer B kit so it should work. After another brew the penny dropped. I rubbed a file though one of the locator recesses and the rotor just slipped in against the pins as per the instructions. After that it was plain sailing. When I got the Boyer B kit installed in the bean can I took the wire wool to the body of the can and polished it up. It is never going to be concourse condition bike but it will be serviceable. I greased the bearings and fitted the bean can into the eccentric drive off the big end shaft. It is a neat fit. Let us hope the oil seal is good and keeps the oil off the alternator.

The next job is to fit the coils, position the electronic ignition box and run the wires.

The Year Turns

The BM has been siting on the stand all summer. It has been used as a rack, a support, it has got in the way. I have been thinking about what I shall do once the summer tasks have finished and the weather is too wet to go outside at the weekend. Last weekend the clocks went back to GMT [Greenwich Mean Time]. That means it gets darker earlier, however the weather is still quite warm. Warm enough to go into the garage at night and tinker with the bike. I have had the new charging and ignition gear since February. I have had the bits out of the boxes and bags several times. I even read the instructions a couple of times.

I started tentatively by disconnecting the battery. Then I fitted the beefy rectifier. The thing that has held me up in the state of the cover for the alternator. The old alternator was covered in oily grim. I needed something to get it off but I was not happy about using a smelly degreaser. I was in Halfords one day and came across a Lemon scented degreaser. I took a punt and bought a tin. True to the label on the tin the contents smelled of Lemon. H came in to see what I was doing. She said the air smelt zesty. I passed the test. I can carry on cleaning without stinking the house out. I bagged some wire wool and having degreased the cover plate I polished the surface with the wire wool. It has come up nice. I then had to tackle the tricky bit.

The next task was to connect the three wires leading from the alternator windings [The stator] to the distribution block. The block received the wires from the rectifier. It was a right beggar to position all the bits to solder the ends to the distribution block without cremating everything in site. After a false start, leaving things overnight and coming back with more patience, I managed to complete that task. Once the distribution block was fitted the other connectors and brush set were fitted to the plate. It was then a matter of fitting the rotor to the bike, easy enough, but then the stator and cover plate has to fit over the rotor. It was a bit fiddly to get the brushes to locate onto commutator but I remembered a tip. Place some card between the brushes and the commutator. The brushes, which are spring loaded, just slide over the card making the job much easier. I finally got the stator positioned and secured. It was a mile stone to connect up the wires of the charging circuit.

There was another job to do. The bike would normally have a mechanical regulator. The old one was junked for a solid state item. The new item went straight onto the bracket on the right side of the frame and accepted the block connector.It took longer to select the bolts than fit the item.

A Grand Day Out

I got a call from my brother to say that our mutual friends was having an open day the bike shop and would I like to come along for a day's worth of ride outs. That was a no brainer....YES. I got a call a day or so before the even saying would I mind leading some of the ride outs as they were short of out riders, no problem. I set off early with H and Miss L to Manchester. We made good time. As I arrived at my parents house to drop the ladies off the phone goes again asking when could I get to the shop as riders were piling up and one of the local out riders had not turned up. As it happened I was ready to go and was at the shop within 15 minutes. I was given my fluro jacket, it seems everyone in the would is wearing one these days, and the keys to a bike. I had to ask what the route was. Luckily it was the same as last time. All the bikes were lined up outside the shop. I looked at the key fob for the bike description and registration number. The fob just said "Wing". It did not take much to spot the Goldwing. The monster was on the end of the row. Half as long again and twice as wide as any of the other bikes in the row. Starting it was no problem but it took three of us a good couples of minutes to get the radio tuned in. I did not bother with the Sat Nav there just was not enough time. Then we were off. I took my charges round the 15 mile route. No one got lost or had any dramas.

I was a little disappointed with the Wing. It is massive, it is comfy, it has lots of toys [heated seats front and rear, heated grips, radio, sat nav, remote suspension tuning] but the gear box is like stirring a tin of nuts and bolts with a screwdrivers meaning it is noisy and not anything like as precise as the gearboxes on the sportier bikes like the CBR1000RR. The suspension needs a fork leg tuning option. The auto tuning only works on the rear shock.



The screen gave a lot of turbulence above seventy and the top edge of the screen was right on my eye line which was a bit irritating. The wing does not have an adjustable screen so I had to scrunch down or sit up extra straight to get my eye under or over the screen edge. Despite the niggles it was an experience. I had not paid the £18,000 price tag and could give it back.




The rides were organised with the out riders using whichever machine was free. The Pan European was very popular so I did not get a spin on that. I have something of a reputation for being a bit quick so I was moved to the sports bikes so that I could give the riders a quicker tempo ride but also over haul anyone who decided to tear off. Only two chaps tried it but were very quickly ridden down. When we got back apologise and handshakes made everything right although they did not get another ride all day. The weather stay with us, dry but over cast and getting brighter as the day wore on. It was still only February so it was quite parky.

The oddest bike I rode was the DN-01 which has been christened the Dino. It is a futuristic shaped thing with a 800cc twin cylinder engine and automatic clutch, essentially an 800cc twist and go. It is odd not having a clutch lever. The riding position did not suit me and there is no weather protection as at anything above 50 mph the wind pressure is felt and get worse as you go quicker. It is also a very odd sensation when riding to back off the throttle and get no engine braking. The power delivery is so soft one has to work to keep the momentum going. Perhaps you are supposed to doddle about town on it.


