The Build
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January 2007
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Saturday 3rd March 2007
I was away in Warwick until lateish last night, so no progress since Tuesday. A few deliveries thoug - the stuff from Rally Design, an NPT adaptor from Think, another adaptor from Pace for the sump tank and the top hose adaptor that came from Revo-tec.
I started off by making up the hose for the bottom of the sump tank - the problem is the outlet is 3/4" BSP and I need to connect it to a -16 hose which is bigger. So I have to use a -12 to -16 reducer, but then need female connectors each side to get it to fit together. The result is an unwieldy mess. It just about fits in, and I'm left with a couple of alternatives depending where I put the reducer. I can either have (from the tank end):
-12 90° -> -12 hose -> -12 female -> -12/-16 male/male adaptor -> -16 female -> -16 hose
or
-12 female/female adaptor -> -12/-16 male/male adaptor -> -16 90° -> -16 hose
To be honest both look a bit of a dog's breakfast! I haven't made my mind up which way to go yet. The problem's caused by TTS' dry sump inlet spigot being for -16 hose (about 1" internal diameter), they reckon it is needed but I reckon that since the pump outlet is -12 (about 3/4" id) and all the plumbing to oil cooler and then onto sump tank is -12 it's pointless having a short run of -16 there! I don't want to fit this lot yet anyway, I need to get the oil temp sensor bung welded into the tank.
I reckoned I should now finally have all the bits I need to complete my cooling system plumbing so I got going on that. I fitted the plastic T-piece I got into the bottom hose and connected the expansion tank via a reducing adaptor then fitted the ally adaptor for the temp sensor into the top hose. Once this was done I could actually mount the water pump. It has a sort of tapered slot on the bottom and I'd been planning on sliding a 6mm bolt head into this and mountign it on a small aluminium shelf on the chassis. This looked eminently doable so I made up a bracket, drilled it then sprayed it with the etch primer.
There are lots of little jobs I can be getting on with now. I decided to have a look at making up a hose for the oil pressure sensor. I've been supplied with a sensor which looks like it's 1/8" NPT and this seems confirmed by the fact that it seems to screw into the 1/8" NPT female/female adaptor I got. Ditto the male hose ends I've got. The slight fly in the ointment is that neither the sensor nor the hose ends will screw easily into the threaded hole in the engine where the original oil pressure switch came out. The threads look the same as the switch, and I suspect if I get a spanner on there they'll go in OK but I want to do some checking. The NPT is a tapered thread and I'm just wondering if if the thread in the engine is just starting off smaller, if you know what I mean. It doesn't mention the thread in either the Haynes manual or the Suzuki workshop manual. I can't imagine it would be a different thread to be honest. Anyway, I fitted one male fitting onto my bit of braided hose but then left it at that.
Next I re-bled the clutch - when I fitted the loom I found I'd run the clutch hose the wrong side of the loom so I'd re-routed it but had no more fluid to bleed it at the time. Once that was done the aluminium bracket was dry so I riveted that in place and mounted the water pump and tightened up all the hose clips.
I needed to think about the sump tank - it can't mount directly onto the chassis bottom rails, it needs raising up so my hose clears the top strut brace. I'd been thinking of some cunning arrangement with some aluminium tube and rubber hose to provide some vibration proofing but the ally tube I've got isn't the right size. In the end I decided to just space it up with some short lengths of aluminium square tube cut to length. It took a little while cutting them, tidying the edges then drilling them. I think some big rubber tap washers will do the job from the vibration point of view, I'll have a look in B&Q tomorrow. It's funny but 'in the flesh' the plumbing looks neat and tidy but in these pics it looks like a dog's breakfast! It doesn't help that the camera really emphasises the dust that's around.
Running out of time now so looked for a nice small simple job and decided on fitting the oil catch tank. This fits neatly on the side of the pedal box.
