Daysie's Diary

[Lee337]

Things are looking good, er... bad. Let me explain.

over the past few weeks I've sent the wheels of to be powder coated in the satin black, as near to standard as I can get, I've had new brake discs arrive, I've fixed the piece of fairing that broke off and I've finished off putting the coolant system back together, ready for coolant.I've even refitted the rear bodywork and front mudguard so she's begining to look more like a bike again. There was one last thing to do for the day, fit a new o ring to the coolant housing and refit the temp sensor.

O ring went fine, temp sensor was going well, I just had to refit the retaining clip at which point tsaid clip flew across the garage, the temp sensor fell out and ther thermostat housing broke. 

So, I've finished with it, had enough, come in from the garage, got beer i the fridge & just might have one before dinner.

[Lee337]

Just got back from the Wheelrite (Spalding) with my freshly powdercoated wheels 

Looking great, will update with pictures once I've had the tyres put on them.

We're getting there, brakes to bleed, coolant to add, tank & fairings to put back on & she'll look like a Daytona again. For info, she's cost a bit more than Tabitha Trophy cost by around £350, again proving that you can buy a road going bike of equivalent condition for less than it costs to rebuild one.

Still, that's not why I do it & at least I know both Tabitha Trophy and Daysie Daytona er... intimately!

[Lee337]

It's been a hard week with both good and bad bits.Lets start with the good. Thanks to Sin-tiger I have a fully functioning coolant system, at least I believe I have. Everything is back together coolant wise with all pipes, thermostats, sensors and rad cap in place but I admit I've yet to fill it with coolant. That is still in a container on the shelf. I thought I'd wait until I've got the wheels back on before I fill the coolant, then I can put the tank back on as well.

The wheels are still with my tame Triumph mechanic for tyre fitting. I spoke with him today & he'll have them done tomorrow (Tuesday). I dropped them off over a week ago but to be fair, I did say I wouldn't be able to pick them up until this week. The reason for the time delay is I went into hospital on Monday to have a heart procedure, was only in for a day but was told to take things REAL easy for 2 days and not drive for 7. UK daytime TV is not good and I watched a fair few 'B' Sci-fi films on Netflix too (that's not a good bit though  ).

Another good bit is I've bled the front brakes and all seems well. They are a little spongy but that's because in the absence of wheels and therefore discs, I removed the pads and wedged a bit of wood into the calipers. When the wheels are back I can bleed them properly.

Now for the bad bits, the rear brake cylinder is completely f**ked. I have a choice of a rebuild kit or a 2nd hand refurbished unit, both are around £30 so I opted for a refurbed cylinder. It's on its way & should be here later in the week. I know there is a risk that I may still need a refurb kit but thems the breaks.

Bad bit 2, before refitting the nose cone I thought I'd better check all the lights work, so I took the battery of Tabitha & connected it up. With baited braeth I inserted the key & turned the ignition on. I was rewarded with a click from a couple of relays and the neutral light, oil pressure light and EML light up - so far so good. The fuel pump is not connected, so obviously that didn't spring to life as I'd expect. I switched the lights on and... nothing. OK, try the horn, still nothing, indicators, nope, same with the headlight flash switch. Check the kill switch and that was fine, switch it off and the dash lights go out & relays can be heard clicking off. So it was with some trepidation I thumbed the starter switch - still nada, nowt, nothing, nill, a big fat zilch. Connected up Tune ECU and there were no error codes. I even checked the rad fan while I was connected up. at least that works.

My first thought was that maybe there was an alarm/immobiliser fitted but I never found one of those while rebuilding her. Having said that, both Tallulah and Tabitha, while not having alarms fitted, have the alarm connector with a jump switch, without which neither of them start. Maybe Daysie has one of those.

Checked the fuses anyway and  all ok. I know, I'll check the parking lights, front side light came on and the rear right indicator.

Wait, Indicator?

Oh dear!

Looks like I've got some work to do. I'll investigate the immobiliser jump switch theory later in the week if I have time. I'm back to work on Wednesday so I may have to wait until the weekend.

[Lee337]

A quick update for you all on where I am with Daysie Daytona.

