Spanking the Cow- The continuing saga of an R100GSPD at the Races

:woot

OK, decided to go take the PD for a ride, anyway.

Here's is proof: Hope you all enjoy seeing a little of New Yorks charming roads and weather for mid march. I made 53 miles.

<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="640" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/tLp4MxiCRkY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Decided to stay close to home in case anything untoward happened. And wouldnt you know it... You might have seen from the video (if you could stay awake long enough) that there was an issue towards the end (actually precipitated the end)

I ran out of battery. I was running the BMW clock, 70w worth of headlights, the GPS, and my heated Gerbing (probably close to full blast).

I first noticed that the GPS was starting to act funny, like teh connection was coming loose. So, I'm pawing at it trying to make a solid connection in back when all of a sudden it feels like its running out of gas, too. So I put it on reserve, but it then goes brrruuuuuuuuuuuugghhhhhhhhhhhhpltt. And I am dead.


Well, shit. I am supposing there was too much draw. :huh FAck it cant be I should be putting out great GOBS of power. Cant even run a heated jacket, wtf? How much does that thing pull, anyway?

I unplugged everything, even the headlights and pop started it. Got me within 7 miles of home as the crow flies when I shut it down again to do some stupid thing, and it still hasnt got the nads to start up. I video'd the 2nd popstart.

Got the bike home and the Odyssey is showing 11.5v :bad Checked voltage while running and it was rising steadily but slowly, faster with higher RPM, but I have no faith, now. Put it on the charger. I guess I will bypass the VR tonight or next time whatever and try to see if the alt is making big volts without it. Obviously I am not fully charging the battery, but I no longer know if the charging system is suspect, or if accidentally flattenting the Odyessy after Sandblast has killed it.
Or as they say, the chargers I have will only go 85-90% of the way to full charge and expect the alternator to put it over the top, or if I'll need to buy one of the Special Odyessy chargers. As I said I made 53 miles... I wonder if that was all on what was in the battery, or if its charging.

Wanted the Enduralast anyway

man I hate annoying little electrical crap....

I feel for you.

I have had no luck with the Odyessy batteries. They do not seem to like airheads for some reason. They were on my PD and my R90, and after 2 yrs were dead. I had them on a new battery tender and after 2yrs were dead, almost at exactly the same amount of time, 24months.

Knowing some stuff about batteries from work, I decided to call them and find out why I had gone through 2 of there batteries on different bike. Turns out that the Odysses like a much higher float voltage than what we put out with our setups. They like 15.6 v when we are normally setup for 14.7v. Turns out that we are not putting enough voltage into the bat and it is causing them to sulfate. They recommended that I use there charger which has the correct float voltage for an extra $150. The Battery tender will t work on these bat's.

So I put a Westco in and have had no issues.

BTW I hate that whistle in the Staintune ARGHHHHH

Damn. That charger is fine as long as I'm not going anywhere Anton swears by the odyseys. I know they want a charger that will push over 100% capacity. Most charges apparently dont have the extra ass to put it over. I still have the Westco on float... I'm going to check the voltage with the VR bypassed and make sure its getting high voltage, and then see. The trick here would be to mod the Voltage regulator to do what it needs. HEll if it needs motre than fifteen v we could almost bypass the VR totally.

Joking. Almost. But a simple resistor might actually do that.
I does seem kinda crazy that I would kill an Odyssey after only fifty miles of heated gear. I did seriously flatten it for maybe 24 hours when I ran it out at sandblast and didnt get it charged back up for a day or two.

so if yer batteries dead will an enduralast system charge it .... ? a side bar ????? I think the enduralast system has the sexiest feature s vs the omega except for that ... i read if the batteries flat it wont recharge it ????

heated gear and battery tenders ?????????????? what are those Its not always sunny here but you can always drive around the block ... but them gas is 4.30 a gal here wooo woooo

Jason,

We had a big Battery charger discussion on the Bevelheads list a while back and the result is to buy this: Schumacher 1562a (Now $19.54 with free shipping for in store pick up). Below is one of the last posts about it. The post is from a retired engineer who has bought many chargers over the last few years an actually measured them to see exactly what they put out. Works great for lead acid and AGM type batteries.

