Monday, 20 April 2015
Tuesday, 14 April 2015
FZR 600 Update
Just for the record, did a big service on the FZR before using it :-
Oil and filter
Air filter
Checked coolant (OK)
Valve clearances (3 were too tight)
Adjusted gear lever (lowered it)
Charged battery
Didn't check the carbs
Checked the clutch - all within spec. except a couple of the springs which were a little compressed
Adjusted clutch play at the push rod
Things to do :-
Balance carbs
fix fairings (ha ha!)
Oil and filter
Air filter
Checked coolant (OK)
Valve clearances (3 were too tight)
Adjusted gear lever (lowered it)
Charged battery
Didn't check the carbs
Checked the clutch - all within spec. except a couple of the springs which were a little compressed
Adjusted clutch play at the push rod
Things to do :-
Balance carbs
fix fairings (ha ha!)
Monday, 13 April 2015
Fixed at last nearly....
So a bit frustrating really, my electrical problem turned out to be the stator! And I tried that at the circuit as well!
Borut (Zeeltronic) sent me a troubleshooting tree, which really helped.
My bike was failing on the chargin PCDI step - only generating approx. 25 volts instead of 150V.
When I replace the stator with an old one, I immediately obtained the 150V, so a new stator has been ordered from Electrexworld. This despite the resistances of the ignition charging coils measuring within specification.
Anyway at least I should be able to get it fixed within the next week or so.
In the mean time, my decal set finally arrived from the UK - over 3 weeks to get it, so I have started fitting the stickers to the fairings, and they look pretty good. I will need to get all the fairings on the bike to ensure they line up correctly.
Borut (Zeeltronic) sent me a troubleshooting tree, which really helped.
When I replace the stator with an old one, I immediately obtained the 150V, so a new stator has been ordered from Electrexworld. This despite the resistances of the ignition charging coils measuring within specification.
Anyway at least I should be able to get it fixed within the next week or so.
In the mean time, my decal set finally arrived from the UK - over 3 weeks to get it, so I have started fitting the stickers to the fairings, and they look pretty good. I will need to get all the fairings on the bike to ensure they line up correctly.
While I was in the garage, I also changed a leaky fork seal on the 350, which was a bit of a pain, as the lower bush pulled through the upper one when I pulled out the stanchion, so I now need to refit that, plus the seals that I had in my tool box, were actually 38mm and not 35mm as I thought, so I will need to go to the shop today and buy some 35mm fork seals, and while I am there I need 2 new wheel bearings for my nearly finished wheels for the 350 (6301 12x37x12) - hope they have them!
The girls were complaining about the height of the gear lever on the 350 and on the FZR, so an adjustment was made on the FZR, but the 350 needed the rod shortening and threading, so it took a bit longer than planned.
Friday, 10 April 2015
Tuesday, 7 April 2015
Paul Ricard - Circuit de Castellet
Just back at work, after a great weekend down in the sunny South of France at Circuit Paul Ricard, I would love to say I had no technical issues, but once again, I had oily hands most of the weekend!
In fact I shouldn't say oily because it was mostly ignition, wiring issues!
I travelled down with Carly in the van, and for once all the family were travelling in from different parts - Oliver from Apt, Libby coming down later Friday night, as she was working! Carly and I arrived at around 14:30, to get our passes from the Best Western hotel just next to Paul Ricard, great organisation, and clutching my bag of goodies we proceeded to Parking C, where wegot installed. It wasn't super busy so we got setup, and despite the high wind warnings we put up the barnum (no sides however) as people arrived we were surrounded by tall vans, so we were actually quite well protected from the wind.
We went to see the ProClassic teams in another paddock, and managed to get a couple of passes for Lib and Olly, which was good. I put some petrol in the 350 to let Carly have a go around the paddock, which she did, thoroughly enjoying the race crouch and torquey motor of the 350 (not)!
The guys came around to the tent (!) to check out the bikes, and I got both the 350 and 500 controlled just in case!
After a cold night in the van, (the kids and wife were in a B&B!), I got up for the briefing at 8:00 and then the first session at 8:55. The organisation was pretty good, and on time, and we lined up behind Herve Moineau(?) (the lead!) who lead us out. First impressions are that you are really out in the open the track is so wide, with loads of run off everywhere. Pretty complicated at both ends, with long fast straights joining both ends. The famous mistral straight 1.8kms long, now has a chicane in the middle to save the two strokes from seizing (just joking). Anyway I was just completing lap 1, behind Hervé when the bike stopped! F*&k.
