Rewiring the pickups

This is not about mouse-gnawed wiring harness for your old Chevy pickup, although the effects are the same. Inside a lot of Ducatis the wires from the ignition pickups get hot and brittle. Actually it's more likely the insulation around the wiring goes bad. Which is what will happen when they sit in hot oil all of their lives. So some 30 or so years later there are problems.

You can see here there was an attempt to shield the stock wires with the orange covers. But even that effort can only go so far.

One of the preferred solutions is to replace the wire. Nowadays even mere mortals have easy access to what was once space-age parts, thank you Internet... Military grade wire is now available at the click of a button and not at an unreasonable cost.

Depending on where you are in the world you may even find a local supplier. The recommendation is a gas and oil resistant AND heat resistant PTFE insulated wire.  The milspec to look for is MIL-W-16878 although you may find similar wire without that spec. On top of that you may want to consider a PFTE heat shrink too.

When I get around to it I'll document the actual process but for now here's one person's instructions:

Method;--  Snip ONE lead, about 1" to 1-1/2" from the coil. Test at the plug to see which lead is still connected with continuity meter, bearing in mind the coil resistance is about 220 ohms. (mine measured 216 ohms.) So, you now know which lead is which. Snip the second lead to the same length. Carefully scrape any remaining insulation, and scrape the surface to reveal the copper wire. clean as required with solvent (carb cleaner?), and continue to gently scrape until you can see enough copper to be certain of a good surface for soldering. Twist your new wire onto the tail, and quickly solder the joint without allowing too much heat into the coil. (HOT iron and speed!)
Repeat for second wire, and then for the second pickup.
Thread a thin HS cover onto each wire, and shrink. Thread the next size larger HS onto the one pair of wires and shrink. Repeat for second pickup. At each stage, seal the end of the HS with a decent silicone sealant. I use a Loctite one, I forget the number right now, 5920 perhaps, a low odour (no acetic acid smell), oil resistant and high temperature resistant with a copper colour.
You now have two twin leads, work out how they will lie, so that they will not foul anything, then slip on the next size up HS sleeve, fasten in place with the metal clips, thread out of the cases, seal the exit point with more loctite, cut to length and refit your connector. In fact I used bullet and socket connectors and replaced the original connector.
Fire up and ride away!
Les.

In addition some people are also "potting" the new wires to the pickups. I'm not sure what potting material they are using.

 From http://www.mdinaitalia.co.uk

From http://beltandbevel.com.au/

The photos may not be Alazzurra specific as many Ducatis with ignition pickups may need some help.

More later.

Cleaning the Carbs

I can't get the bike to idle right. No matter what adjustments I would make it wouldn't make any difference. After some consulting I decided to clean the carbs. I have a small ultrasonic cleaner I got my wife for Christmas a while ago. Of course she's never used it. But it's too small and unheated so I sprung for the bigger one. It was on sale for $75 and I had a 20% off coupon so it cost me $60. I also got a gallon of Simple Green HD. Apparently the original Simple Green can dissolve some alloys if you leave them in too long. HD is not suppose to have that problem. I had to go to Home Depot for the Simple Green. I mixed it about 50/50 with some distilled water.

I took plenty of reference photos to know where the parts came off of and so I knew what they looked like before the cleaning. Of course there's a second carb I can also look at but I'm trying to only work on one carb at a time.

My dad bought rebuild kits for his 860GT which conveniently are the exact same carbs as the Ally. I ordered gasket kits so I can replace any parts I steal from the rebuild kits. Of course at some point I need to rebuild the 860 carbs too.

More pictures of the cleaned parts soon.

Fuse Box Part Three

I picked up a 4 fuse panel from Amazon. I'm not sure if its the same one as previously mentioned. Only one of the mounting holes lined up but I was about to get the screw tight enough it shouldn't go anywhere. Just having decent fuses should be a big win.

New Rear Tire... the hard way

The old rear tire was a little worn, especially in the middle. As there was a Bridgestone on the front the decision was to replace the rear with Bridgestone BT-45. The bike has a O-Ring chain (530) with a riveted masterlink. By loosening the axle and sliding the wheel forward I couldn't get the chain off. If I had thought about it a little more (note: this is where hindsight would come in handy beforehand) I should have slipped the axle out and then the chain should have came off. But no. I ground the rivet pin down and pushed it out. At least the wheel was off and the tire could be replaced. The tire on there was a 130 so that's what I replaced it with. I believe the stock size is 120, but I don't think the wider tire will be any problem. (The caliper on the stool is for the 860GT which is getting dual front discs)

Picure of cush drive. Much nicer than the ones on a Norton.

Sprocket still looks ok.