Russ

Quote from Mike C. :
"It's only $22 from Wal-Mart. It's 6v and 12 v......100% automatic.
Just hook it to the battery, plug it in the wall.....walk away.


This charger is very well made with heavy plastic case and quite small (3" x 3 x 5.5), and has power, charging and finished charging idiot lights that work well. It's a 6 volt and 12 volt charger.... no switch to select voltage, the charger does this automatically.

This is one incredible charger that takes the battery up to 15.25 volts to check it out......then pulses the charge from 13.5 volts to 15.2 volts in short bursts that will not harm AGM batteries.
The batteries are finally settled and held at $13.6 volts and the charger can be left on the battery for months because the maintenance pulse so low amps (20 mili amps)

This little charger got several of my batteries (that would not go above 12.7 volts on ANY of my $100+ chargers)..... all the way to 15.2 volts (for battery internal test purposes) ...... and then got all of them settled down to 13.6 volts.

Make sure what you are getting this exact charger http://tinyurl.com/2c2qyty............ because there is an older Schmacher version with the same model # that looks like this:http://tinyurl.com/2ad8wzm .

This older charger is larger (7" x 10" x 5").......and heavier (5 lbs. vs 1.5 lbs). Also the older version has WHITE hard plastic connector plugs NOT the black rubber water-tight plugs you'd like to have and everyone in the industry is now using.

Do not be tricked into getting this older larger Schumacher charger, it has lower voltage settings and a manual 6v 12v switch on the front of it.

Bottom line..... I have 6--8 chargers spread out over two garages to keep 12 bike batteries alive, most costing $100+ ea. I'm selling all of them. I just bought 4 more of the Wal-Mart chargers on-line @ $22 each with $2.91 shipping right to my door.
http://tinyurl.com/2693om7

Franky I didn't think I'd find a charger that does it all. This one does.
Made for all lead acid batteries..... wet cell and AGM's ."
end Quote

My Odyssey's 6 years old now. It's had an Enduralast on it for most of it's life (57k miles). Call John, he's a helpful guy.

FWIW, VRs are $120 new and run about $50 for good used on ebay.

Rick at Motorrad will get you a brand new one for 38 bucks, that charges to 14.2v, which is nevertheless not quite what the Odyessy would like to see, apparently. Unless of course, the VR is at fault, in which case, maybe i get another one for $38 bucks

need enduralst, regardless. talk talk talk I think I got myself talked into the Pine Barrens 300 in mid april.

Inconclusive readings at best.

Odyssey reads almost 13v just off the charger. Says I'm supposed to wait 6 hours to get the real case with it. Did a couple of starts on it, and it never went lower than a fleeting show of 10. Mostly 11v. So that sounds decent for now.

At idle, the battery was showing 12.4 or 5 v, later on it warmed up to 12.8 or so at idle. kinda fluctuated.

Then at revs (like 4K) it climbed to 13.7 or 8, and stabilized, never saw 14.

So I jumped the VR and at idle it was 12.4, then spiked crazy high as soon as the charging light went off.

I guess the VR could afford to be turned up a notch, couldnt it? I'd love to see 14.2 or more at a lot closer to 4K.

I realized I spent the whole 50 miles trying to baby the motor just a little, anda not keep it wacked over 4 and 5K, which in this instance was probably not charging the battery very much, like at a minimal low 13v somehwere.

I guess I maybe owe Rick a call at Motorrad-E, to find out if maybe the VR is getting tired.


Gerbings said my heated jacket was 77w, and the headlights were 77w, and the GPS is at best 40w and the clock is what, next to nothing? and then there's charging and ignition at probably 50w altogether.

Thats still under 300w total, and the Omega should be able to handle that no problem, even at sunday cruising speeds.

So it occurs to me that the problem at Sandblast and the charging problem of two days ago are still a "not charging properly" situation, even though there are additional loads variables involved. I'm so slow on the uptake sometimes its stupid.

I found that when that battery goes, it does not have the capacity that it originally had. If you get a adjustable VR from Rick, you can tweak it up to get you into the 14 volt range at say 3k.

