Slow Monster rebuild

[350TSS]

Freezing in garage today so I put the heater on and came back indoors to ponder the wiring. On an Excel spreadsheet I created a generic block diagram of all the components that involve electrics and then photocopied it about 15 times and then on each sheet worked out the wiring for a particular circuit e.g. starter motor, indicators main and dipped beams. This will not solve the tricky bit about where to put connectors and how some circuits share common power feed but I will at the end have a good idea of what I am hoping to achieve. Also, it helps with working out the colour coding of the trailing leads from bits that I will be retaining, ignition switch, handlebar switches etc., etc. and where they join new parts with attached wires in non Ducati colours.

The rest of the day I spent today cutting out the rear brake hanger plate.
Steps were:
1. machine a 25mm diameter x 40mm long aluminium dummy spindle;
2. drill and tap it 4mm at one end;
3. locate the stub on the hanger plate and drill a 4mm hole and fasten dummy spindle to plate;
4. clamp the S4 hanger pate over the dummy spindle with 12mm offset at the wheel spindle uppermost;
5. drill on the lathe 2mm holes longitudinally in 2 x 8mm bolts x 16mm long;(I did this but then realized the bolts were coarse thread and the S4 plate is 8mm fine and I did not have any fine threaded 8mm bolts spare so I drilled an 8mm bit of brass and ran a fine thread 8mm die down it)
6. thread the “drilling bush” into the S4 hanger plate to drill 2mm pilot holes for the caliper mounting on the new hanger plate;
7. draw round the S4 hanger plate and establish a centre line between the caliper mounting bolt holes then rotate the S4 plate around the dummy spindle and using the “drill bush” to drill a hole on the centre line beneath the wheel spindle to take the reaction rod spherical bearing
8. using a 51mm HSS hole-saw cut a hole in the plate;
9. fit the hub to the plate, taking the hole in the plate out to 52mm with an emery arbor in the pillar drill;
10. cut out 10mm hanger plate with jigsaw; and finally
11. attach hanger plate to hub.
Not a bad day’s work all in all and quite pleased with the result. But one big downside the S4 hanger plate weighs 225 g, but my arrangement without the spherical bearings (2), the reaction rod and crankcase attachment plate or any disc spcers weighs in at 550g. I will have to drill some lightening holes as this is the first part of the build that has resulted in a significant increase in weight and it is un-sprung mass at that.
I will have to drill and tap a hole to take the speedo hall sensor probably on the side above the swinging arm so that I can clip the cable to the brake pipe which will be tidier than having a random cable hanging below the swinging arm.
Also, I worked out how to retain the spacer between the bearings centrally within the hub. Spacer was 30mm diameter the hole in the bronze bush retaining the bearings was 32mm. Three tiny blobs of silicone sealer on the outside of the spacer did the trick.

[350TSS]

[350TSS]

[350TSS]

The plate still needs tidying up on the outside and this will take and hour or so with a file followed by drilling and tapping the holes to attache the plate to the hub. Obviously also the caliper mounting points will need tapping out 8mm fine thread.

[350TSS]

I came across one of these on e bay and splashed out as I have been having trouble locating a 30 amp main fuse holder - this is re-settable and has nice sealing glands on the cable entry and exit points - hope it works because if it doesn't I will have to make a new power cable - Battery to MUV2 unit

[350TSS]

Finally the postman bought these today. I would have preferred a more traditional pattern but Brembros were nearly 400 sobs , EBC were nearly 300 (both the more traditional look) and these (Viper from Demon Tweeks) were just over £200 the pair and they are lighter than either Brembos or EBC.

[350TSS]

Productive day with a nice interlude when Albie popped round for a cuppa and ginger nuts. I will turn down his bar ends (ex Cagiva ones) that are 12mm too long and about 0.5mm too large for his Monster bars.
Worked on the hanger plate today and nearly finished it.
Had two slight hiccoughs:
a) when I tried to centre pop the holes for the bolts retaining the plate to the hub and mis-measured and only realized when I had centre popped 5 – 4 of which were slightly in the wrong place; and
b) when doing final assembly I pressed the bearing liner into the hub having started it by hand and got it about 25% in so it was in square but I needed to press it in in the vice to get it fully home. When I came to put the ball races in the first went in nicely with just a couple of light taps with a soft faced mallet on a socket that fitted the outer race. The other side was a bit more problematic, I think the compression of the sleeve into the hub closed the bearing face down, the bearing went in but it was too tight to turn properly. I got the bearing out ok and outside the housing it runs sweetly.