Here's the new tire. Nice, eh? If you look carefully you can see the missing pin from the chain. Not so nice. Apparently it's not easy to find replacement master links for riveted chains.  There is no standard. And this one was several years old, but still very serviceable so I didn't want to drop another $130 for a new chain. I learned this from a local bike wizard, Dr. Brown. He lectured me for an hour about not using the wrong master link. This is not the first time he's lectured to me and I hope not the last. He went through his collection of master links and couldn't find any that worked. Discouraged I left and later went to Cycle Gear. I had no hope that they had one but that day I was out riding and it was an excuse to stop. Plus the kids there like looking at the Norton. They just happened to have the right master link, but in the removable style with a clip. There are theories as to why the chain manufacturers went to a riveted style, one being the high horsepower bikes might pop the master link clips off. Needless to say this 650 isn't in that class and so off I went with my little prize. Link fit perfectly and now I'm off to the next disaster. The Norton and other Ducati have been getting all my attention. Maybe I'll find some time for the Ally next. It's like having three kids...

Bars and taps

The handlebars on the bike were extremely narrow. I guess that would be fine but I didn't like how cramped they felt. And when you were at full lock to the left your hand couldn't be on the brake or it'd get smashed. Not good.

We picked up a pair of Monster bars. One for the Cagiva and one for the 860GT. The 860 had the same problem, someone put bars on it that were narrowed. I had read somewhere that early Monster bars work great and so far they have. For one thing the chrome bars were very inexpensive. They came from Monster Parts and are only $39. Apparently the Monster controls are located with pegs or screws or something as these bars have small holes in a couple places.

As you can see at full lock to the right there is plenty of room for the lever and reservoir. Ok, plenty might be an exaggeration but there is enough.

As I said the other side is now usable at full lock. I will replace the master cylinder at some point to match the clutch side. This will work for now. I need to take another look at the cable and wiring routing but it seems that it will be fine. And then I'll add the bar end mirrors. But that can wait until after I get it running properly.

 I think I mentioned I was halted in my adventures by a leaking petcock. We sourced a pair of petcocks from Eurotrash Jambalaya. They are single taps so no crossover unless I put some T's in the lines. Since they have reserves on each side it should be fine. For some reason dual outlet taps are not very common?

I got the pair for a Bevel. For some reason the front carb tap faces forward and the rear to the rear. I'll have to rotate the inlet banjo and loop the line to the front.

I'll now at least get the bike started again and keep trying to figure out why it races. I've also got vacuum gauges so I can get the carbs synced properly. And the weather is suppose to finally come down from the triple digits and that will make working in the garage a little more pleasant.

Fuse Panel Update

As pointed out by Izaak on the Alazzurra Yahoo Group there is a much simpler solution.

Universal 4-way ATC fuse block with 4 separate circuits.

This is a "plug and play" with no re-wiring required. Since I won't be building a new wiring harness for the Alazzurra (yet) I'll go with one of these too.

Replacement Fuse Panel

The stock fuse panel uses some archaic ceramic fuses. They are notorious for not making a great connection and the ease at which you can remove them bears this out. On the panel the far left fuse is the main power.

The main power starts at the alternator, goes to the voltage regulator, to starter solenoid, then to the battery. From the battery it comes to this fuse then to the general relay. From the general relay it changes to the brown wire you see at the top of the fuse panel. This is your switched power.

This is a simple fuse panel with a ground block. I may switch this out for a 4 fuse panel without the ground block as the Alazzurra grounds to the frame. For a custom harness I'd bring as many grounds as I could to the ground block.

I made a pigtail with a round connector at one end to fit onto the power block and a spade connector on the other. It will fit in the stock brown wire connector. Having the extra connection isn't idea but it retains the stock wiring connector and I don't cut into the harness.

Then I'll move the three wires to the new fuse block. The first one is the turn signals and brake lights. The next one is horn and the last one goes to the handlebar switch.

I'll also add a separate 25 amp inline fuse to the main power. The other fuses will be 8-10 amps.

Lower Fairing

A quick note. I did get the lower fairing pieces finally. I need to figure out how they mount. I think I have the lower brackets (I think they mount to the exhaust).

Of course I need to fix all the oil leaks before attaching the fairing.

Seat Release

So I was going to tune the carbs but the left petcock decided to leak badly. Gas dripping on the exhaust is not a most excellent idea so that task is being postponed until new petcocks are sourced.

In the meantime I rectified the seat lock issue. The issue is the ignition key does't operated the seat release mechanism. To get the seat off I'm resorted to a spring puller hook thing as my "key". Luckily there is a nice space on top of the taillight that let's you access the area.

The proper way to fix the issue would be to take the lock to a locksmith and have them modify the lock to work with the ignition key, and some day I may do just that. But in the meantime I needed a more practical solution.

