I didn’t really make any kind of a start till Saturday morning. First all the bodywork came off so I could have a better look at everything, then I stuck her up on axle stands and stripped the uprights and wishbones off on the damaged corners. The uprights seemed fine as were the pullrods and steering arm. The red stuff in the photo’s paint off the tyre wall.

I compiled a list of the damaged parts:

• Front bonnet
• Nearside sidepod
• Nearside wheel arch of rear cover
• Front aluminium body mounting frame
• Nearside headlight pod and lens
• All 4 nearside wishbones
• Steering rod end and brackets
• Oil cooler
• Oil cooler GRP duct
• Nearside radiator duct
• Wheels scuffed
• Splitter scrap

I then had a chat with Colin and Brian the outcome being that I’d take the aluminium frame to Brian on Sunday morning for him to replace the damaged bits and I’d exchange wishbones with Colin (he’s got the nearside upper front wishbone and I’ve got the offside rear upper that he needs) next weekend.

I’d had the presence of mind to collect the bits of GRP that had broken off and despite the fact the a large chunk of the nearside front corner of the bonnet involving the wheel arch and headlight opening was broken away it actually wasn’t too bad piecing it back together with gaffer tape. I’d run out of GRP resin – I usually get this mail order from CFS – but after ringing round the local Brown Brothers supplied 5 litres of resin at about twice the CFS price and Chris picked that up for me on Friday. It came with a tube of hardener paste like I’m used to using with the body filler which I thought a bit odd but I decided to use my usual MEKP liquid catalyst. This turned out to be a huge mistake – I was a bit concerned when after a couple of hours it was still really wet on the bonnet and rear valance. We went out for the evening and it was still wet when we got home and sure enough by the morning it was no better

I went off to Brian’s on Sunday morning to drop off the frame and picked up a new steering rod end and brackets (these are a light gauge of steel designed to fail rather than cause more damage to the upright or steering rack), headlight pod, replacement suspension bushes (some of these were looking a bit squashed and I decided I might as well replace them all) and I also nabbed a replacement rear undertray blank. The rear undertray has never been quite the same since it got trashed at Silverstone last year and in this crash the lower wishbone bent down buckling it even further. It was fixable but pretty tatty looking.

When I got home I did some experimenting with the GRP resin and found that even making a very hot mix the MEKP just didn’t work. The paste supplied with it did but was much more difficult to measure. I used a bit of it to patch up the rad and oil cooler ducts after straightening them out and sticking them together with gaffer tape. I also stuck new bushes in the rear wishbones and swapped the spherical bearings over. The resin applied the previous day did seem to be going off slowly in the sun so I left the bonnet and rear valance for the day.

Monday saw some ordering – more supplies from CFS, new oil cooler from Think Automotive, new indicator repeaters from Ebay, acrylic glue from RS Components. In the evening I spent ages pulling the resin and mat off the bonnet, although it had hardened a bit in places in others the whole lot just lifted off easily still very wet and sticky. I cleaned it all up with acetone then used the tiny bit of ‘normal’ resin I had left to do a bit of patching.

I then got going bending the new undertray. I got my local aluminium fabricator to do the last one but couldn’t be bothered this time. After an hour and a half with my steel angle irons and assorted hammers that was sorted.

Tuesday saw the patching of the GRP bits almost completed as my order arrived from CFS, the front of the nearside sidepod took quite a lot of work as it was pretty badly damaged and a chunk was missing. I made a start on the rear cover but that was actually a bit more damaged than I’d originally thought so didn’t finish that.

Wednesday I got little done due to working late but did manage to get the rear cover GRP done. I also made a new fuel filler inlet from the mould I’d made when I first built the car as the old one had got pretty badly damaged. I also cleaned up then bonded and re-rivetted the floor at the nearside rear corner, this had been detaching itself for some time probably due to the weight of the battery.