Also, my inter bearing spacer is about 0.030” too short so I will have to turn up another. I will have to lightly ease the bearing housing probably with wet and dry and try again tomorrow.

[350TSS]

Worked quite hard today with not a lot to show for it.
I made the new inter bearing hub spacer and remembered to grind two notches in one face so that I can get a drift in to remove the bearings if I need to at a later date.
With regard to the bearing housing I thought that if I used wet and dry to open it out I would end up with a slightly conical arrangement and it was not possible to get to the inner side of the outer race housing. I ended up scraping it with a Stanley knife which took quite a long time but was quite satisfying watching the work area getting a very smooth, polished appearance.
I kept trying the bearing until I could get it about half way in with thumb pressure only. Then I put the bearing in the freezer and parked the housing in front of the fan heater for a couple of hours. It still required a bit of vice pressure to get the bearing fully home. When the temperature of the bearing and the housing normalized the bearing was still a bit tight, not horrendously so but with slightly more friction than the other one. The hanger plate is now finished.
Next job is to enlarge the rear wheel adjustment blocks from 17mm to 25mm to take an S4 spindle and open up the slotted holes in the swinging arm itself. The blocks came out of the swinging arm easily enough, removing the long adjuster bolts themselves took a bit longer.
Clearly it is important to ensure that all this work is accurate as it may affect not only fore and aft wheel alignment but also whether the wheel sits vertically in the frame.
The adjuster blocks are very irregular shapes and about an hour was wasted trying to fit into my 4 jaw chuck and failing that to a plate with 4 jaws, also a non-starter. I also have a plate with radially milled slots but no clamps to go with it. The remainder of the afternoon was spent machining some 25mm bar into threaded spacers that I can bolt to the plate and then make some steel straps to hopefully hold the adjuster block to the plate with the hole to be bored central to the lathe spindle. It might work otherwise I will just have to go and buy some S4 adjuster blocks.

[350TSS]

No garage time over the last week or so except to machine Albie’s bar ends (now finished so you can collect them whenever convenient).

I did spend some time internet searching for rear wheel adjuster blocks and rear spindle and probably located some at a breaker in Chelmsford, but will have to wait until after the Christmas shut down to find out if they are still available. All the cheaper ones available were in the USA where they seem to price low and then load the shipping costs so they work out much more expensive than UK sellers. Also, buying from the USA, you never really know whether you are going to get stuffed for VAT + customs duty + handling charges etc., etc.

In case they were not available, I also thought about making the adjuster blocks from scratch from aluminium flat but the S4 blocks are sized 62.5mm deep x 24.5mm thick meaning they would require access to a milling machine (which I do not have and would not know how to use it if I did) as the only appropriate standard size aluminium flat available was 100mm x 25mm (and it came 2metres long and £78) which made this a non-viable option.

I have therefore spent my “insomnia” time puzzling over wiring diagrams and so far have found it very discouraging. I have:
1) the Haynes M900 wiring diagram
2) a “simplified” vehicle circuit diagram supplied with the MUV2 control unit, and
3) a picture of the speedo/rev counter/instrument light unit with 16 colour coded wires emanating from it.
The problem I am having is that the MUV2 unit requires you to make all switches effectively earth switches, the unit itself has 8 input ports and 8 output ports, these are labelled Turn L, Start, Horn, Turn R, Configuration (managing side stand and kill switch), Lights, Brake and Lock (ignition).

I have photocopied about 15 times a block diagram of each electrically connected element and have been working through each circuit in turn trying to work out the “to be” wiring diagram.

