GTR Rolling Resto

Followed on from  the picture thread, since it's become a more involved project than just a tidy-up.

- new Pirelli tyres - finished
- new exhaust system - finished
- new brake pads rear - finished
- new spark plugs - finished
- rear wavy brake disc - finished
- new brake fluid
- new mirrors - bought not fitted
- air filter
- crash bungs
- oil filter and oil change
- tank rubber mounts - bought not fitted
- clutch plates and gasket - bought not fitted
- braided brake hoses
- larger 250 oil cooler
- twin brake disc conversion
- general fairing tidy-up
- front lighting setup
- GT650 rear shock
- lowering kit to correct ride height
- new carbs with working choke
- rear seat delete
- decide what colour I want it to be

Hit problems today.

Everything here was done in the dark of night.

I left as normal, and I know the bike is a little bit down on power when it's still cold. But after a few minutes the power is all there. This time though, it kind of wasn't. High-end revs still gave me power but there was very little torque. Anyway, after 40 minutes, I stopped for a bit of an inspection, to see if the brakes were jamming on or something. Both discs were cold. The exhaust pipe for the front cylinder was also stone cold. I know the front gasket is a bit dodgy thanks to the poorly designed exhaust system I have, and I wanted to take it for one last ride before pulling the exhaust off and re-shaping it. Thinking that the exhaust leak was a pretty bad thing to happen, I decided to go home, taking a longer but more open and major road back. I probably wouldn't have done any differently if I'd have known what I was about to face.

She was a bitch to start, which is extremely out of character. I almost flattened the battery before she eventually clattered into life. After pulling away, for some reason the revs went crazy for a couple of minutes. Changing gear required me to shut the revs off with the killswitch for a moment to stop the engine whirling up into the redline and beyond in the split second the clutch lever was in. Still very little low-end power though. It settled down again after a couple of miles.

After another 30 minutes, I decided to stop for another check-over. This time, the front cylinder exhaust was as hot as the rear one. Super. I let it cool for a short time, about 10 minutes or so, and then set off again. It took a bit of starting but not anywhere near as bad as before. However, I had no dipped headlight, only full beam. By this time its bashing down with rain, and the road is covered in smushed up acorns and leaves, as well as standing water and just being generally very wet. So I'm taking it easy. I see lights behind me, a fast approaching car, and know I need to get a bit of a move on as there's a really steep hill coming up, it gets narrow with granite stone walls either side, and it's on a really sharp corner. I don't even feel safe in it when I'm in a car. So I drop into 2nd gear to get the power on, and everything dies. I mean the whole kaboodle. Lights, engine, and momentum. I'm a sitting duck and I know there's a car about to come round the corner. A moment of blind panic later, I've got the thing started and I'm slipping the clutch to keep the revs on redline for a maximum speed launch. The car behind didn't miss me by much. On I go, with the engine dropping in and out, but the lights staying on.

With my headlight flickering between crap and extra crap, I made it as far as a huge long straight that normally I would do at whatever the top speed of the vehicle I'm in is, which is 120 on my other bike, 85 on the GTR. Other people do this too, it's even got a sign on it with a statistic about how many accidents have been there in the last three years due to speed. So I get the power on and go for it, knowing I'm only 15 minutes from home. As soon as the speedo reaches 45, everything goes again. No lights, no engine. I plant it in a conveniently placed gateway to get out the way of cars coming through at 100+

It's dark, it's raining, and I have a total electrical failure. I couldn't see if the fuse was blown so I bridged it with a washer. I also had a very general grabbing and stirring of the wiring that runs to the handlebars and the front light unit. Something worked, because it came back to life, fired straight up, and continued to be under-power but smooth running. This time the headlight stayed extra crap, but the blue dashboard light telling me I'm on full beam was flickering erratically. It carried on like this until just outside my house, where everything died again.

It's now 7am and I've finally just got back and typed all this.

*

Now, as for what's actually wrong, it can only be a combination of things, I think. Possibly I broke the killswitch when it was over-revving, so it's shorting there. But that wouldn't explain why the lights go when the engine does, because they should just run off the battery. That would indicate the fuse, but the fuse blowing doesn't kill the engine, and after it's all dropped out, and I've had a fiddle, it starts on the starter again, so the fuse, or the washer, isn't blown, the problem doesn't seem to be there. It could be the side stand switch killing the engine, but again that wouldn't explain the loss of all electrics. The flickering full beam light, or the not at all working lower light might hold an answer but they just add to the confusion.

I can deal with the lack of torque. But this electrical failure is a mass of mystery.

Puzzling. Get rid of your side stand switch. I got rid of mine and most problems went. Just follow the wire up to a connector block and unplug it and put a short oeice of wire on 2 spwde connectors in it to comolewt the curcit.

Your frontt cylinder wasnt running il sugest coils. Look at the wiring arround that and test you coils.

Other than that im stumpped.

I've done a shartload of re-wiring. Found faults in numerous places and fixed them all. Drowned my side-stand switch in WD-40, put in a new fuse even though the old one was fine. Also re-did the exhaust so hopefully it doesn't leak. All this will be tested soon but I was up all day yesterday, and spent all night riding around in the dark with intermittent everything on the bike, and all of today pretending I know how to fix electrical problems, so I'll test it tomorrow morning. After I put the fairing back on.