My brother bought me lunch, it was a free butty van with all the costs met by the shop, he is generous like that. Cheese burgers and a brew for dinner which was nice. It had been a long time since breakfast. Later in the afternoon I snatched a Mars bar and a brew. The other out riders, besides my brother and I, were getting tired so we were in demand. I saw one of my ex-dispatch rider colleagues at the event. He was keen to be associated with the out riders. I was told later that he told a few stories which apparently helped my kudos. That explains why folks came up to me to chat. It was odd being talked to by people I have never metwho knew stuff about my times at Speed Couriers.

One out rider who was supposed to be sweeping up at the back was first back to the shop. To the consternation of Honda's chaps the Wing had gone missing. It did not make it any better when we start pulling his leg that the rider was a scoucer so he was not likely to see it again. To make matters worse the booking procedure had broken down so they did not know who had it. Panic breaks out, where could he be, when was he last seen. I said I had seen him near the airport so was likely to on the motorway and heading for town as that was the line of least resistance. I would go and look for him, just give me a bike. Keys were found for the very quick CBR1000RR. I took off like a scalded cat with, what I thought, was a very long and elegant power wheelie. I got up near the motorway only to find the Wing pottering along. I spotted him as he spotted me. He was able to peel onto the right road. We trunddled back to the shop, the scoucer unconcerned with the mayhem a round him. After all he was the one left behind.

Harvey, one of the salesmen and my long time friend, gave me the keys to the CBR600RR special. It was a more or less standard bike but with a trick paint job. The suspension on this bike was more to my style so no one could get near me on the tight bends. It was just as quick as the other 600RR's and stopped just as well but the paint job and suspension made the difference.

The day wound down. The shop sold a bunch of bikes and set another load of people to thinking about a new bike. I got a final brew and watched as the bikes were packed away in to the shop. A knot a people stayed on to extract the very most from the day, excited by what the had ridden and spending the day with bike people. I am decided that the modern Hondas are not from me. The 600RR and 1000RR are too fast on the road and I will be parted from my life or license. The Hornet and Deauville are too light weight. They are for entry level riders. The Wing...say no more, stop that sniggering at the back! I am still stuck between the Honda's Pan European and BMW's K1300GT.

An alternator at last.

The great day has arrived. Finally I scraped together the necessary to buy the electrical parts. They arrived in the week. I also found, on the Internet, a wiring diagram for an 80/7 which is result. My friend printed it off at A3 size and in colour so it is nice a clear. I have it taped up on the cupboard door ready for the time I get to start bolting on the new bits and connecting the wires.


The stator and rotor is on the right, the big thing on the box. That makes electricity when it is spun by the crank shaft. The shiny thing with wires, on the left, is the rectifier which turns the electical output from alternating to direct current. The round things in the middle of shot are the gubbins for the electronic timing.

I have been cruising the BMW notice boards for wiring plans. Unfortunately I found other goodies for the bike. I was pleased to find pods to house the ampmeter and clock which are waterproof and fit nicely adjacent to the speedo but that's more money. I have also had this idea it might be nice to have a pair of modern mini spots. Then again they are not in keeping with the bike and they cost a mint but they are smart and might be very useful when I go touring. For the time being they at the bottom of the wish list.

First session of the New Year

The bike has been sitting on the ramp at working height since before Christmas. We had visitors over the holiday period so I had no opportunity to send time on the bike. I did spend some time looking at it and pondering what to do next.

The temperature outside is about or below zero centigrade and has been for most of the past couple of weeks, so no allotmenting today. I got wrapped up and went out to the bike with the express intention of making a start on the the electrics. Whether it was the break from working on the bike or having sufficient time to muse on the problem of the wiring but I have had something of the break through. Often with difficult jobs it is finding a place to start. I found that start point.

The problem is that bike is an RT [BMW speak for Road Tourer] and I am to convert the bike to a naked [/7] version. I have a wiring diagram for a R100RT, I could not find one for the R80/7, which means the wiring diagram is not for the exact model and there is a good deal of difference between the two wiring schemes. The start point was to connect the wires to the ignition switch. The ignition switch on the RT is positioned in the centre of the fairing cockpit. On the /7 version it is in right hand pivot of the headlight. The ignition switch has right angled spade connectors. I salvaged the connectors when I had to pull the ignition cabled back into the head lamp shell. I trimmed back the over long ignition cable and soldered the connectors back on to the wires, rerouted the cable round head lamp shell to hook up the ignition switch. That done I turned my attention to the big cable hanging out of the bottom of the head lamp shell.

The cable had a multi-pin plug and relay. The relay was not shown on the wiring diagram, the plug was. I figured from the diagram that the plug was to connect the bike to the fairing for the indicators. The additional wires than the diagram suggested, together with the extra relay, that the relay was for a hazard warning set up. I figured I could do without the hazard warning flasher. With that decision I was able the figure out the wiring for the front indicators. I am now looking for some two pin connectors to make a neat job of the indicator wiring.