I guess I could rebuild my build build. Not very remarkable, but it's mine.
Bought in Summer of 2003 or 4. It seems like I should care, but I don't.
(//)
This is 40,000mi ish condition. I bought it from my college roommate's dad that bought it from an estate sale. There was a sticky carb and it was hard to open the throttle and he rode it around on one cylinder for about 6 months. He's also about 250lb.... so... he didn't like it. I cleaned the carb and rode it for about it year before I had a big end lockup.
As a poor college student I left it be at my parents shed for a couple of years before it was resurrected in my grad school years.
I sent it to Brad at HVC to rebuild the crank and transmission (probably a mistake. It pops out of 5th occasionally now).
So along with getting a new bottom end I decided it would be cool to put banshee reeds in and mill the head. That didn't go to well and I ended up back with the stock metal reeds, but I did get a doweled head in the process. I also took the whole thing apart cleaned an replaced a bunch of parts like the brake seals and chain etc.
So now it was fully functional with all new ish bits and I rode the tires off that thing... maybe 4 sets.... I put on two sets of pistons over that period as the first set rattled a lot so I sent it to the BEST... don't recall their name, but they rattled a lot too...
At some point I put on some Coffman pipes that I believe are for a 350, but can't say for sure...
Oh yeah and the power dynamo that thing's a beast. I had a totally flat battery the other day and I just kicked a few times... boom... going.
It's a 60,000mi now and my room mate's dad tries to buy it off me occasionally. It's too small for me and for sure too small for him.
and a tag to let the civilians know.
sweet. still rollin :cheerleader:
Awesome! What's the cylinder bore at?
not bad at all, its had an eventful past.
nice to see it still going.
:clap: 60K and still truckin' and looking good
I don't recall the bore now. I guess it's 60 over. In fact I've considered going to look for some new jugs.
The plot thickens....
Prelude:
I had a carb float problem. See other thread... http://www.2strokeworld.net/forum/index.php?topic=2409.0 I think it ended up being a bad new needle valve. I put in the old all metal one and no problems. On my test ride the front master cylinder wasn't releasing (I think this is an older problem). So I got a new front brake lever from John at EconomyCycle.com Big shoutouts to follow. I also had an older replacement turn signal switch to replace so I did all that at the same time. So the headlight rats nest was disturbed.
Flashback:
Power-dynamo + Zeel installed.
Plot building:
I complete the rats nest reconstruction (?). I start up and things seem fine, but as I move over maybe 30 ft it seems to be starving of fuel... this sort of reminds me of some of the "pre-prelude" issues and I assume it's due to low fuel (Now I suspect ignition). I switch to reserve and carry on... I get about 100 feet and turn back, but about 30ft from the barn it just dies and won't start back.
Main theme:
When I kick the bike over it will only fire one or two revs before shutting down. I pulled the headlight off and pushed and prodded the rats nest to see if that would stimulate anything, but no luck. Here's a video of the behavior. https://youtu.be/BjMv1LaxB54
I'm not sure where to turn next. It's not really a problem to pull everything apart, but I'd like to know what I'm looking for.
I called and talked to John who was very helpful in jogging my memory prior to the video. I don't think he would mind me calling again, but I also feel like 4-5 or more years after buying something it's up to me to figure out what's up. Plus hive-mind etc. If I can't get any direction I may call him again as I suspect there's something wrong with the generator (the way is slowly died near the end). It might be grounding? That sounds like a needle in a haystack problem.
I'm hoping for an obvious oversight or direction before I rip it all apart.
Thanks for reading this far :)
Video is marked private.
Sorry. I think I fixed it. I didn't really want to mess with my work side of the channel, but it's fine. Let me know if that didn't work.
Did you check to see if the rotor slipped? Seems fairly common on folks' first try with the Powerdynamo.
That was my first guess too. It's slipped at least once before. That time I lapped surfaces, heated the rotor, and green loc-tited the surfaces.