Throughout the day I'd been exchanging messages with the BEC list about lambda sensors. I want to be able to tweak my fuelling accurately so want to have a wide band lambda sensor and display. Trouble is I remember from when I had the mappable ECU set up on my Evo a few years ago to get it right you need to be doing full throttle runs in high gears to get it right. Watching a gauge on the dash isn't generally a good idea at these times so it's nice if the output can be logged and downloaded onto a PC. There are a few of them about that'll do this and of course there's a range of prices. Dynojet who make the Power Commander do one but it'at just over £400 it's a fairly expensive option. It was pointed out that with my DigiDash I can log output from other devices such as a lambda sensor. It turns out that a guy call Bill Shurvington is the agent for the two main other makes so I've bunged him an email for some advice on what best suits my needs.
Sunday 4th March 2007
My main goal today was to tidy up the wiring in the engine bay. One slight obstacle is that I'm not sure about some of the stuff from the bike loom. The Hayabusa has a flap in the airbox which is controlled by the ECU and the vacuum from the inlet tract. So there's an air pressure sensor, air temp sensor, an intake pressure sensor, a vacuum control solenoid that controls the flap as well as a damper unit for that. I think I can ditch the damper, also that the solenoid doesn't need to be connected to the vacuum hoses, although I think the ECU will need it to be connected to the loom. I've sent Walt in the States an email as he's knowledgeable about all things Hayabusa ...
I had another look first at the oil pressure sensor - the switch I took out of the engine definitely screws into my female 1/8" NPT adaptor, but the male 1/8" NPT fittings definitely don't screw into the engine easily. I'll need to find out what size the thread is.
First bit of tidying was the wiring for the brake/clutch reservoir. The loom only provides one wire for this so I made up an earth lead and connected to the steering column mounting bolt. And checked that it was a good earth ...
Then had a look at the engine bay sub-loom on the main wiring loom and realised that I don't want any of those wires in the engine bay, I want them behind the dash to connect to the various wires from the bike loom. So tried to unclip it and get it back up through the tunnel but failed - I really need to be able to get underneath the car. So I spent the next hour or so getting the car jacked up and on axle stands. Sounds easy but it isn't due to the low chassis - my quick lift jack gets under there easily but the problem is it doesn't lift straight up, so you can only do one end with it. I ended up using that to get the front wheels up on some wooden blocks then I could get the normal jack under there. Once underneath the car it was easy enough to snip the cable ties and feed the loom back.
Next I sorted out mounting the bracket for the vacuum solenoid and the damper and redoing some of the wiring for this so the spurs will reach comfortably . I also tidied up the spurs for the intake pressure sensor and split off the spur for the air temp sensor - that's going up front in the engine bay well away from the heat. Once this was done I connected them all up and tied them in place. I next connected the electric water pump relay to the appropriate wires, then sorted out the various earths. For ages I've had a coil of earth wires from the front loom getting in the way, as well as one from the Power Commander and one from the water pump. Once these had ring terminals soldered on and were connected to the earthing point it all looked quite a bit tidier. I also made up the switched power connection for the water pump and tidied that up. I also completed the wiring to the coolant temp sensor - this needs eairthing so I used a small hose clip around the body of the sensor. This little lot's only a couple of paragraphs but it had taken me most of the day :-(
I had a look next at the main battery isolator switch and what I need to do to connect this up. I need to run a big battery cable from the battery +ve to the switch, then another from the switch to the starter relay, and one from there to the starter motor. I don't have any ring terminals big enough for this cable so it'll have to wait till I get some. You're supposed to connect the ignition coil supply to the switch too with a resistor so that you can't have the generator supplying the coil when it's switched off, I'll also need to work out what wire to the ECU will need to be connected to this.
Monday 5th March 2007
Quite a few emails and errands today. I emailed ETB Instruments who make the DigiDash and they confirmed that it can log lambda but only via an additional module that's £230. Also to do it I'd need to send my unit back to them for a software update, which they recommend anyway. That's free apart from postage. The additional unit also allows logging of other things like throttle position, brake pressure etc. Bill Shervington had originally recommended an Innovate LC1 at £135, but that was assuming logging via DigiDash. By the time I add in a display and a logging facility it's likely to be cheaper to go with the additional ETB box, which also adds the other useful options. ETB also reckon the oil pressure switch is 1/8" BSP.