On Thursday the fuel filler moulding got bonded onto the sidepod and I made a start with the filler on the outside of the bonnet. Friday morning I had a look at the wheels, both nearside wheels were looking decidedly sorry for themselves, covered in a combination of mud and horrid looking red coloured scuffs from the paint on the tyre wall. I soon discovered that the red stuff cleaned off quite quickly with acetone. I also let the front tyre down to dislodge the soil that had become compacted between the bead of the tyre and the rim.

On Saturday morning my first priority was to make sure the nearside radiator wasn’t leaking as it had borne the brunt of the impact and the lower duct mount bracket was a bit bent. So I fitted the new oil cooler into the repaired housing/duct and connected it up. Disconnected the fuel pump and turned the engine till I had oil pressure then started her and ran her up to temperature. All was well with no leaks so I switched off.

I then rebuilt the nearside rear corner – refitted wishbones, upright/driveshaft, brake caliper and disk. I also refitted the radiator duct and side impact protection. The next few hours were spent prepping the bonnet, sidepod and rear valance for painting. It really takes ages getting it all back to shape and it’s a bit of a balancing act, on the one hand I can’t afford much time but on the other I don’t want it looking so rough that it needs redoing after Pembrey. I got the repaired bits of bonnet primered early afternoon then got dragged away for a few domestic chores.

Colin was kind enough to drop off my wishbone and body mounting frames late Saturday afternoon – he’s over for the Wiggle Dragon Ride which he entered mostly cos Dan Bromilow and I had entered it. Dan pulled out cos he apparently found something better to do and I’m not doing it as I’ve done zero training. I feel both guilty an disappointed but I simply haven’t had time.

By close of play Saturday the bonnet was painted white, the other bits were ready for primer and I’d fitted the spherical joints to the front nearside wishbones ready to fit them.

On Sunday I started by fitting the front wishbones, the rear body mounting frame and undertray and the front mounting frame. The sidepod and valance got primered and the bonnet was brought down from the garden shed cum spray booth to bond it onto its hinges. The rear mounting frame, exhaust and undertray got refitted and the sidepod and valance painted.

I was away Monday but on Tuesday got the nearside sidepod re-bonded onto its mounts and made a start refitting the rear valance. I was delayed a bit when the 8mm rivnut holding the side impact bar on had some damaged threads and started spinning. I didn’t have a replacement as my kit doesn’t go beyond 6mm. I couldn’t think of any other way of securing it other than a rivnut so I wasted half an hour making my own on the lathe from a piece of ally bar.

Wednesday saw the nearside headlight pod bonded on and the lights refitted followed by refitting the rear valance. And with that the car was mostly back together. On Thursday evening I set up the string box to reset the wheel alignment, checked the ride height and threw her on the corner weight scales. All the bodywork seems to have gradually gained more weight with each repair but with me in the car and 10 litres of fuel on board she’s still only 567kg meaning I certainly can’t take any ballast out. So after 2 weeks hard graft she’s good to go again. The weather forecast ain’t great so I didn’t book the full day testing, just the afternoon, that then gives me a bit more time in the morning to pack etc.

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I haven’t got round to finishing the blog post about the Brands weekend yet. The less said the better really, Friday testing was OK but not stellar. Qualy on Saturday was marred by air in the clutch hydraulics meaning I couldn’t downshift, the race on Saturday was in monsoon conditions and I couldn’t see a thing and on Sunday my rear cover pins sheared and I trailed the bodywork round for a couple of laps before spotting the black flag and coming in. I wasn’t desperately upset about the damage to the car, I’ve certainly had worse and I didn’t think it would be terribly challenging to repair.

I removed the rear cover and stripped all the brackets, spoiler etc. off it. The main spoiler was OK, the the side strakes definitely weren’t, the hinges were OK but needed rebonding in once the GRP was repaired. Clearly the pins at the front had sheared, the cover had flipped back and the hinges had hit their stops then ripped out of the GRP. Since the spoiler was attached all the way across the back of the cover that had remained attached and it was its attachment to the hinge plates that was holding the whole lot onto the car. There were cracks across the wheel arches and the narrow bridge below the airbox intake had broken making the whole thing was pretty floppy.