I checked (see the timing marks and indicator) and it didn't slip.
Got it. I couldn't see the vid earlier.
I would pull the carbs and clean them thoroughly paying attention to the pilot circuits.
Sounds like zero fuel going through.
And after the carbs are guaranteed cleaner than a clean thing, pull both plugs and rest them on the motor and kick and see if the spark disappears after the first few revolutions. You may need to recruit a soon to be ex-friend to turn the rear wheel over with it in gear or borrow a race starter or push it down the street while hanging over the seat looking at the plugs (Not recommended obviously).
It is possible that it stops sparking as the engine fires or revs rise, which could be something breaking down in the zeel or ignition, but that's unusual unless you have a relay in there that is unlatching as the revs (and volts) rise.
But as with all electrical problems, start with the carbs.
So I checked the carbs. No problems. Also I was starting with the enrichment circuit on. Also neither cylinder was firings. It's not like it was running on one cylinder.
Any other ideas on why it seems to fire when the stator is not charging.
Is it possible to run on the battery as a test ie no stator charging. Just unplug the rectifier?
are you using the relay as shown for the ignition cutoff? possibly there is an issue with the relay. if so try leaving the relay out of the system bypassing it. possibly something causing the relay to kill the ignition.
When I watch your video it is just like my 400. Only ran for a second.
What happened is the power dynamo fell apart internally (screws backed out). You would have to pull it apart to check so maybe as a last result....
Thanks for the advice. I pulled the relay and switched it. Same problem.
I notice my horn only works during the time that the neutral light is on. In other words when the motor is turning over. Not even a click from the relay. I don't recall how that is wired up. I seem to recall it's not stock. I'll dig into that while I test out without the ignition relay at all.
It seams like there is a strange polarity problem where the neutral light will only light when the motor is turning over (charging), but the ignition won't fire. I've got some leds I'll use to test that out.
Anyway I had to rob a fuel tank off an old motor to troubleshoot with the tank off. So I'm waiting to finish that before I can proceed.
Does anyone know if I can run this with the rectifier unplugged?
Oh yeah one more thing. I notice when I turn the ignition off it always fires the plugs. Is that normal?
Somethings not right... I'd start at the switch and work my way through..
Good advice. That's next. I was able to disconnect the blue wire from the coils. Ground that and it kills the engine. Still the same.
I was looking through the trouble shooting page John sent me : https://www.powerdynamo.biz/eng/kb/generals.htm and it appears there's a dead link on troubleshooting the stator. Does anyone have that saved or at least the expected resistance in the stator?
Thanks,
Matt
I just had to dig around a bit more to find this: https://www.powerdynamo.biz/eng/kb/values.htm
I'll type it here for all time:
Black to Black (lightcoil) 0.34 ohm
White-red (ignition) 600ohm
Pickup: older version is 200 ohm and newer version is 92ohms. It sound like it wants you to touch it quickly with a metal object to observe a change in resistance... I'm thinking a hammer at this point...
Well, obviously this was simple.
It was a grounding problem for the motor and frame. It's hard to know exactly the problem in advance, but at least I only got to the tank off condition.
Thanks for all the help from the forum and for Economy Cycle, John's patience. I didn't call to bug him a lot, but he also was willing to help.
Well, this is turning into a cautionary tale about leaving your beloved alone.
My front brake situation apparently also included my front caliper sticking. I took it apart to push the caliper in and freed it up mostly. I probably need a rebuild kit, but I wanted to put it back together and go for a real test ride.
When I tightened the braided stainless front line I bought only a few years ago the nut cracked in half. It's just obvious the bike was telling me I needed to rebuild the caliper or suffer. So now I have a kit a line and pads on the way.
Like with jetting listen to what the bike wants. :)
Do not EVER part with a motorcycle that prevents you from riding with a sticking front caliper. It clearly loves you :-*