Yesterday I'd emailed a breaker who regularly posts to the BEC list about a used gear position switch. He hadn't broken a Busa, but recommended his website that offers a parts finder service. Had a reply from a breaker tthis morning who has one for £40, reckons the GSXR 1000 one is £95 + VAT new. Rang JT's and the Busa part is £59 + VAT new. I'll negotiate ...
At lunchtime went over to drop off the sump tank with Terry to weld the boss on. Then called in a couple of other places - got some battery lead terminals from an autoelectrical place, butane for soldering iron and double sided velcro from Maplin and called in Swansea Fasteners who reckon the oil pressure switch is 1/8" BSPT. Checked ETB's website and they offer adaptors, sent another email and they can supply a BSPT to NPT adaptor for £3. So that's that sorted.
In the evening I made a start on the battery leads. First marked the dash and drilled a hole for the cutoff switch using the conical drill. Once that was fitted stripped the end of the lead and soldered the terminal on. This was easier than expected - my gas soldering iron has a little blowlamp attachment so it was easy enough to heat the terminal and run solder in till the space was full and the cable was tinned. I could then run the cable to get the right length and fit the terminal to the other end at the starter relay. Then moved on to the lead from the other side of the cutoff switch to the battery +ve terminal. I just managed to get this soldered up before running out of time, but didn't have time to fit it.
Wednesday 7th March 2007
Didn't get much done on Tuesday but spent a bit more time today. Finished off the battery cable and sorted out the cable from starter relay to starter motor and the main battery earth. This meant the battery cutoff switch was now live and I could start thinking about connecting things to it.
I've had my DigiDash2 sitting in a box for over 18 months and it was finally time to get it fitted. I'll send it back to ETB for updating later. It has 8 tiny mounting screws on the back and a couple of RS232 serial ports so I started off by making a cardboard template to mark the positions for the screw holes and the serial ports in the dash. Once they were done it was fitted in place.
Time to start grubbing round in the mass of wires behind the dash now. I first of all worked out how the main part of the loom was going to sit, then cut the bundle of earth leads to length and soldered a new ring terminal on the end. I then drilled holes for the main ignition switch and the starter button. I then made up a small fly lead to connect one of the smaller terminals on the cutoff switch to the main switched live post. Having thought things through I've decided what I want to do is get the DigiDash live and start connecting sensors and circuits to it to check they're OK. I can't connect up the loom's main live supply yet though as there are bare wires floating about everywhere. So I decided to temporarily connect it to the switched side of the cutoff switch. Once this was done I could power up the DigiDash, which was quite exciting as it lights up like a Christmas tree! It then tells me the oil pressure and temp and water temp sensors aren't connected. I ran through the main configuration options (and there are lots of them!) - it looks like it may already be set up for the Busa, I'll check the gear ratios and final drive ratio. I guess I'll need to factor in the diff ratio too. The two main function buttons are very large and easy to press, shouldn't be a problem with a gloved hand.
Next I drilled a couple of holes to fix the fuse block in position and started sorting out some of the wires. I fitted the flasher relay to its spur and fixed that next to the fuses. I found the ignition switch spur, this has a permanent live, the switched live and the starter solenoid wire. I don't need the starter solenoid wire, but cut the other two to length and fitted spade terminals with piggyback connectors and connected them to the switch.
At this point I decided to have a spring clean. There are lots of wires in this loom that I don't need, and getting rid of them will make life easier. I stripped out all the wires from the engine loom for sensors as they're duplicated in the bike loom, also the wire for the starter solenoid. All the wires for heater motor and switch went apart from the supply and earth which might come in handy for something else, like the DigiDash. Ditto the windscreen washer wires and the wires for some of the warning lights. By the time I'd finished the only wires left in the engine loom were the main power supply and two wires for ignition coils. I'm not sure what I'll be doing with those yet as the Busa doesn't have ignition coils as such, they're incorporated in the plug caps. I'd filled the passenger footwell up with all the surplus bits of wire, but the dash area was looking much less densely populated and far less daunting. I know a lot of people get very put off with wiring looms but it doesn't phase me much as I'm happy to work my way through it logically. I felt like I've made a good start on the dash wiring and am looking forward to getting back on the job at the weekend.