I cleaned up the inside of the GRP with acetone and set about patching it with resin and chopped strand. Once this was sorted the panel was much more rigid again and I could then sort out the airbox cover. After lots of measuring I mixed up some of the 2 part foam and built this up so I could cut/sand it back to a shape that would fit over the airbox. I then oversanded it a bit and smeared it with filler.

After several cycles of sanding and refilling I had it looking roughly as I wanted.

It then got a liberal coat of high build primer followed by a bit more filler to sort out the defects made obvious by the paint. After a couple more layers of primer I cut this back and waxed it up ready to make a mould from it.

The rear valance also got some attention as this had sustained a bit of damage, it’s also fair to say it was a bit tatty beforehand anyway the previous paint job having been a bit rushed. The light units on the right hand side had been melted, I think the flopped over rear bodywork had been deflecting the hot exhaust gases back onto the valance.

With loads of layers of wax on the plug I masked off the bodywork with parcel tape then daubed gelcoat onto it. Once that was tacky I started adding layers of chopped strand mat and resin.

About 12 hours after the final layer I made my first attempt at separating the mould from the plug. Although the edges were easy enough to separate indicating that the wax had done its job getting the two bits apart proved quite tricky. Eventually I gave it a few taps with the rubber hammer while prising it apart as hard as I could and it popped off neatly. And here it is after some trimming. It’s not perfect but it’s plenty good enough and any minor defects in the final part can be sorted before painting it.

The next stage involved attacking the rear cover with Ken Greenway’s favourite tool, the angle grinder. I chopped away all the foam etc. and enough of the old part of the airbox cover so the mould could be plonked back on and the new shape grafted on by laying up GRP on the inside.

Separating the mould was much easier this time and I was quite pleased with the result although it needed quite a bit of work with filler to tidy up the join.

Once I was happy with it I tidied up all the other repairs to the cover with filler and got it prepped for painting. The first coat of primer went fairly badly – it was going swimmingly well but unbeknown to me (as it’s in the garage and I spray up in the garden shed) the compressor had tripped out and as the pressure dropped the gun started splurging gobs of high build primer everywhere. It took a bit more work before the surface was ready for top coat and by now the end of the weekend was looming so I had to compromise a bit. The top coat went on well and the finish is generally good although there are a few minor defects. That said the finish is quite a bit better than last time I painted it and from anything above a couple of yards away it looks perfect and that’s all you need for a race car!

On Sunday night I just managed to drop the cover into position and glue the hinges on with the 2 part acrylic cement. Monday evening I then lifted it off and bonded the underneath parts with PU sealant. While that was drying I set about the somewhat mangled bits of aluminium that together make up the spoiler and the side strakes. The spolier was pretty easily salveagable as was the offside strake but I had to make a new strake up for the nearside. By the time I went in on Monday night they were all back in place on the bodywork.

At this stage I could be confident the car would be ready so I booked testing for Friday at Snetterton. We’re on the 300 circuit which seems to be quite popular with racers, I haven’t driven that configuration before so it’ll be good to get a few laps in on Friday.

Tuesday saw new vinyl cut and this was applied and the car given a quick clean ready to load up on Wednesday evening. This shot shows the new profile to accommodate the airbox. the vertical shutline is a bit wide but then it was before, the sidepod actually needs repositioning a bit further back. The sidepods need repainting anyway so I’ll address that when I get round to that.

Now I’ve got the vinyl graphics stored it’s very easy to cut them out on the vinyl cutter and sticking them on only took a few minutes. It was then time to get the motorhome loaded up ready for the long trek on Thursday night.

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On Monday evening I decided it was time to fit the engine/reverse motor and needed to fit the chain first. So I fitted a new sprocket – after much deliberation I fitted one that gears me for about the same as I was at the end of last season. That was a bit too high for some circuits but I’m hoping a combination of my improved driving plus a more powerful motor should mean it’s about right. I’d already got a new chain via my trade account at M&P so chopped it down to length then on Tuesday got it rivetted on.

