Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Innovations and Updates

When I started the street tracker project, I had definite changes in mind, concrete changes with the hardware identified and ready to go into service.  I think that calling them updates is apropos even if those updates aren't commonly seen in the street tracker, well, scene.

Take the front suspension for instance, it came from a Ducati Monster, is fully adjustable and sweet to its Italian core.  The rear suspension is an innovation as it was designed and components sourced from various and sundry places.  Swap meets included.  Raw metal/machined/welded also included - that's innovation.  The risk is it's not necessarily developed and may not work, or if it does work, may not work well.

My latest problem, the electrical system, is somewhere in-between the two.  The original system was analog and horribly inefficient, heavy, reasonably reliable.  A 35 year old bike is not always the best but this one is standing the test of time and finding a good one, or bad one for that matter, commands premium dollars to acquire.  Even one dollar is too much for that electrical system by comparison to the new ones.

But I wanted to update the elec. system with some innovative ideas without going off the cost deep end.  I was able to find an ignition/charging system that would be a "sort of" bolt on with some slight modifications, that would fit my requirements for not a lot of money, would be new, not used.  Famous last words, right?

The new system bolted onto the engine but the ignition exciter, or pickup coil, wouldn't fit under the engine case cover so I separated it from the stator and moved it up to where the old points system formerly was.  I made the requisite changes to the rotor to excite the exciter coil, thought I was good and moved on to the next problem, thinking I now had a superior digital system with electronic advance, etc.

Wrong move.  When I turned the engine over, there wasn't any spark.  All my troubleshooting so far hasn't revealed any problems anywhere so I'm stuck until that's solved.  I have a plan forward to use those pieces that I think is good.  But in the interests of time, I am going to change it back over to the mechanical advance system and try for something completely different that I know for positively sure works.  This is where my wife would look me right in the eye and with one hand on her hip would say "pinky swear?"

Perhaps I'm making another mistake but I am determined to have this thing running by spring, determined.

I'll keep you posted on my progress and have been working diligently to get this far, whew!  There has been a tremendous amount of work to get this far.

My next installment should have a fully assembled, fully functional motorcycle.

And, no swearing, pinky or otherwise, allowed.

Here's wishing all of you all the blessings the new year can bring.