On Tuesday morning I ordered a load of stuff from CFS - I'll need to fabricate a bonnet hump in addition to fixing the rear wheel arch extensions and I ordered some of the two part foam for making seats. I was in no rush so I didn't stump up the extra for next day delivery but it all arrived this morning anyway! Great service. I'd found their website doing a Google search for polyurethane foam - they sell 2kg of it for £9.46 versus £27-28 from Demon Tweeks etc. I asked Tim Hoverd what he used and he said he got his from CFS ... I also spoke to my brother about making a mould etc., he has quite a bit of experience making model planes with foam and GRP and it turns out he orders his stuff from there too! Tim reckons on getting 2 or 3 seats out of their 10kg pack which sounds like a lot of foam for not many seats to me! I hedged my bets and ordered 5kg.
Thursday 8th March 2007
I ordered a few things from Merlin in the morning - a couple of hoses, one to complete the cooling system and some hose for the oil breather. I didn't expect to get any time in the garage today but managed an hour at lunchtime. I fitted the lights switch and dip switch to the dash, followed by the hazard flasher switch. Since the hazard switch spur is a bundle of 7 wires I thought I'd connect that up first to get it out of the way. That didn't quite work out though! I spoke too soon about logic - the trouble is the switch comes with a wiring diagram which labels the 7 terminals 1 to 7 but doesn't actually tell you the functions of any of them. And the loom wiring list helpfully lists the pins as L, R, 30, 15, 49, 49a and 31. I didn't get any of this sussed out before it was time to go back to surgery. I rang VWP, who supply this switch but they weren't able to shed any light. I did however find a couple of more helpful diagrams on Rob Collingridge's site and here.
Friday 9th March 2007
After half an hour or so of looking at the wiring diagrams above and the wiring on the car I was no further forward and in a bad mood! So I moved on to something else and fitted the lighting switch and main/dip switch. Also wired up the indicator switch and horn button. I connected the indicator repeaters to check function. Applying power to the wire labelled as 'indicator switch feed' nowt happened so I decided I needed to bite the bullet and get back to the hazard switch. Didn't then take me long to work out that in the spur for the hazard switch there's a permanent live, an ignition switched live and two wires that go to the flasher relay. Then worked out that the orange wire is the supply to the flasher relay and the green the (flashing) output. I eventually understood what each wire was and how the switch works - basically when switched off it connects the ignition live to the flasher unit but when switched on it disconnects that and connects the flasher relay to the permanent live and connects the indicator lights on both sides to the output. The wiring needed a bit of reworking as the orange wire needed to be connected to two of the terminals and the black wire was just spare. Applying power to the relevant bits produced working indicators and hazards :-)
Next I connected up the fog lamp switch and a switch ready for the rain light. I think originally I was planning to run it off the fog lamp wire - this may still be viable with a switch at the back end of the car to switch between the two, but I think I'd prefer it off its own switch. I'm also not certain if it needs to be available with the lights off etc.
Next job was a switch for the water pump and rad fan - I'm wiring the pump so it's permanently on when the ignition is on but with a switch so I can leave it running with the ignition off. The 2 position switches I've got are all double pole so it was easy enough to wire this up and a quick check confirmed that both were spinning when connected.
My parcel from Merlin arrived so I connected up the last hose on the coolant system and decided it was time to fill it up and check for leaks and that the pump actually worked. Just added water for now, not likely to freeze in the garage this time of year and less of a problem if it does leak or need draining. All went well until I switched the pump on and it pumped all the water out onto the floor! Turns out the hose coming off the base of the cylinder head isn't an oil breather at all ;-) After sticking a bolt in that to block it off and refilling all looked fine, but I realised that I don't want the rad fan permanently on with the ignition on. I'll rewire the switch tomorrow. Still be nice if I can manually switch on when the engine's running though ...