I removed the grab bars on each side and this allowed me to remove the seat cowl. There are spacers on the top of the grab rails. One leapt off the bike and rolled to the center of the nearest car. Maybe this wasn't a good idea...

In the meantime I looped a zip tie around the seat release "hook". It's actually pretty secure and I don't expect it to go anywhere.

Once assembled, and I mean after an hour of fighting the spacers on the top mounts, all that you have to do is pull on the tie. Before that could happen I kept dropping the spacers into a well on top of the taillight. I lost count the number of times I had to fish them out.

Now all I have to do is fish out the zip tie and with a quick yank have the seat off. Now if the rest of my issues were so easily solved...

Bevel Heaven - Desmo Ramblings

This was recommended by Ron on the Alazzurra Yahoo Mailing list. I think I'd probably read it before when looking for tuning info on the 860. As the carbs are very similar the info will work with both bikes.


I haven't had a chance to try this out but will very soon. I managed to borrow a vacuum sync tool that should work.

Bevel Heaven - Desmo Ramblings


Our bevel drives can be made to run extremely well with the stock dellorto carbs - especially if the carbs are in tune. If they are not adjusted correctly, your performance will be severely lacking... Here is what I do after a carb rebuild or disassembly and cleaning etc;

First off, I disassemble, clean and properly lubricate the throttle assembly and throttle cables. I also make sure that the cable doesn't bind or have any sharp bends between throttle assembly and carbs when I reinstall [smooth bends!!!].

Check your exhaust gaskets [between the heads and the exhaust pipe] to make sure they are good [did you safety wire the nuts in place??]. Also make sure the intake manifold insulators are in good condition [the rubber spacer between head and intake manifold]. You can safely check to see if the intake manifold insulators are sealing well or are leaking by warming up your bike, going outside and spraying just a bit of carb cleaner around the rubber. If they are leaking then your idle will increase for a bit. Once I have checked the insulators and exhaust gaskets AND properly maintained the throttle and cables I turn my attention to the carbs.

Assuming you rebuild and setup the carbs correctly this is what I do to adjust them correctly and easily. Print this out, go to your bike and read this over a few times while you stare at things. Once you understand the bottom line, warm up your bike and go for it.

WHAT TO DO
*Back out slide screws so they are not touching slides
*seat [turn in] the mixture screw completely [closed] then back it out 1.5 turns
*loosen throttle cables so there is at least 1/8" freeplay at the adjusters on top of carbs
*warm up bike and hook up vacuum gauges [OK] or mercury tubes [great]
*adjust slide screws so you have an even idle tickover w/even vacuum readings, don;t worry about the rpm at this point, just same vacuum readings.
*turn throttle so tickover goes to 2-2500 RPM or thereabouts and hold her steady [a friend here makes it easy]
*adjust for even vacuum at this RPM by the cable adjusters on top of carb[s] - adjustment starts by backing out whichever adjuster needs to be backed out [on whichever carb] to get constant vacuum between both carbs
*check idle vacuum again and re adjust as necessary. Adjust for proper tickover RPM now, using the slide screws only.
*adj cables so each has just a bit of freeplay, check 2500 PRM vacuum reading w/gauges again and readjust at the cable adjusters as req'd
*start playing with mixture screw for max idle [in = leaner or less gas]. I listen for sound change with my fingers over the muffler end while I turn the mixture screw on that cylinder's carb.

I go back and forth between the carbs sometimes several times making little adjustments, always listening for high tickover and feeling for a stronger exhaust pulse.

A dull BUH BUH BUH sound indicates you can make it better still. Keep adjusting until you hear and feel a louder and more authorative BAH! BAH! BAH!

WHAT IT MEANS
Adjusting the cables is an integral part of carbie sync and verse visea. Start at the top of this list, go through it then repeat a couple or 4 times as necessary...... You will get the hang of it soon enough and you will be surprised at how well your bike runs after this important step in the tune up game. You are making sure the slides are being pulled evenly causing equal vacuum through each carb from idle all the way through the range.

I also recommend that you pitch a single cable throttle - you know, the kind that has one cable going to a splitter then 2 cables one going to each carb in favour of a Tommaselli Daytona 2C throttle or the like. The DAYTONA throttle has some key adjustments - you can play with the throttle stop on it so that max pull doesn't pull the slides up against the top cap...... that will start ruining things for sure. Some of the stock throttles didn't have a stop so you would pull the slides up against the top cap and stretch the cables and wear the throttle assy, slides, etc etc.. The DAYTONA throttle also has a friction device so that you can give her partial throttle and tighten it up for a higher tickover during warmup.