My problem has been that the “simplified” MUV2 diagram shows for example only 2 outputs coming out of the regulator, earth and regulated voltage to the battery. In the case of the actual regulator there are in fact effectively 4,
1) an earth,
2) a red lead (power to the battery)
3) a white/ red going to the charge warning light (which is linked to the neutral warning light via a blue/black to the neutral switch) and to the neutral warning light, and
4) a red /black going to the fuse box and to the engine stop switch.
There are no ports in or out on the MUV2 specifying what to do with:
Neutral light,
Low Fuel warning light.
Oil pressure warning light
Side stand warning light (it is so long since I rode it I cannot remember whether the M900 has in fact got one).
None of the above would want to be wired to the same circuit as the stop switch or the stand cut out as then a bulb down would effectively stop the bike.
In trying to produce a “to be” wiring diagram I think I have 2 problems,
a) the internal circuit diagram for the MUV2 is not available (which I probably would not understand if it was) and
b)I do not understand the M900 schematic diagram when it comes to relays.

I will doubtless get there in the end but I do find it brain numbing.

I am definitely going to cut a piece of ply and make a life size model of the centre-line of the bike and attaching my loom as it is made to the board, testing each circuit off the bike.

Some brighter news, Father Christmas brought me these. Hopefully I will be able to do some tidier brazing with this and keep the workpiece in the lathe central.

[slob]

I assume (without going back through quite a long thread) by ‘muv2’ you mean M-Unit V.2?
All circuits not listed eg Neutral, Oil, heated grips, GPS etc etc, need to go on the ‘Aux’ output (8)
Check page 11 in the manual.

for the reg/rec: Red goes to the battery via main 30A fuse, Earth to Earth (duh)
Leaving you: Red/Black and Red/White which still go to their original locations too.
R/W goes to the charge light, which is then connected to an idiot light common positive connection (oil and stand?) which I guess also needs to go via Aux-Pin8 on the M-Unit, as it's an additional load, and will cause the light to come on if there's a voltage difference between battery and reg/rec output.
R/Bk goes to the fuse box (fuse B) which connects to the main relay, and kill switch, which just shorts the LT side of the ignition system to Earth to kill it.

[350TSS]

Thanks Slob
Believe me all help is very gratefully received as electrics are definitely my weakest area in building a bike.
The M-unit V.2 (as you correctly name it) replaces the fuse box altogether and also does away with the main relay altogether. The input side to the 8 port is the power through the ignition switch, so with the ignition switched on there should be 12v on the the input (and the output) side of the unit at port 8. The red/ black and the white /red come from the output side of the regulator so also should have 12+ volts coming from them. Connecting them to the output side of the 8 port and then running them to the charge warning light, and the neutral warning light I do not think will make the charge warning light work as it should as it will always be seeing 12v from the ignition switch (assuming battery is OK).
The thing I do not understand is that the M-unit V.2 simplified wiring diagram shows the kill switch and the side stand switch being wired off the input side of port 5.
There must be an internal connection within the M unit V2 between the input of port 8 (ignition switch and the input of port 5). I therefore am worried that if I use output port 8 to connect the red black from the regulator output to the kill switch I will have two paths to the kill switch.
I suspect that this is too detailed a discussion for the forum – I gave the alternator charging circuit as an example I am faced with similar issues on all the circuits where a relay and/or shared/common power circuits are involved. I will just have to work it out for myself with jumper wires and a test meter as I build the loom.
Part of the purpose of the project was to get better at doing stuff and sometimes that means just doing it the hard way. Hopefully I will not damage any sensitive electronic components on the way.

[slob]

Aha, I clearly didn't do enough investigation, I'll have another look and see if I can work it out

[slob]

Pretty sure I have the wiring sussed now, it looks quite straight forward if the M.unit is just replacing the main_relay/fusebox/flasher_relay. If you want to PM me I'll happily arrange to run through the wiring diagram with you offline.

[350TSS]

Slob
PM sent (I think) I pressed the send button and it disappeared, how do you know if it has gone - all I can see on that page is replies sent to me - not what I have (or have not) sent?
Thanks for the offer of help - much appreciated.
Signed
Confused of Shipbourne

[Darkness]

Richard, when you go to the page with the list of messages received it defaults to 'Inbox', but click on the box which says 'Inbox' and it gives the other options, including sent messages.
Easy, but only when you know where to look!
Happy New Year, and on with the build.