From 107 to 128

[freeridenick]

This bike is now wombles pissing me off. It's that frustrating it's making me ill. I'd sell it in a heartbeat if someone offered me the right money. I just want a bike that works.

I think I've made some progress with the starting issues but I've still got electrical problems, I think.

Starting seemed to be a combination of bad fuel, bad fuelling and weak spark. New plugs and coils, draining the carbs and messing about with the idle adjustment got it started. And it seems to run OK, as it did when I first got it running. But it doesn't start easily, which is just weird because it fired up virtually first time when I first got it going.

The electrical problems are weird. First I thought I'd killed a brand new battery trying to turn it over without the plugs in. It's a tiny lithium one from Ultrabatt but is meant to be good for 300CCA. They have a discharge protection circuit so that must have kicked in as when the battery was off the bike it was still showing 12v+. 30mins on the charger and it was full. Maybe it needs more than 300CCA but the old engine ran OK off a 280CCA battery. Using the car battery 450CCA got the bike going but wombles knows why it needs so much power. Can't just be the cold weather can it?

While it was running I checked the stator output and across all three phases it was putting out about 60V AC at about 4k rpm. Checking the R/R output that was about 15v depending on revs. It's meant to be one specifically for lithium batteries and not meant to charge at more than 14.1v. I was measuring the output directly at the wires without the R/R attached to the battery but should that make a difference?

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[sirch345]

If this situation is making you ill, you need to give yourself a break from it Nick,

Chris.

[freeridenick]

If this situation is making you ill, you need to give yourself a break from it Nick,

Chris.

Ill might have been a slight overstatement made in frustration. I'm definitely not the happy bunny I was with this bike though. The fuel is now drained from the bike and it's going back under cover for a while. Crap weather for riding anyway.

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[lloydie]

this bike just keeps but stick with it ,tho give i a rest for a while no point making yourself ill .

[sirch345]

If this situation is making you ill, you need to give yourself a break from it Nick,

Chris.

Ill might have been a slight overstatement made in frustration. I'm definitely not the happy bunny I was with this bike though. The fuel is now drained from the bike and it's going back under cover for a while. Crap weather for riding anyway.

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At least you found somewhere to vent your frustration

Chris.

[tony.mon]

Start a workshop day thread and then invite us all round one Saturday. We'll figure it out between us, and we'll have a few Storms there to switch parts out until we find the culprit.

[freeridenick]

Woohoo. It's running again. I had the carbs ultrasonically cleaned, just to be sure but I'm convinced the problems were a weak battery and poor fuelling. The Ultrabatt lithium batteries are modular so adding a second one in parallel gives 600CCA and 10ah for just over 1.6kg. No turning over issues now and I'm certain that it wouldn't start in winter because of the cold effect on lithium batteries.

I'd also messed with the carbs between it running for the first time and getting it MOTed. Back to how it was and it started fairly easily. I need to balance the carbs and set the TPS but then it's on the road to run it in before some dyno time gets booked.

Phew
https://drive.google.com/file/d/12OVKu0 ... p=drivesdk

[sirch345]

Great news Nick, you got there in the end, well done

Chris.

[tony.mon]

Glad you got it sorted.
Lithiums need an unusual technique when the temperature is cold. It's as though you have to warm them up first. I find that standing for a few minutes with just the headlight on helps.

Then try to start with a short press ( don't try to hold it) and see if it wants to turn over. If not, leave it with the headlight on for another half minute and try again.

It's counterintuitive, because leaving the battery with a load in it ordinarily means that you have less chance to start the bike. With cold lithiums it's the opposite, they build up charge as the load warms the cells.

But if it doesn't want to crank, don't just hold the starter button in.