Both front & rear brakes are now fully functional including the brake light, althopugh the rear brake light switch needs a little adjustment as I can't depress the brake pedal far enough to operate the switch - an easy fix, and I finally managed to fit the new chain. She's been off the ramp and out in the sun with the fuel tank and most of the bodywork in place so she looks like a bike again.

I went out at the weekend & bought a new battery after using the original new battery I bought for her in Tabitha Trophy when I put her back on the road earlier in the year.

I've had all the relays out & tested, using both an electrical tester & a couple of bits of wire with crocodile clips on and attached to Tallulah's battery (which also needs replacing as it doesn't hold a full charge).

So, all relays good, battery good, brake lights good, parking lights goodish (the offside rear indicator still lights up instead of the rear lamp), I had a look at the alarm plug used for the factory fitted aparm although one is not fitted, and fabricated a couple of jumpers and I've checked the earth connectors.

Still no lights, horn, indicators or starter.

Daysie is now back on the bench with all her clothes removed. Time to start a more thorough inspection of the wiring. Think I'll start with the ignition switch & work my way back.

[ghulst]

Hey Lee, how's Daisy doing these days?  

[Lee337]

Hey Lee, how's Daisy doing these days?

Well, she's been put on hold, life has got in the way with a few curve balls being thrown my way over the past 3 - 4 months. I've not even taken TalynJ out that much & Tabitha has only done around 150 miles (240km).

She still sits on the bench with electrickery problems. As soon as I connected the battery, one of the relays started to overheat, hot to touch within a minute. Swapped the relays around and it's not the relay at fault, but the circuit it was attached to. The relay socket in question is the one that cuts the headlamp when you press the starter, so clearly something within that circuit.

All earths have been checked but still no joy.

When the weather improves & I can get out to the garage again I'll start checking all the wiring starting at the front & working my way back. There's something in my head that says I may have connected the wiring loom behind the headlight cluster wrong, but until I remove the lights I don't know for sure.

There's still an earth problem somewhere as I'm pretty sure the rear offside indicator shouldn't light up when I turn the parking lights on.

[Madruss]

Well, she's been put on hold, life has got in the way with a few curve balls being thrown my way over the past 3 - 4 months. I've not even taken TalynJ out that much & Tabitha has only done around 150 miles (240km).

She still sits on the bench with electrickery problems.

Good luck with the wiring issues  
The Granite tiger's 'lecky" problems were only a heap of blown bulbs, so I'd imagine once I start doing some kilometres' there could be an overcharging issue.
Old TR6's had a power surge when ridden with enthusiasm,   so hopefully, as Lucas the Prince of Darkness had nothing to do with production, it won't have carried bad guru's across the factory   

[Lee337]

SHE LIVES!

Had a few hours spare today filled Daysie up with coolant,no leaks. So far, so good.

Then headed off to Halfords to buy some replacement relays. Found 3 of the 4 I needed. Back home & with relays replaced. I gingerly connected the battery & felt each of the relays - you may remember one of them overheated as soon as the battery was connected. Nope, All seemed fine, so in to the house to grab the keys.

Back out, still no heated relays, turned the ignition on & all the tell-tale lights came on as did the instrument lights. That's new!

Thumbed the starter button












and







she turned over 

Even though I charged the battery, she was a little slow though. No headlights until I switched to main beam. The right headlight came on. No left but I still have a missing relay. The side light came on though, as did the rear right indicator. Oh dear 

Still some way to go but definitely one step closer.

Need that relay and I suspect there's a dodgy earth somewhere.

[ghulst]

YEAH! She's alive! That's always good news. On to the next solved problem!

[Lee337]

Been practicing '2 steps forward, 1 step back' today.

Pulled Daysie out of the garage as the sun was shining & out of the wind it was quite warm. Had the battery on a conditioner overnight so it was fully charged. Connected it up & plugged in the final replacement relay.

That's odd, the right headlight came on, ignition still, off, turned ignition on and front side light, rear right indicator, neutral & eml came on. Nothing else, no other lights, no horn, no indicators & no left headlight, no brake lights.. Unlike yesterday, no starter either although you can hear the relay click.

Pulled the fuse for the right head.ight but it stayed on. Pulled the left fuse & it went out.