Most of the day had gone by now, it's surprising how long all this stuff takes. Since most of the wires are now connected I decided it was about time I powered up the loom. With the cutoff switch on and all the lights etc. switched off a dab of the main loom feed against the live terminal gave a little spark and a noise from the rear end - fuel pump. So I disconnected its feed and tried again. Small flash again as the fan and water pump are coming on. Holding it on slightly longer and the rad fan continued to whirr but obviously no short circuits so I switched the and connected up the supply.
Next I reconnected the DigiDash and tried temporarily connecting the coolant and oil temp sensors. The oil temp sensor (which was of course swinging in the breeze) showed a balmy 13° but for some reason the water temp sensor still showed as not connected. Not sure why, the wires check out OK with the multimeter. I'll investigate that further later on.
The cutoff switch needed a bit more wiring. It's an FIA switch which means it has a fast blow fuse to earth so that if the switch is in the off position it connects the loom to earth via the fuse. If you don't have this and switch off with the engine running the alternator which is still spinning continues to supply power to the loom. With the FIA switch this will connect the loom to earth and everything should stop. After soldering some wires onto the fuse and covering the bare wire with shrink sleeving I connected it up and cable tied it to the back of the dash using a sticky mount. The other pair of terminals on the switch connect the ignition coil supply (which I guess I'll use for the ECU) to an ignition switched supply.
The adaptor from ETB had arrived as well so I can fit the oil pressure gauge. Easier said than done, the hose isn't a problem but finding a way of mounting it securely to the chassis is. After a couple of failed attempts bending some aluminium sheet I did come up with a solution but didn't get the bracket finished before I had to abandon proceedings for the day.
Saturday 10th March 2007
First job this morning was rewiring the rad fan/water pump switch. Basically I want the water pump on permanently with the ignition, but wanted to also be able to run the pump and the fan with the ignition off. I also want to be able to manually switch the fan on when the engine's running. After a bit of head scratching I realised that it wasn't doable without using a relay/diode or an additional switch as the supply to the pump would also power the fan ...
In the end I decided I didn't really need to be able to switch the pump on without the ignition, so just wired the pump direct to an ignition positive and the fan to the switch.
I also tidied up the bracket for the oil pressure gauge and gave it a coat of etch primer.
With that done I nipped over to collect my sump tank - bargain at £5 to weld on the boss. Also called in the motor factors for some antifreeze and a couple of hose clips.
Once back I fitted the sump tank and connected up the oil temp sensor. Time to decide which hose configuration to use for the bottom oil hose. Although the one I've chosen is clunky it's tidier than the other one and is less restrictive. So I measured up and cut it to length - I used the angle grinder this time, made a much neater job than the hacksaw. I then fitted the 90° elbow on the end and tightened the elbow, reducer and female to female adaptor. Once it was in place it could be tightened up and the jubilee clips on the sump spigot tightened.
I then discovered a problem - I couldn't tighten the fitting that goes onto the oil pump. I don't have a spanner big enough and there simply wasn't any room to get the adjustable wrench in there. I ended up having to take the clutch slave cylinder off to do it, the whole process took about an hour and a half :-( Then I could tighten the other unions.
I'd given the oil pressure sensor bracket a coat of black paint earlier, so this could now be fitted. I also made a bracket for the speedo sensor at the back of the tunnel and gave it a coat of paint.
I decided to drain the water out of the cooling system and add some antifreeze next. I'm still not sure what to do with the hose from the top of the block and have some concerns about my plumbing - the hose from the reservoir tees in after the pump so when the pump's switched on it pushes some water back up into the tank. I'll have a think about this ...
