Stella's Overly Complicated Wiring V2

Uh, yeah...

 

Well, damn.

Poured some oil in and gave her a start. I had wired the white "HEAD" dash indicator to the SSR as a charging dummy light. Clear as can be, she's saying "I ain't charging, dummy."

Troubleshooting is real tough when my not-so-helpful helper keeps getting his peanut butter fingers where they shouldn't be. "Put that down! Get out of there! Don't climb that! Hey, get back here!" Yes, Pete, he's moving and grooving just fine.

But I did get out to the garage last night once he was asleep.

Slap test failed.
Battery with key on: 12.38v
No voltage at L brush.
0 ohm between R brush and battery negative
5.6 ohm rotor, VOM leads accounted for.
12.38v on the regulator's (VR291) sense and feed.
0v on the regulator's output.

It's looking like the regulator is fried, but I'm not sure how. It was charging during my quick test before the move. Somewhere about 13v at idle, pegged at 14.2v any where north of ~2000 RPM. Grumble, grumble. I'll find it...

Double damn. Lost the acorn nut off the top of a shock along with the bushing underneath. Grumble, grumble. Hope I find them...

 

That was my first hunch too, Pete. I had first probed the harness size of the connector pair, but I double checked on the regulator's side and no voltage there either.

I've got a new regulator due to come in tomorrow. It'll be an easy task to put terminals on it, plug it in, and see if it works.

The tough part will be to install it if it does. Access to the fasteners is under the battery just like the stock rectifier.

And you might have thought the headlamp bucket was tight...

 

Unbelievably, I found both the acorn nut and the bushing. They each caught a ride in separate boxes!

Way back when I installed the aftermarket shocks, I had noticed one of the top mount studs was stripped and the nut had bite on only a few threads. I had planned on trying to tap it with slightly smaller threads, but it seems like I might have misplaced that particular to-do list. Whoops.

I won't need the nut, but I'm sure glad I found that bushing.

 

Wired in the new VR last night.

Key on:
A loosely held wrench near the alternator indicates a strong magnet.
Battery @ 11.99v.
Voltage at L brush @ 10.82v.

Now to install it...

 

Work on Stella is on a short hiatus, but I'm putting skills learned with her to good use.

Brother-in-law gifted me a rider mower that ran when parked two seasons ago. It's had an oil leak since he got it 2nd hand from his neighbor and just keeps it topped up during the season. Can't do a full oil change anyway because the oil drain plug is stuck. Didn't leak fuel when last ran, but it does now. Can't get it to start because the battery is probably dead. But it's mine if I want it. On to the trailer it went, back to my garage.

Put it on the charger
Removed rodent nest
Cleaned air filter
Replaced oil drain pipe, elbow, plug
Hylomar'd the oil fill tube into its seat
New oil
Replaced spark plug
Replumbed fuel line
Refilled gas with a good shot (or 3) of Seafoam

Turned key, started right up. Up and down the block at full throttle, running fine. Died as I cut throttle pulling into the driveway. Restarted, slowly lowered throttle bit by bit. Each time it smoothed out, I lowered it a bit more. After about five minutes it's smooth through the full throttle range.

$40 in supplies. I'll reserve judgment on the leaks until I give it a good wash, but I'm pretty sure the fuel leak is gone.

 

I've owed y'all an update.

Got the regulator swapped out two weekends ago. Looks like some water might have pooled and seeped into the innards. The young one is happy to show you where.



It was a bit chilly that morning, but I'll blame the hard start on her sitting in the garage all year. She was rather reliant on the choke for a while, but that seemed to clear up after a few runs up and down the block. Also, charging looked great. Idled somewhere about 13v, pegged at 14.2 at 2k+.

After a quick stop for a full tank of fresh gas, I headed over to the nearest inspection station. As I pulled in to the front lot, shut down, and got off the bike, a gent came out and said he'd bring it into the shop around the back. I began to tell him about the headlight being controlled by the neutral switch, but he gunned the throttle and headed around the building in 2nd, somewhere near redline.

I walked into the shop through the front door and saw him walk through the back door with a not-so-nice look on his face.

"HEY! I AIN'T GONNA PASS THIS RICE BURNING PIECE OF **** IF IT WON'T KEEP RUNNING!"

"Did you open the petcock?"

He just stared at me for a moment, turned, walked away. A short time later he coasted into the shop with Stella gently purring.

Inspection passed, title changed to MO, registered, plate sitting on the bench waiting for a rubber mount.

The funny thing is the shop was only 5mi from my house, but the odo showed a 25mi round trip. Huh. Blue skies, yellow trees, and mild temps do weird things.

 

Yeah, but I do like shutting them down with a gentle reply.

I'm just south of St. Louis. I only needed a safety check. Up until a few years ago, I would've needed an emissions, too.

 

Yeah, Pete. Back on the road for 25mi before the salt went down. At least I'm ready for spring, eh?

We're settling in just fine, thank you. We're both quite happy to have made the move. Little guy and the 16yo pup seem to like the grassy yard much better than the xeriscaping we had in the land of brown.

2M, SUBminiature?! I gotta say, I was excited about the little circuit you designed for me, but without small electronic experience and my skilled buddy busy with his own kids and garage-bound vintage bike, I regret to say that I didn't get it incorporated.

One of these days, I'm going to post up a tour of the wiring overhaul for y'all to see, but you've already seen under the seat. I really like the functionality of it all (and it does seem to be functioning really well), but I know a neater job could have been done. Those itty bitty subminiature relays would really help. Am I right that they live on PCB boards? The big ol' minis I used just barely fit. Tiny components on custom built PCB boards would sure be slick.

For a guy with my skillset, the Motogadget grew much more attractive as I packed more and more stuff into tight places. If it was a simple schematic of power/control/device, of course the Motogadget would be overkill, but with the trickery I was after and with what I paid for wire, connectors, terminals, etc, etc...