And then I was off to London on Wednesday not getting home till late on Saturday so that was it until Sunday. I was now very conscious of time pressure, the first race is now less than two weeks away. I’ve got no chance of testing before then and realistically wouldn’t have even if the car had been ready sooner. I also won’t have time to get it mapped. In the expectation that the car [b]will[/b] be ready for Donington I’ve booked the untimed practice session on the race day.

I fitted the engine/reverse mount along with the lower chainstay section then got the isolator and battery fitted and connected up. I connected up the remaining coolant hoses and refilled the system. Then it was time for the bits I’d been putting off – rewiring the engine bay to connect up the engine loom and all the sensors. With the new layout the oil pressure sender, oil temp sender and the fuel pressure sender are all close together so I made up a small sub-loom to connect them along with the water temp sender and connected that into the main loom via a 6 way multiconnector. With that done I could check that the dash worked and that the sensors were displaying correctly.

I then sorted out all the wires for the main loom side of the engine loom connector and got the terminals crimped and soldered onto that. With the starter solenoid connected up to both the isolator switch and the starter motor that was about it. At this stage lots of components were just dangling in the engine bay but I didn’t want to tidy them up till I knew everything was working. The time had come to try switching on the ignition. This was very undramatic as absolutely nothing happened at all. What should happen is that the fuel pump relay should click on for a few seconds, you usually hear the fuel pump while that’s on ad you usually hear the throttle butterflies move. But none of that happened. So reached for the secret weapon – the bike dash – and plugged that in and tried again. This told me that the ECU certainly was alive, it all lit up, the neutral light came on along with the low fuel warning light. Also there were flashing FI and ignition key symbols. So I nipped into the house to the Kawasaki manual and worked out how to display the fault codes to discover four of them on there – 35, 34, 56 and 67. 35 is “Immobiliser Amplifier Malfunction” so I wasn’t too pleased about that but the other 3 were trivial expected things, 34 is the exhaust valve actuator, 56 the radiator fan relay and 67 the oxygen sensor, all of which are indeed absent.

I checked that the immobiliser module was correctly plugged in which it was, then turned my attention to the key and antenna which I’d dismantled from within the ignition switch assembly. I undid the tape and tried turning the key round so it poked through the antenna ring from the back as I wondered if it was pushed in too far. This did the trick as next time I tried it the flashing key symbol had gone along with code 35 and I just had the 3 others.

So I refitted the oil cooler and filled her with oil then tried the starter button without having the stick coils on. The engine turned over but I didn’t get any oil pressure. I wasn’t terribly surprised as all the hoses were empty along with the cooler itself and the filter housing. I turned it for a little while but had really run out of time and the battery was starting to drain so I abandoned for the day.

On Monday evening I disconnected the oil cooler and filled it with oil then backfilled the feed hose. A bit of cranking with the oil filter loose soon saw oil dripping from the filter housing. With the filter tightened I was then seeing over 30psi just on the starter button. I then refitted the stick coils and tried starting her but the battery was a bit weak. There was a spark and the FI system is running so I was confident everything’s good to go.

But I was wrong! Spinning away but not firing. Fitted a new set of plugs but no better. Decided to have another look at the fault codes – there’s now code 23. Camshaft position sensor. That would be because it wasn’t plugged in. A few seconds later and she’s running with nice blue gouts of flame from the ports

On Tuesday I got the exhaust manifold fitted. My original plan was to get a new one made but in the end I haven’t had either the time or the money. The block and port dimensions are identical so it fits fine, it’s probably just losing me a bit of power. I then discovered I couldn’t start the engine. Immobiliser again, it seems the key position within the antenna ring is critical. I really don’t want to have to refit the actual ignition barrel so tried stuffing the housing with a big lump of blutac which seems to work OK.

Once that was done I refitted the reverse motor and made some mounting brackets for the starter solenoid and the voltage regulator along the top edge of the engine mount just above the reverse motor. During short stints in the garage during the week I got the rest of the wiring tidied up and refitted the exhaust manifold.