Fitting the speedo sensor was fairly straightforward, it comes with its own cable with a plastic connector. This means the wires I ran down the tunnel ages ago are redundant - one of these will do nicely for the rain light :-)
Next I decided it was time to make a start on wiring up the DigiDash. I started by fixing the ECU and dash logger box in position using sticky velcro, then connected up the earth and supply so it comes on with the ignition. I then started working my way through the wires for all the warning lights and sensors joining them with bullet connectors. This took quite a while but by the close of play I'd done most of them and had a functioning dash with oil temp and pressure, low pressure warning, water temp, indicator and main beam lights and a low brake fluid light. I still need to run a wire from the fog light switch, then it's the wiring for the ECU. A lot of the wires visible in the pic below are redundant, and it'll all need a good tidy up but I was pleased with progress. I'll be amazed if I get everything right, there are loads of interlocks on the ECU, but I should be ready to find out soon ...
Sunday 11th March 2007
I was working overnight and was fairly busy. I was tucking into a bacon and egg sarny at 9 o'clock before heading out to the garage when James rang to see if I fancied a spin. I did so we meandered our way up to Llandovery to the cafe then back via Sennybridge and the Swansea Valley. Some spectacular roads and some rather rapid meandering ;-) James and I swapped bikes for some of the journey back and I was amazed how different his was to ride. Absolutely fabulous motor with a blistering throttle response and superbly smooth power delivery, but it seemed quite a bit smaller than mine, my knees were near my elbows and I felt like I was sitting high up on top of it. I realised I get quite a lot more shelter from the fairing on mine too. Fab bike but I think I'll stick with the Aprilia.
It was late morning by the time I made a start. First off I stuck some oil in. I then connected the clutch switch wire, the kill switch and the side stand switch to earth and tried connecting the starter wire to live. And the engine turned over! It took a few bursts before there was any sign of oil movement but I then had to keep topping up the sump tank. The DigiDash registered the giddy levels of 13PSI of oil pressure. Eventually the tank was half full with 8 litres of Castrol GPS semi-synthetic in there.
Next job was to try to get the ECU up and running. I've had a couple of emails from the BEC list with info on what needs doing to what. The switched +ve from the ignition switch apparently needs a 150Ω resistor between it and the earth. Off I went to Maplin looking for resistors - Walt had said minimum was 0.5 watts but he recommended 1 watt. They had 0.6 and 2 watts so I got a couple of each for 62p. I also got a couple of small toggle switches for the dash. Next called in Halfrauds for another 4 litres of oil, then on to Makro in search of wheelie bin liners for making seats. They did indeed have them.
Back home I temporarily connected up the wires but frankly got nowhere. I know the clutch switch just has to be connected to earth in order for the starter to work, but I can't work out which of the other wires need to be connected to earth or live or each other to satisfy the ECU interlocks. In the end I gave up. I've sent an email to one of the guys on the list who has a Busa engined car and I'll have a look through the Suzuki service manual when my brain isn't sleep deprived, it has a bit more detail than the Haynes one which just shows the wiring diagram without showing the actual function of the relays etc.
Another problem is that there's oil on the floor - it seems to be leaking from the clutch cover and from somewhere around the oil pump. The clutch cover doesn't surprise me, the gasket looks like it's been used loads of times, I'll get a new one. The oil pump is likely to be one of the unions needing tightening. I'll have a look later in the week.
I decided to have a go at making a seat next. I've had some very helpful instructions from Tim Hoverd, the most useful ones being to make sure not to get the foam on me cos it's a bugger and not to worry about doing the seat all in one go as you can add to it with subsequent mixes. I used some cardboard to stop it ingressing between the chassis rails down the side. First off although it had been a very nice and relatively warm day the temperature in the garage was probably well below 10° - I think my foam is from more tropical climes and was very slow getting going. So I stuck about half a litre of mix in my black bag and waited:
It did start to rise after a couple of minutes, and once it was starting to go a bit jelly like I sat on it to form it into shape. After a few minutes I got off it and pulled the bin liner away from it to have a look. It had basically formed the base of the seat with a bit having oozed up around the sides and the back. So I added another batch and once this had started to rise slid myself in from the front of the seat to push it up the back. This worked fairly well but I still wanted some more up near the top. I used a bit more cardboard to extend the 'walls' and added a third mix. This got it to more or less where I want - the layer of foam is extremely thin in the middle of the base and the middle of the back, which is what I want, but it's a nice snug fit everywhere. I'll have a look when it's hardened, I might get Chris to tip a bit more mix in the top while I'm sitting in it.
