Progress...

Had some time over the easter weekend, cleaned the carb using some help and ideas from a friend, seemed to do the trick and made the linkages smoother and free.

1. Take one bottle of dishwasher cleaner

2. Fill bucket with hot water and mix in the cleaner

3. Dump carb in the bucket and agitate.

Came up a treat, fitted it to the bike after a blow out with the airline and a bit of drying time, connected up a fuel line and prodded the starter button, after a few try's it decided it would start, not for very long but it ran for a few seconds, the carb leaked like the leakiest leaky thing but its went.

Next thing is to take the carb apart and look at the floats and anything else that makes it leak and try again.

Had a play with graphics 

to be continued...

Tape me up

Updates are coming thick and fast now, last nights little job was to tidy up the loom and start to get it in a kind of order that works, I started at the seat end and cut, tried and generally made the mess of wires I had better, then a bit of loom tape and all is pretty.

It looks a lot neater, some of it can't be wrapped in place and I will have to remove it for that but for now it's 100% better than the spaghetti that was there.

I then had a look at the oil pressure light, I don't have a red LED bulb for this so a white LED will do for now, maybe the final build will be red, who knows.

Stay tuned, I have the bug now and really really want to be riding it this year.

The Spark of Life.

It lives, well sort of, I finally have spark, I fitted a new (secondhand) alternator/generator and at last I have a spark.

I can get on with cleaning up the wiring now then sort out the throttle cables before finally trying with some petrol and fire the old girl up.

Watch this space, hopefully I'll get a wriggle on now and things can start moving.

It's the little things.

Another update in such quick time, something must be wrong, I had another poke around at the weekend, I tested the CDI, well I tested 5 of them as a friend had lent me 3 he had sitting around, none of them produced any results so they can't all be dead can they?

I got the multimeter out and with the help of the Honda Superdream forum and a few guys on there I tested the voltage and ohms readings from some of the bits, they all seemed to be good except the brand new alternator that I had fitted, I say brand new it was listed as NOS on evilbay when I bought it and it came all wrapped in plastic and appears that its never been used but how old it is I have no idea, anyway it wasn't giving the results I was expecting so I took it off.

I noticed a small nick to the plastic coating on the wires, now I can't really tell if the wires are cut but this seems to be the main suspect of not giving me a spark, cranking revealed that it was only giving out about 9 volts so nowhere near enough to get a spark.

So now i'm on the look out for a good second had one, but I am tempted to get this one rewound just have to see the cost first.

On another note, I got the neutral light to work, like a price plum I had the wires the wrong way round, what I thought should have been the live wasn't.

So thats where I am now, a little further forward and heading in the right direction, I will be able to finalise my wiring loom soon and get that wrapped, then I can concentrate on finishing the frame, stripping the engine, sorting the wheels, getting the spacers, actually as I think about it its a very long list, better crack on.

Electrics and the lack of spark

OK so its been sometime since I updated this little old blog, lots has been getting in the way but thats not to say I haven't been doing much on the old bike.

I have updated a few things, I have some bar now, and I have been fiddling with the throttle cables to get them to fit, as i have ditched the original Honda throttle I had to look for something suitable so I settled on a Yamaha R6 throttle tube and cable feed along with R6 brake and clutch levers, I have a bit of work to get the cables to work but thats easy compared to the electrics.

The reason I want to get the bike running is so I know that the engine is OK before I take it apart, I want to know that I have a good base to start from, not I have chopped the loom somewhat but only in the way of removing the parts that I won't need like indicators, I have relocated a lot of the wiring to under the seat hump which meant most of it moves from the front, the ignition switch and key for instance.

I have replaced quite a bit of the electric system, first I replaced the generator as the one that was on the bike was somewhat rusted.

Along with this I have replaced the coil, neutral switch on the engine and the neutral switch diode (still no neutral light tho), new starter solenoid.

I have now tried 5 different CDI units but still no spark is present, somewhat stumped now as to the problem, is it the generator, coil, CDI?

It's probably something simple that I have missed but many an hour has been spent scratching my head, if only I could sort this problem I can get on with the rest of it and stand a chance of actually riding the damn thing this year.

Meanwhile the Ducati sits waiting winking at me saying, I work, ride me.

Onwards and upwards, I guess these things are sent to test us, I keep telling myself it with all be worth it.