Disconnected the wiring for rear lights & indicators and checked them all. The rear light bulbs were blown & bulb holders corroded. So after check8ng all the ear5hconnections & positive wires,new bulbs & holders cleaned up, I now nhave rear lights, still no brake lights though even though they worked when I refurbished the brakes.

At this point my brother turned up on  his new bike wanting to go for a ride. When packing up & showing him the bits that did work, I noticed the  headlight wasn't as bright as when I started. Battery was showing 12.74v when I started but it was now down to 12.14v. Not enough to account for the dimming bulb but suggests a short somewhere.

So, fuse pulled again, check battery, 12.14v. Turn ignition on, no iights except neutral & EML, 11.1v. Ignition off, 12.14v

Definitely a short somewhere.  Next, put Daysie away, pull Talyn J out & go for a ride.

Wonder what the battery voltage will be tomorrow?

[Lee337]

It seems I've been a bit lazy of late, what with work, gardening, blood bike duty, servicing Talyn J, firing up Tabitha Trophy ready for summer, getting Tallulah through her MOT ready to be sold and a host of other tasks.

Daysie has been moved around the garage many times, but I've not really done anything to her. So yesterday (Saturday), I removed her battery, brought it into the house & put her on my Noco charger. By this morning, it was fully charged & reconditioned, it was dry & slightly warm outside, so time to pull Daysie out of the garage.

I connected up the now fully charged battery & flicked the ignition switch. Nothing had changed, she hadn't miraculously fixed herself and the right headlight came on full beam. Mistake number 1, turning the ignition off did not turn the headlight off and as I've removed the nose cone, I didn't realise the light was resting on the mudguard. Those bulbs can certainly throw some heat out when on full beam. I realised this when I noticed a little whisp of smoke coming from it. Too late, there's now a small burn patch on the prevoiusly pristine Strontium yellow mudguard.

I also noticed that the previously fully charged battery was showing 11.3v, even with the ignition turned off. I pulled the headlight main beam relay more as an act of desperation than anything else but it made no difference, right headlight still on full. I pulled the dipped beam relay & the right headlight went out. 

Checked the battery and it was up to 12.7v.

Turned the ignition on, still 12.7v.

Turned the lights on, side lights first & they came on as they should.voltage dropped a little but still above 12.5v.

Turned on the headlights, both came on the right on dipped beam, the right on full beam. Brake lights worked, dash lights worked.

Now we're getting somewhere. I even pulled the clutch & flicked the starter, listening to the engine turn as if it was trying to start - it never would, no fuel tank but still...

So it's the dipped beam circuit somewhere. I swapped the relay, just in case but it's not that causing the issue, so there's a short somewhere. Just to be certain, with the dipped beam relay in I checked the voltage of the battery again. You guessed it, down to 11.3v. Definitely the dipped beam circuit.

OK, start at the front & work my way back. I unplugged all the loom at the front & checked for continuity. The two headlight sockets first. the right was as expected, the left showed continuity where there shouldn't be any.

While everything was unplugged, I (again) cleaned each contact with electrical contact cleaner, plugged everything back in again just as Mrs L came out with coffee asking how I was getting on.

So I showerd her, plugging the dipped beam relay in, showing her the result, then pulling it again. Then I heard a small 'pop'.

Checked the fuses and the indicator fuse had blown. Odd, I haven't touched them. Pull the indicator relay, which is also the rear light, replaced the fuse, turned the ignition back on as 'pop' there it goes again.

OK, leave the fuse out for now, but hang on, the lights are now not working. Pull the indicator relay, replace the indicator'rear light fuse, pull the dipped beam fuse, turn the ignition on...

No lights,

no brake light,

no rear light.

So the sum total of today's work is one burned mudguard.

And they say bikes are fun...

[ghulst]

Bikes are often more fun for people who either like puzzles or have deep pockets to have someone else solve the puzzles... 

[Lee337]

It's been almost a year since my last confession...    Sorry, wrong forum 

Daysie saw the light of day today, not that she's going anywhere, but I think she's been sitting untouched for too long & while I'd rather be out riding somewhere, I want to get Daysie finished while I'm still breathing.

A quick reminder, she has electrical gremlins with a sense of humpur. Every time I resolve one electrical issue, another one pops up. I won't bore you with the list.