Monday 12th March 2007
Since I'm going to need to spend more time grubbing around underneath the car trying to sort the oil leaks I decided to jack it up a bit higher. There seemed to be two main areas of leakage. The first seemed to be from one of the two curved pipes from sump pan to oil pump and seemed to be coming from the joint between the top flange and the sump. On applying an allen key it wasn't surprising it was leaking as the screws weren't very tight at all. The TTS instructions had specifically warned against over tightening and that's my excuse. The second I initially thought was coming from the clutch cover, but after wiping it all clean and looking again a little while later it seemed to be coming from the connection of the braided hose onto the sump spigot. I tried tightening the jubilee clips but they're weedy affairs and just stripped. I did find a heavier duty one and stuck that one nice and tight.
I nipped out to get fuel in a jerry can and stuck a couple of litres in the fuel tank. No apparent leaks so I disconnected the hoses from the swirl pot under the bonnet and ran the pump until fuel flowed out of the hose. I let a good bit run into a jug to make sure I collected any flotsam from the hoses, then reconnected it and ran the pump again till fuel squirted out fo the top of the swirl pot. Then reconnected the hose and left the pump running for a while and checked the whole system for leaks.
Tuesday 13th March 2007
No building today - working till midnight. Did have a quick look at the oil on garage floor situation and the first leak is cured, the second continues. Thinking about it the -16 braided hose has a sort of spiral convoluted inner hose and I recon the oil's tracking up the spiral groove. This means I need to either compress it hard enough to flatten the convolution or apply some silicon or similar to the groove. The latter will mean draining the oil and I hope to avoid it! On a positive note there was no smell of petrol and none on the floor.
I also spent an hour early this morning going over every wiring diagram I could find to work out exactly what each wire does in the ECU loom. In the end I think I've got it sussed and realise that I had a couple of them connected wrong. Which is good really, if it looked like they were all connected OK then further troubleshooting would be very difficult indeed.
Wednesday 14th March 2007
Ah well, full of optimism I wired it up as I thought it should be ... and it just blew the fuse. Tried disconnecting a couple of the wires I'd earthed and it still blew the fuse. Odd. The wire I'm powering up only runs to a couple of places on the loom so I'll check those out when I can.
The sump hose is still seeping oil too despite a second jubilee clip. I think I'll need to drain the oil and apply some silicon to the joint.
Friday 16th March
I'm a bit worried about the fuse blowing and have a nasty feeling I may have fried the ECU. The only components the main supply wire is connected to are the ECU, the fuel pump relay and the vacuum control solenoid. So I decided to disconnect them one at a time to see which one's shorting. Easiest to disconnect is the ECU and immediately identifies the problem as the fuse remains intact once it's disconnected. So the good news is I know what's wrong, the bad news is my ECU's buggered. I then gave Malc a call and he thinks he has one and will check when he gets back to base. Not too bad at £100 but I'm annoyed with myself for getting it wrong in the first place.
I'm fairly confident that I do now have the correct connections sorted out so start tidying the wires up a bit, making proper connections with bullet connectors where I'd had temporary ones. Fortunately there's a spare fuse position on the fuse block for me to use for the supply to the fuel pump relay solenoid. It's starting to look a bit tidier now and I've got all the connections sorted for the DigiDash sensors.
Friday 23rd March 2007
Yep, long gap! Was away working last weekend and had a fairly busy week this week. In the end Malc's ECU was from a 2003, so no good. Managed to find one from a 99 model though which arrived this morning. I've been thinking about changing the bike, so spent a good part of the morning down at JT's looking at the shiny new GSXRs and R1s. A friend has just bought a new R1 and was kind enough to let me take it out for a spin yesterday. After the usual faffing about with driving licence and a £500 deposit I took the Suzuki out for a test drive. I think it's a little more cramped than the R1 and I just felt a bit more comfortable with the R1's handling. As expected they're offering a fairly crap part-ex deal but after having a chat with Charles at Kickstart where I bought the Aprilia it's about right as a trade price and lots of the dealers are out of stock of R1s so not much scope for haggling really. I'll pop down again tomorrow.