The Donington finals came out and I discovered I wasn’t in either the race or the untimed practice session. A phone call to the 750 Motor Club office confirmed that they hadn’t received either my bulk entry form which had been emailed in January or the form I’d faxed for the untimed practice No problem for the race as there were still spaces but the untimed practice was full.

On Saturday I refitted the rear undertray and the rear framework and silencer. I also fabricated some steel plates with welded on captive nuts to replace the M8 rivnuts in the rear aluminium channel the bodywork bolts onto. I discovered I had a problem in that the battery wasn’t receiving any charge although it was fine when I’d checked it at the first engine start. A broken connector in the rectifier outlet plug explained this so I found a similar female blade connector and soldered that on.

Sunday was then the big push to try to get the car finished and road tested as I was due to leave for London early evening for a few days. I had to completely replumb my breather system and catch tank. The ZX10, in common with the R1, tends to naturally breathe a lot of oil out and needs a system to return the oil to the engine. I’d spoken to Tony Gaunt and was planning to copy his system. The first requirement was to modify my catch tank to stick a hose onto the bottom of it to return the oil. It has an M6 bolt in the bottom to drain it so I removed that, drilled the hole out and tapped it to M10. I then turned down a short length of aluminium, threaded one end of it then bored it out and screwed this into the tank so I could attach a hose to it. I then had to find some way of mounting my catch tank as high as possible within the engine bay which proved quite tricky and took me ages. Once that was done I connected the gearbox breather via a tee piece with one hose going to the top of the tank as a breather and the other to the bottom with an inline one way valve to allow the oil to drain back to the engine. The breathers on the top of the cam cover were connected to the other spigot at the top of the tank. That took me till lunchtime.

I then refitted the rear bodywork which of course needed modification to accommodate the airbox. After making a cardboard template I took the angle grinder to the GRP and gradually trimmed the hole until it fitted around the airbox. This left only a thin strip of GRP across the front edge of the bodywork so I reinforced that with a strip of aluminium. In fact the airbox doesn’t protrude very much at all and doesn’t look anywhere near as bad as I’d expected. My original plan had been to mould a new bulge but it’s been too cold for GRP work and in any case I simply haven’t had time. I’ll get that done after the Donington race meeting. Here’s a pic of the engine/airbox, I didn’t have time to get a shot of the modified bodywork.

I refitted the clutch slave next then made a start on modifying the sidepods. In their wisdom the committee have decided to enforce a completely flat floor and despite their assurances that this wouldn’t affect existing cars (other than those they were targetting as pushing the boundaries of the aero rules) the new rule makes the sidepod floor immediately behind the front wheel non-compliant. So the fix was to fabricate some aluminium panels to cover the floor and provide a flat floor with a vertical surface in the wheel well. This took longer than it should and it was getting towards late afternoon before the sidepods were ready to fit.

I was getting very pressurised by now since I needed to leave the house at about 6:15 and hadn’t packed my stuff for 3 days in London. I got the sidepods refitted followed by the rear valance, then the bulkhead panels followed by the seat and harness. By the time I cleared the way out of the garage and got the car out onto the drive it was after 5:30. I got in to find the pedal end of the throttle cable had come undone so I needed to get out again and sort that. I then set off down the drive to find the clutch was out of adjustment and slipping too much so I got the car back up the drive to adjust that. At 5:45 I set off down the drive again to find I got into third gear and then couldn’t change down due to some problem with the gear linkage. So I had the car stuck at the end of the drive in gear. David helped me turn it round then I just had to drive it back into the garage and abandon it to have a quick shower and throw some stuff into a bag for my trip.

So, here I am in London. I won’t be home till late Wednesday evening, I’m working till 6:30 on Thursday and am in Cardiff for the day on Friday. Hopefully the gear linkage just needs some adjustment but I’ll need to do a bit of dismantling to get at it. The car still needs a few minor things doing like race numbers, a bit of heat insulation here and there and I need to upload a map to the Power Commander. I really hope I’ll get chance to get the car out on the road before the trek up to Donington on Friday evening but it’s all going to be a bit touch and go.