They have a pretty good warranty on the battery. I had both replaced for just the cost of shipping. Which I then sold and bought the Westco's.

Of course it could also be the dreaded diode board!!!!! Make sure you have the new and improved one from Rick. HE HAS HAD ZERO FAILURES ON THE NEW ONE.

I just spoke to him on monday for a buddy of mine that needed to replace his old Omega diode board for the new improved one.

New and improved Diode Board? I dunno- I have the red board one, original to the set, I think. I have had a Rotor of his fail, though... just once.
I dont think I have the tweakable VR. Solid solid state. It almost seems like there's nothing wrong that I can measure, but still I keep killing batteries while riding

Thanks for the advice, though. I cant remember where I bought the Odyssey from, already :sheepish

Have you replaced the bearings in your final drive yet?

Odyssey came to me used from an MRI machine, it's been in my bike since '02. Admittedly, it hasn't been used since I parked the bike Dec 31 '09. Was fine then.

Have not opened that can o worms up yet DId you see the video with the slop in the rear that I posted?

Still aiming for the PB300 in April and the Ontario ride on Memorial day as the next big rides, apart from commuting. I realize those arent races, but they are opportunities to tweak the reliability projects.
My friend Andrew who would technically be helping me with the FD is swamped by his own projects currently, and I have no idea how the last week and a half flew by :wtf

Seems the Odyessey are hit or miss

ok well it just thickens.

I'm going to try a higher output Voltage Regulator. Found an Authority model VR at Eurotech Motorsports. Going to try that and see, since I really like the Omega system... I like how well supported it is, and honestly if I can coax it fit my style of riding I'm going to stick with it. The higher output VR should help charge the battery at a faster rate.
Speaking of charging, I've been using the small 1.25 a BAttery Tender (TM) and I notice RIck site says thats not for true Gel batteries like Odyssey. Odyssey says they are an AGM, so I'll ask Rick about that when I talk to him next week.

I might be due for one of those ignition advance map upgrades anyway, and he mentioned something about some H4 HID's that would be enormous light for the same wattage.

Regardless, I've heard it twice today that the BAttery Tenders might be cooking the Odyssey, in which case I have a half baked battery.

Long story short (too late, and no pictures :-() I still need to be able to use about 20 amps worth of power almost continuously in addition to replacing that and it aint working yet


Inspiration:


And I always thought this was cool albeit very understated:

After all night off the charger, battery measured this morning at a resting 13.1v. I also unplugged the parasite BMW clock last night, too.

Seems like the battery is not too worser for the wear of the battery tenders, I guess. Am hoping High output VR and a good cleaning of the connections cures it.

Four Sesame Streets down....3 to go! Elmoooooooooo!

We replaced a final drive on the cow today.
Daisy was there to supervise... she carries a big stick!

A.R.T. Operations Report, stardate 12 April oh-eleven.
New York headquarters.


Dan- Thanks for taking the time to come over today. Was a real big help to me.

SO I started out the morning with a 10:30-5 period to a) touch up the valves and the head bolts (at 100 miles or so on the new pieces) and carb synch. b) swap out a final drive with a loaner core from Anton. c) I am kind of chasing a vibration that has cropped up in the past few days. d) still monitoring charging system issues. SO far, so good.
Left hand head bolts are a little looser than right as I go from 15 to 20 to 23 pounds.
Head gasket seating in

All of them take up well. Fair enough. Plugs look great, all tan.

Valve adjustment mocks me, once again. They are tight, for a start. And they move when you set them, even if you cant feel them moving. I dunno, this is one of the first jobs I attempted on my bike when i was under 20, and I still suck at it, but I just havent come to grips with that fact yet.

DanEdg kindly lends a hand here, when I start to ping. We get them as good as it gets I guess and buttoned up and time for a carb synch. Using a Twinmax, epeatedly keep hitting "zero" when I want to hit "Sensitivity" thereby screwing up the thing, did I mention repeatedly.
I've had good luck doing this with the Bing book method of setting idle adjustment, but like everything else, I guess the carb is got some gunk issues. More on the outside than in, actually. Actually I think we got the carbs set very well, eventually. No bog off idle, and the engine idles well, and has plenty of zing, still the kind of odd routing of the cables might be a continuing problem. Clutch has almost no freeplay. Need to adjust.