Anyway, back to the Busa motor ... I connected the ECU up and dabbed the power cable with 12v to see what happened. No sparks this time so I connected up and earthed the clutch switch wire, the one from the side stand relay and the one with the resistor and hey presto, the EFI pump hummed into life for the first time. I stuck all the spark plugs in and turned it over. After a few seconds it fired and ran for a second or so. I then couldn't start it again. I found each time I cleaned the plugs it ran for a second or so, and gradually the amount of blue smoke produced each time declined. Eventually I got her to run and sorted out the idle speed as she warmed up. The DigiDash was showing reassuring numbers for oil pressure, oil temp and coolant temp. Even with both doors and the windows open the garage filled up with fumes fairly rapidly so I could only run her for fairly short periods. There is a bit of oil seepage from the clutch cover so I'll order a new gasket for that tomorrow.
It's a great feeling finally getting an engine going when it's been sitting in the garage gathering dust for almost 2 years! Now she runs I can finalise and tidy up all the wiring. I also need to get a nipple for the throttle cable and measure up and order a cable for the gear linkage.
Saturday 24th March 2007
I ordered a new gasket from JT's and while I was down there seem to have placed a deposit on a new R1 too. I might have got away with it as they rang back to say the black bike I wanted had been sold from their other branch. They're trying to find another black one but if they don't I think I'll get my deposit back rather than have one of the other colours. They're raping me on the part-ex anyway ...
Lovely warm sunny day so decided to get the 2 part foam out again and have a go at making the bulge for the bonnet. First stuck brown parcel tape on the GRP and a black bin bag to stop the foam getting all over the air filter than made a cardboard mould for the foam. Once it was set I removed the cardboard and the tape and was left with this highly aerodynamic looking effort!
I also made a start on tidying up the dash wiring. This would be pretty easy if it weren't for the DigiDash. This has fairly long and bulky sub-looms for the run from the main box to the dash unit, also for the speed sensor and one for the lap trigger. I can't really cut these down so have just had to coil them up and tuck them to the side. There are also over a dozen individual wires connected to the various engine sensors etc. which can't really be made as tidy as I'd like. It's now looking better but there's still some work to do. There are a couple more connections I want to add, including a switch to be able to power up the dash without the car ignition circuit so I'll wait till that's done before putting any more effort into it.
I did make a start on shaping the bonnet bulge - after 20 minutes with the carving knife it was looking somewhat better and I had a black bin bag full of bits of foam offcuts. I'll get going on it tomorrow with some coarse sanding paper.
Sunday 25th March 2007
Out for a hoon on the bike this morning, the sun hadn't come out but the roads were dry and it was about the best ride I've been on. Had a few other things to do during the rest of the day so didn't get much done. I did set about my lump of foam though. It sands down fairly easily using some rough sandpaper. I got quite a long way with it before deciding I needed to actually remove quite a bit more of the stuff and remembered the surform which certainly made light work of it! Once it was the right thickness and shape I finished it off with progressively finer grades of sandpaper. The finished article appears below. It looks a bit scabby where the 2 different mixes interfaced and the surface is much smoother than it looks in the pics. The plan now is to seal it so the polyester resin doesn't eat the foam (I'll probably use some more parcel tape) and then either make a mould from it or just cover it in fibreglass mat and resin. The former has the attraction of being able to make more than one if I need to and of producing a slightly lower profile bulge, the latter being quicker.
The astute reader will have noted the lack of a hole for air to get in. As mentioned earlier I don't plan one as I don't think it will actually make a difference and avoids having to faff about with a grille (ISTR the RGB regs are strict about mesh size specifying a mesh that basically doesn't allow air to flow through it anyway).