I'm convinced there's a bad earth somewhere - I've checked all the ones I can find & all seem to be making good contact. I've had the relays out, checked, replaced some & put them back in again. Every time I think I've cracked it I'm proved wrong.

I've been kind of lead down the garden path, convinced it was something to do with the main beam circuit as whenever I remove the fuse, things work. Not properly as there's always something else.

So yesterday I went out & bought some masking tape to write on & this morning I began the painstaking task of disconnecting & labling every bit of wire I could find. Starting with the back,. brake lights, number plate light & indicators and working my way forward. I labeled & reloved the relays (again), the ECU, fuse board, then set about disconnecting and labeling the front, lights, horn, indisctors etc. until all that was left unlabeled & still connected was the alternator, rear brake light switch, starter solenoid & fuel injectors.

And that's where I think I may have found the problem.

I found an earth cable trapped between the alternator and engine casing. I could wiggle it, I could see the ring connector when I shined a light to the side of the alternator casing, confirming it's not attached to anything.

Equally, it's not coming out as the cable is pinched, can't pull it. the easy option would be to just cut the cable & attach another ring connector, but then I don't know whether it'll be long enough to connect to anything. Besides, I think it should have attached to the bolt holding the alternator in place. (I'll take a look at my old photos later to try to confirm this.

To do the job properly, I need to remove the alternator, 3 bolts, except one of those bolts is tucked neatly behind one of the coolant hoses, meaning I have to drain the coolant before removing the offending hose, to gain access to the alternator, to free the earth cable, to reattach it to one of the alternator bolts.

This is a job for anotehr day though, as I've already spent 4 hours in the garage and Tabitha Trophy is calling.

I would have taken Talyn J, but the smart little box that cuts power to the sat nav, dash cam & spot lights, didn't switch off. Talyn J is currently having her battery recharged.

Tabitha it is then 

[Lee337]

More time in the garage today. Managed to loosen the alternator enough to pull the earth cable out from behind it without having to cut anything. Started to connect everything back up again. Having identified and labled which wires were which from the wiring diagram in my Haynes manual, I reconnected the earths first, followied by all the relays, then all the wires going to the rear of the bike. There was around 11v in the battery, enough to test the lights etc, so \I connected it up, turned the ignition and was rewarded by the engine light and neutral light coming on on the dash.

Then I turned the lights on to side lights. The small side light on the front lit up but not the rear light.

Next up, the left indicator (bearing in mind I haven't conected the front ones), left first & a nice steady 'tick tick' as it flashed away. then the right, the left indicator went 'tick tick'. still no number plate light or rear light.

I disconnect the indicators, number plate light & rear/stop light. The rear/stop light is a multi pin plug which should be ok. but as I ooked at the wiring for the indicators & number plate and the carefully written labels I'd attached to them, based on the wire colours, I realised that they didn't match up with the colour wirtes coming out of the indicators.

Forgetting the labels, I connected according to colour, red/white to red/white etc. and not the wiring diagram colours.

Turned the ignition back on, left indicator works on the left, right indicator works on the right. turning the side lights on shows the number plate light works, as does the rear light and squeezing the front brake shows the brake light also works.

Now we're getting somewhere. I cannot explain why the colour of the wires coming out of the loom don't match, I can only assume someone in the distant pastmessed around with the wiring at some point.

So, now to the front. A multimeter shows both front indicators work, at least there's power going to them anyway. The side light works, the starter works, I now have the oil pressure light working, as well as the neutral light, the indicator tell tale and the engine light.

The horn doesn't work. I'll check this later to see if it's the horn or wiring.

I've purposely left the headlights to last. on dipped beam, the right headlight works. Switch to main beam and it works, as does the main beam light on the dash.

The left one though, that's a different story. On dipped beam, it's showing on high beam, on high beam, it's off.

So, I have the horn to sort out and the left headlight & that looks like all there is for the electrics. I'm assuming at this point the charging circuit is working, but I won't know for certain until I fire her up.

It would seem that a lot of my issues was down to that earth I forgot to connect & pinched behind the alternator.

Daysie I not alive yet, but I think I can say she's out of the woods & on her way to recovery.