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After a week without progress I spent an hour in the garage on Sunday. I guess I’d been putting it off as the next job was sorting out the wiring loom in the car. The wiring coming into the engine bay isn’t a problem, 2 multicore trailer wires plus one I added for the throttle position sensor, but once in the engine bay it had become a bit of a mess. the main problem was the multiple earth wires for the various sensors – fuel pressure, oil pressure, coolant temp etc. So I chopped out all the messy stuff and cleaned up what was left to get all the oil off it.

Brian emailed me to let me know he’d finished the oil cooler take-off and did I want it posting back. With Friday off I’d been tempted to nip up to collect it but the weather forecast for Friday included lots of snow so I decided that wasn’t a good idea! The part duly arrive on Monday having been delayed by aforementioned snow and I wasn’t disappointed. As you can see from the photo it’s very compact and looks like it should be just the job. The original adapter I’ve been using has ports tapped 1/2″ BSP with adaptors to connect the -10 JIC hose connectors onto but Brian decided to get some -10 JIC connectors welded onto it directly, I think mainly to keep the thing more compact. The welding was of course done by Bob at Concept Racing.

Because of the complex shape of the O-ring etc. Brian was originally thinking of trying to use the OEM base but decided in the end to bite the bullet and machine the whole piece from billet, including the groove for the seal. We worked out that the funny looking indentations and channels in the OEM item are there simply to vent void space around the oil pump in the casing to atmospheric pressure so Brian’s done simple versions of those as you can see here.

And here’s the new part alongside the OEM part and the oil cooler take-off I’ve been using. The new part weighs 160 grams, the OEM part 310g and the old billet take-off adapter 590g. Of course I’ll still need the remote filter head but it still amounts to a significant weight saving. The most important thing though is that it’s much more elegant, takes up less space and I can now run a remote filter that’ll be much easier to get to.

I ordered my remote oil filter head with the required fittings, I also ordered some new hose to replace all the oil cooler hoses, they’re a bit worn in places where they’ve chafed a bit, especially the one running across the engine bay floor. On Brian’s advice I’ve got a filter head that takes a 20mm threaded filter – most of them are 3/4″ UNF and the problem then is that a bike filter (which are usually 20mm) will go onto the 3/4″ UNF stub but won’t tighten properly and can blow off with catastrophic consequences. I got the stuff from BGC Motorsport who stock a remote filter head that will allow me to fit the standard Kawasaki filter.

On Saturday morning I got the new take off plate bolted onto the engine. I stripped the fittings off the old oil cooler hoses and cleaned them up ready to make up the new hoses. I also drilled and tapped the new oil filter head to take the oil temp sender.

Brian had also sent some revised engine mount parts. The main engine mount plates are bolted onto the rear bulkhead via aluminium angles and these failed last summer. The old angles were 25mm x 3.2mm, the new replacements are machined from 25mm x 25mm solid square bar. Although the bolt holes are rebated I still needed some longer bolts so popped over to Swansea Fasteners to get some new ones.

On Sunday morning I was about to get the engine suspended from the hoist to lower it into the engine bay when I remembered that I’d wanted to modify the water pump housing. There’s a small spigot that goes to the oil cooler that I’d previously blocked off by sticking a small length of hose with a bolt clamped in it. This tends to get in the way of the gear lever a bit so I wanted to try something else. When I came to remove it I found that one of the bolts was loose, and this turned out to be because the little crankcase stub it was screwed into was split, presumably having taken a knock when the bike went down So I cleaned it up, stuck some JB Weld in it then tapped the bent segment back in then re-tapped the hole a little deeper to take a longer bolt.

Going back to the water pump housing I cut the spigot down, ran an M10 tap through it then ground down the head of an M10 button headed screw down and fixed it in from the inside with some JB Weld. The housing could then be bolted back onto the engine.

The ZX10 engine has adjustable engine mounts, both upper and lower gearbox mounts on the right hand side are threaded bushes so the width can be adjusted but the upper one on the 2009 engine is much longer so I swapped over the old ones once the engine was in the hoist. I then ran out of time so lowered it onto some wooden blocks till I can get out there again, next job is to install it in the engine bay.