Speaking of warmup..... make sure you do so. Running your bevel drive under load when cold will kill the bottom end. Blip the throttle until you feel some heat on the case on that first startup of the day then go ride taking it easy for a bit.

Huffing and puffing

So now, in addition to the racing engine, there is a puffing sound coming from the front carb.  My next task is to take the tank off again and recheck all the carb cables. Something is not right.

Under Pressure

In yesterday's episode we have a failure of the oil pressure sending unit. Oil was pouring out of it. A little research showed that this is not uncommon.

 I'm not sure if it was too much oil that caused it to fail. I'm also not sure if this the original switch or if it was replaced at some point.

Here's the replacement part. I got it from NAPA (Part Number OP6172) for $8.12, which I'm sure it a little less than if I had to get one from a Ducati dealer. It's a little larger (it took a 22mm wrench instead of a 3/4in one). Otherwise it was pretty close in size.

With a little application of my garage hair dryer I warmed the cover and slipped it on. There are reports that the replacement sender may not last long, so we'll see.

Holy Molex!

I noticed a broken wire from what I believe is the low fuel warning system. It goes to a connector that was above the rear carb into the wiring harness. Luckily the connector is a standard Molex.

You can see the broken wire on the left, there should be two wires going into that connector and there's only one. The other one is hiding in the sheath. I won't even comment on the duct tape disaster on the right.

I extracted one of the wires and then thought, why am I doing this, I'm just going to replace everything anyways...

Here's the replacement connector from Radio Shack. I think it was about $2.19. While you can probably find it for less online I was able to pick it up from the local store and have it in my hand immediately.

One last reference photo so I know which wire goes where. Molex connectors are always keyed so they can only go one way.

Clipped all the wires. 

Crimped the male terminals. 

Crucial to a good crimp is a good crimper. While this isn't the best crimper in the world it was at least affordable. I got it from Amazon for my Weatherpack connectors I used on the Norton. They are far superior to Molex as they offer much better locking and actual weatherproofing.

 Crimps are recognized as much better than soldering as soldering can make the wires brittle from the heat.

All snug. One less thing to worry about, well, until something else pops up.

And that something would be the oil pressure sending unit. I started the bike up and oil poured out from the sending unit where the spade connector is. No idea what caused this to fail unless I had too much oil in the engine. Now I need to find a replacement or just block up the hole in the engine until I can.

Fuel System Refresh

The fuel lines looked original or at least very old.

  My experience with the cloth covered fuel lines is that the outside can look ok but the rubber hose is actual cracked. Plus the fuel filters were looking a little done.

 This was proven when I pulled the lines.

 There is a lot of lines on one of these bikes. Especially since the rear carb is at the rear of the engine.

I like to use Tygon fuel lines. Sure it's bright yellow, but it's translucent so you can see the fuel. Also Tygon stays flexible despite the crap they call gas these days. I've had Tygon fuel lines on one of my Bultacos for probably 7 years and it's still good. That's not bad. I buy it at a lawnmower parts store for $.19/in, for the Cagiva I bought 50 inches thinking I'd have a bit leftover for spares. But in the end I only had about 8 inches left.

Here's how I routed the back carb. It's similar to how the "museum bike" (see earlier post) was routed, at least the part I could see. The line on my bike originally came outside the frame rail and then over the intake manifold to the carb. I didn't like this so I came around the back of the carb. I tucked the line under the fuel line to keep it away from the back cylinder. I also tied it off so it didn't rub on the K&N filter. A very long route for sure.

View from above with the fuel line entering from below the carb. 

Route around the air filter. 

Here's the filters I used. Apparently made for NAPA by Wix. They are for both 1/4 and 5/16 lines. I cut off the 1/4 parts to shorten them up. Although the Tygon is 1/4in ID you shove it onto the 5/16 parts and they don't come loose.

Here's the routing for the front carb. A lot simpler. Plus the crossover. There doesn't appear to be any reserve on the taps so I'm curious what people do, just wait for the light on the dash?

With the lines on I turned on the taps and... nothing. With the clear filters and lines I only see a dribble. Ok, so I knew the old filters were a bit gunky so I suspected clogged filters at the taps.

So off the tank came. Just the two bolts at the back of the tank and disconnect all the fittings. Pretty neat.

The tank opening was completely clogged. I dug out the bad stuff and then flushed it some more with the gas remaining in the tank.

Not a great picture but the tap was completely full of rust and debris. There aren't any filters on the taps which mean I don't think on a stock bike there are any filters at all. I cleaned the taps throughly and reassembled. I have the bike back on the battery charger as it drained while it was just sitting there. Needless to say a new battery is also on the shopping list. At least the fuel system is a little better. I'll have to deal with the rusty tank at some point. I'll keep an eye on the filters to monitor it's status.