As for the electrical, I kind of knew that I would be handing that over to someone else, as my electrical skills are quite limited. It's actually somewhat of a small miracle that I got the bike to start and even run in the first place. I had a basic understanding about how schematics work, but had to do a fair bit of guessing in some areas. Additionally, the old Yamaha schematics are not 100% accurate anyway!
No matter what I tried, I could not get the turn signals to work properly. And I couldn't even get the brake light to light up at all! Lots of different factors going on here. I'm changing out the incandescent turn signals for LED's as well as the brake light, so I wasn't even sure if they needed to have inline resistors. The brake light claims that no resistor is needed, but I wasn't confident with that. I know that the rear brake switch was brand spankin' new, as I literally pulled it out of an OEM bag to build the brake system. (I bought it 30 years ago and never used it- don't ask me why I even bought it.) Also could it be my bad wiring? So many questions! I just want the stuff to work!
I took the bike back to Alan & Sons. I had talked with Alan at the end of last season and he said that this kind of electrical is something that he can do. I dropped off the bike and gave him the scoop. I even supplied him with another LED brake light, in case the mounted one was actually dead.
About a few days later, he called me and said the bike should be ready for pickup in the next day or two. I drove by at the end of the week to retrieve the bike. The invoice was $409!!! Yikes! No one really likes to do electrical, so if he's going to have to do it, I guess he's going to make it worth his while. He showed me that the rear LED was working- brake light and running light, but only for the rear brake. He believed that the front brake switch was bad, something that was totally possible, since it was the original. The LED signals worked, but didn't blink. He demonstrated that when activating the switch for the left side, it is about 50/50 and suggested that I just give it a good cleaning and that should take care of it. He did have to do a bunch of electrical troubleshooting. He found that some wires were hooked up wrong and that one of the wires going to the rear was broken (no continuity) and needed to be replaced. He also had to solder resistors for the signals. He also connected my little LED's for the license plate, something I didn't even ask him to do.
I found a cheap front brake switch off of eBay- cost me $8. (An NOS one would've cost about $50. I don't think that anyone buying this bike later will even care. I sure don't care.) I finally had some time off from work today to actually test it out and get it mounted. Alan was right about that dead switch! I works now! Now I have front and rear working brake light circuits! That's a really big deal! Now, I can actually ride the bike at night and not worry about someone whacking me!
The next step is to try and get the LED signals to actually blink. I just cleaned out the turn signal switch, as Alan had suggested that I do, since when signaling left, it's kind of iffy. That didn't seem to help. I threw the original flash relay back on, but the left still didn't want to cooperate. The flash relay was crackling and making all sorts of sounds, when I activated the turns. I don't think the switch itself is the problem- it sounds like it's all about the flasher unit. I bought a bunch of flash relays from O'Reilly, mostly electronic ones. I think I just need maybe a 2-prong mechanical one. I'll check that out on Thursday.
Other successes I've had lately with the bike are getting the chamber silencers removed. I had to take them to my favorite local machinist, where he was able to throw some serious heat at them and coerce them to come off. I cleaned up the baffles and got them packed with new fiberglass stuffing. I mounted them back on the bike and did a little alignment on the left pipe. Ready to rumble!
No matter what I tried, I could not get the turn signals to work properly. And I couldn't even get the brake light to light up at all! Lots of different factors going on here. I'm changing out the incandescent turn signals for LED's as well as the brake light, so I wasn't even sure if they needed to have inline resistors. The brake light claims that no resistor is needed, but I wasn't confident with that. I know that the rear brake switch was brand spankin' new, as I literally pulled it out of an OEM bag to build the brake system. (I bought it 30 years ago and never used it- don't ask me why I even bought it.) Also could it be my bad wiring? So many questions! I just want the stuff to work!
I took the bike back to Alan & Sons. I had talked with Alan at the end of last season and he said that this kind of electrical is something that he can do. I dropped off the bike and gave him the scoop. I even supplied him with another LED brake light, in case the mounted one was actually dead.
About a few days later, he called me and said the bike should be ready for pickup in the next day or two. I drove by at the end of the week to retrieve the bike. The invoice was $409!!! Yikes! No one really likes to do electrical, so if he's going to have to do it, I guess he's going to make it worth his while. He showed me that the rear LED was working- brake light and running light, but only for the rear brake. He believed that the front brake switch was bad, something that was totally possible, since it was the original. The LED signals worked, but didn't blink. He demonstrated that when activating the switch for the left side, it is about 50/50 and suggested that I just give it a good cleaning and that should take care of it. He did have to do a bunch of electrical troubleshooting. He found that some wires were hooked up wrong and that one of the wires going to the rear was broken (no continuity) and needed to be replaced. He also had to solder resistors for the signals. He also connected my little LED's for the license plate, something I didn't even ask him to do.
I found a cheap front brake switch off of eBay- cost me $8. (An NOS one would've cost about $50. I don't think that anyone buying this bike later will even care. I sure don't care.) I finally had some time off from work today to actually test it out and get it mounted. Alan was right about that dead switch! I works now! Now I have front and rear working brake light circuits! That's a really big deal! Now, I can actually ride the bike at night and not worry about someone whacking me!
The next step is to try and get the LED signals to actually blink. I just cleaned out the turn signal switch, as Alan had suggested that I do, since when signaling left, it's kind of iffy. That didn't seem to help. I threw the original flash relay back on, but the left still didn't want to cooperate. The flash relay was crackling and making all sorts of sounds, when I activated the turns. I don't think the switch itself is the problem- it sounds like it's all about the flasher unit. I bought a bunch of flash relays from O'Reilly, mostly electronic ones. I think I just need maybe a 2-prong mechanical one. I'll check that out on Thursday.
Other successes I've had lately with the bike are getting the chamber silencers removed. I had to take them to my favorite local machinist, where he was able to throw some serious heat at them and coerce them to come off. I cleaned up the baffles and got them packed with new fiberglass stuffing. I mounted them back on the bike and did a little alignment on the left pipe. Ready to rumble!
