Monday 14 October 2013

No more electrical issues

I don't know why the last stretch of a project is always the longest.  Maybe you get lazy, maybe frustrated.  Maybe you kept for last the stuff you dislike the most.  Either way winter is coming and this bike still isn't done. 

I had assumed things about this project that got me into trouble.

Firstly, I assumed that I had amber running lights at the front of this thing.  I was very sure and this is why we kept blowing fuses left right and center.  It turns out that the stock front ambers had only two wires.  That means no running lights.  *^%#@ me. 

And B,  I assumed that a white wire is hot and a black wire is ground.  Apparently Chinese LEDs use whatever wires they feel like so the opposite was true.

Mr. G paid me a visit and his methodical ipso facto approach to this was more fruitful than my swear, yell and plead approach was. 

Once these two facts where known the rest fell into place.  We did have a "what the @#$" moment when I connected only one wire to a stock lamp I was using for troubleshooting and the damn thing lit up.  I looked at Mr. G with the other wire in hand and once again swore.  The look on his face was worth it.  After a second or two of  what the @#$^% we figured out the body of the lamp was grounding on the rad support.  Freaking vintage stuff made of metal. 

Some crappy wiring had to be fixed.  I'm nor comfortable with stuff like this:


The wires to the battery box got lengthened.


Now everything works like it should.


3 comments:

  1. Just wanted to say to keep up the great work. I came across this doing research for my own cafe I'm about to start (82 kawasaki KZ305). The bike is looking great and can't wait to see the finished product.

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  2. Thank you John, Send me some photos and I'll post them. Better yet, start one of these blogs and take us along. That KZ sounds like the perfect bike to do this kind of stuff to it.

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  3. Great Job. Just a suggestion on making the fairing. Take some carving foam,(you can usually get a 3" thick square foot from a hobby shop) cut out the hole for the light. Place it around the light then cut and sand to get your form. Now you can use that as a mold to fiberglass a solid one.

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