Take it for a small ride around the mountain, maybe 5 miles altogether. VIbration still extant. Doesnt seem to matter if I'm pulling in the clutch. Feel it in my feet and seat and hands. Weird. Honestly feels like the motor's unbalanced, but I am distracted by loudness of the right hand cylinder. Its tappy, with a ringing quality. I am going to have to go back in there and do the valves again, I think, and this time pay attention to rocker lash, although I cant figure out why it would go out of spec on this model year, plus I have those heavy as hell Motteren Israel rocker blocks that supposedly make the whole thing quieter, but I dont quite buy it.

THe ride goes fine. Mission objective A accomplished. THere is something about it I cant quite put my finger on, some visual cue I am not quite processing yet, but otherwise I rode it all the way home, so it was a success. We get back to headquarters and back the bike in, to prepare for objective B, the final drive swap. I'm still trying to get to the Pine Barrens 300 this coming weekend, and i am really looking forward to riding my ass of in the sand.

OFF with the back wheel. OFF with the brakes and brake cable... OFF with the paralever strut, OFF with the... no hang on, leave that on, we're going to need that when we take off the inner pivot.


Hey. WHat teh hell hex key size is this?



Must be a 12, my 10 doesnt fit. Crap.

(search entire barn for anything resembling hex stock)

(Fail)

Time: 2pm. I have about 2 and a half hours before I turn into a pumpkin again and have to pick up the kid from day care.

I called every Napa and Carquest and hardware store and Lowes within a half hour radius of me. Nobody had anything bigger than a 10mm. NOWHERE to be found. I WISH I had thought to figure out I would need this.

So Dan and I hoofed it over to our friendly neighborhood scrap guy.

I got a 13mm hex key there, and hit it with a flap wheel till it fit into a 12mm socket and then hit the swingarm with the Blue Wrench.

SHortly there after we have pivot Ausdrehen, and a little while after that, we have CHEATED DEATH and gotten the loaner rear drive back on (without taking the swingarm off, Nize) and I get it back together to the point where I can take it for a spin around the yard. WHoohoo!

Blue loctite on the inboard pivot threads for now, because it'll be coming off again in a few weeks. Then we take the left side pivot up to 120Nm. The the right hand side to 7Nm, and the locknut on the right side to 120Nm. Pretty straightforward, and not at all as scary as I had made it out to be. I'm thinking its possible the whole morning valve trainwreck was because I was avoiding getting into the real project of the day.

Dan leaves, And I am Dad for a four hour break. I put the kid to bed and come back down to the barn for another round.

THEN:

I realize the charge light is not coming on when I turn the key on. It operates intermittently above the point where it should go out. I know it was working earlier today because I was watching it when i was trying to hold the rpms when Dan was doing the cable ferrules earlier. AANYWAY
I pull out my trusty Mottorad ELectrik charging bible, and surmise a blown rotor. Ground the DF terminal confirms the charge light is functional. SHorting across the sliprings also gives light, so I am still going with bad rotor, even though I cant get them to short to ground. Must be shorted internally, but its weird. This rotor has "Jan 10, '09" on it in my handwriting. I think I will be ordering a new rotor from Rick in the morning.

I notice when I am pulling hte brushes up that one of the solder joints where the brush solders to the D- side I think that the joint is loose. SO I have to pull the stator off to try and fix that. The solder wont stick to the base metal, and what a stupid way to terminate the brush leads! Why not a little longer lead, and a crimp terminal? Oy.

Objectives A and B accomplished, to the best of my ability, for now. C is inconslusive, and D has actually expanded in scope. Four days till a day in the sand, and then 4 hour highway ride home. Hoping I make it under power the whole way. THinking I should change out teh oil sometime before the 400 mile weekend. Was hoping to do about 50 miles a day till then, to continue shaking it out, but as long as shit keeps breaking on it I am grounded.

SO It has been a LONG day here. And my internet sucks bad enough that I'll insert pics of this tomorrow when I get an upload pipe worth its salt.

Sorry for the long post. Trying to get down all the details, since this is like my maintenance log, now, too.