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It took a while untangling the wiring and getting the engine loom out of the car. Although the initial connection to the engine loom was reasonably tidy every subsequent addition – various sensors etc. – made it progressively more untidy. Then dousing it with oil made it horrible to handle. But eventually it was out. I then set about cleaning up the engine bay and split the chain and removed that.

It was then time to make a start on the loom for the new engine. The first part was to label all the connectors on the loom so I know what’s what. Oh for a nice Haynes manual with a colour wiring diagram! The Kawasaki manual has the wiring diagram in black and white and to make it more interesting it’s spread over two pages which makes tracking the 50-odd wires that cross the page real fun. With all the connectors identified and labelled I then stripped off all the loom tape, in this case it’s all adhesive backed so that took quite a while. Then it was time to start cutting bits out, the easiest bit to start on was the lighting wiring as I know I don’t want to keep any of that – by the time you’ve cut out the wires for the headlights, sidelights, indicators and brake light quite a bit of wire and a few connectors are gone. I then worked from the main handlebar switchgear which is also going. I kept a record of all the important wires from the last time I did this and the important ones remain the same – the main ignition feed, the starter button, engine kill switch, clutch switch etc. On the Kawasaki there’s a bank of 5 relays in a relay box which include the headlight, fan, fuel pump and starter circuit relays along with one that doesn’t get used. The starter circuit is complex with inputs from the handlebar clutch switch, neutral switch and sidestand switch along with the starter button. This wiring can all be stripped out leaving three wires running to the ECU, one of which tells the ECU the clutch is in, another tells it the starter button is being pressed (this enables the starter motor) and the final one tells it that the sidestand is up and the engine is either in neutral or the clutch is in (enabling the FI system).

My previous install was with an American loom and ECU which doesn’t have the immobiliser circuitry but this one’s a UK model and therefore has complex immobiliser circuitry with a transponder in the key. On these bikes if you lose your keys and the master you have to buy a new ECU and ignition switch. So I made sure I got the ignition switch and key with the engine, I’ll need to strip the transponder receiver out of the lock and tape it into the loom along with the key. Like most bikes the loom also incorporates a tilt sensor which shuts off the FI system if the bike falls over and while these can be either mounted upright or filled with silicon a neater fix is to snip the wires off and bridge the input (blue) wire and the output (yellow/green) wire with a 68kΩ resistor. This steps the +5V input voltage down to the required +4V and keeps the ECU happy. This photo shows the stripped loom ready to be tidied up and rewrapped.

In addition to stripping lots of wires and connectors out of the loom I also added a couple, splicing in wires to give me a tacho feed for the DigiDash along with a throttle position feed. These wires were then bundled with the other ones needed to connect to the BDN loom and I set about rewrapping the whole loom. And here’s a photo of the end product along with the box of wire offcuts.

Meanwhile I’ve shipped the oil filter take-off casting up to Brian for him to have a think about the best solution for the remote oil filter. His initial thoughts involve machining a cover for the side of the casting currently occupied by the oil cooler take-off and machining a take-off to go where the filter usually sits. I did ring Brian at BGC Motorsport to see if he could supply an off the shelf sandwich plate and blanking off adapter that would fit but drew a blank.

After New Year I ordered some new connectors from Vehicle Wiring Products, the multiconnector I’d used to connect the engine loom to the main car loom used 6.3mm blade terminals but didn’t have any latch so I had to hold it together with a cable tie. The new 12 way connector has nice little latches and is a bit more compact. Once all the terminals for this were soldered on and pushed into the terminal block I finished off the loom by sorting out the immobiliser transponder. The antenna is circular and incorporated into the ignition lock, it wasn’t much of a job to remove this from the barrel and tape the key inside it.

Having received the oil filter/cooler casting in the post Brian has had a few ideas about sorting out a solution. We did have a chat over the phone and it seems that the solution is going to be massively more compact than the assembly it replaces.

And to finish this blog entry here’s a link to the annual stats for the blog for 2012

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