Got back to the pits, knowing it wasn't anything serious - must be a lead come loose somewhere, then spent the rest of the weekend trying to find the ignition problem. We had zero sparks on any cylinder!
At least when the thing blows up you know what has happened! This was pretty frustrating, as I think I know the electrics pretty well but nothing was adding up. The HT coils are doubled up on the RG, so doubtful that both would fail at once. I could see an rpm reading on the programmer for my ignition box, so the pickup must be working, and the fact that the ignition box would power up and I could enter all of the menus, kinda proves that works (maybe..). We swapped out the stator for an old one (although not sure if it the replacement was a working model....!) still the same symptom. I found a standard ignition box in the paddock (thanks Phil) but no difference either.
We had a strange reading from the kill switch which seemed to operate correctly up at the front, but by the time the signal got to the ignition box, it was not reading the right resistance, so we set about running 2 wires directly from the front connector which equally didn't improve anything.
Suffice to say we were stumped and would stay that way all weekend!
Luckily the stickers peeled off quite nicely, so the 350 was converted into race bike number 1. And she went well all weekend, all 4 additional sessions were great on the 350. Had some fun with another couple of RD350's and enjoyed blasting the numerous RG500 that were equally out there for the 2 stroke sessions!
I think we ended the weekend on Sunday evening as the last session at around 18:30!
We had to pack the van Sunday evening, as the circuit had stuff going on, on the Monday, so we cleared out and went to Bandol for some well earned some bathing and seafood on the Monday.
I only took a few photos of the endurance racing, and the sunset on Saturday night below!
In fact I shouldn't say oily because it was mostly ignition, wiring issues!
I travelled down with Carly in the van, and for once all the family were travelling in from different parts - Oliver from Apt, Libby coming down later Friday night, as she was working! Carly and I arrived at around 14:30, to get our passes from the Best Western hotel just next to Paul Ricard, great organisation, and clutching my bag of goodies we proceeded to Parking C, where wegot installed. It wasn't super busy so we got setup, and despite the high wind warnings we put up the barnum (no sides however) as people arrived we were surrounded by tall vans, so we were actually quite well protected from the wind.
We went to see the ProClassic teams in another paddock, and managed to get a couple of passes for Lib and Olly, which was good. I put some petrol in the 350 to let Carly have a go around the paddock, which she did, thoroughly enjoying the race crouch and torquey motor of the 350 (not)!
The guys came around to the tent (!) to check out the bikes, and I got both the 350 and 500 controlled just in case!
After a cold night in the van, (the kids and wife were in a B&B!), I got up for the briefing at 8:00 and then the first session at 8:55. The organisation was pretty good, and on time, and we lined up behind Herve Moineau(?) (the lead!) who lead us out. First impressions are that you are really out in the open the track is so wide, with loads of run off everywhere. Pretty complicated at both ends, with long fast straights joining both ends. The famous mistral straight 1.8kms long, now has a chicane in the middle to save the two strokes from seizing (just joking). Anyway I was just completing lap 1, behind Hervé when the bike stopped! F*&k.
Got back to the pits, knowing it wasn't anything serious - must be a lead come loose somewhere, then spent the rest of the weekend trying to find the ignition problem. We had zero sparks on any cylinder!
At least when the thing blows up you know what has happened! This was pretty frustrating, as I think I know the electrics pretty well but nothing was adding up. The HT coils are doubled up on the RG, so doubtful that both would fail at once. I could see an rpm reading on the programmer for my ignition box, so the pickup must be working, and the fact that the ignition box would power up and I could enter all of the menus, kinda proves that works (maybe..). We swapped out the stator for an old one (although not sure if it the replacement was a working model....!) still the same symptom. I found a standard ignition box in the paddock (thanks Phil) but no difference either.
We had a strange reading from the kill switch which seemed to operate correctly up at the front, but by the time the signal got to the ignition box, it was not reading the right resistance, so we set about running 2 wires directly from the front connector which equally didn't improve anything.
Suffice to say we were stumped and would stay that way all weekend!
Luckily the stickers peeled off quite nicely, so the 350 was converted into race bike number 1. And she went well all weekend, all 4 additional sessions were great on the 350. Had some fun with another couple of RD350's and enjoyed blasting the numerous RG500 that were equally out there for the 2 stroke sessions!
I think we ended the weekend on Sunday evening as the last session at around 18:30!
We had to pack the van Sunday evening, as the circuit had stuff going on, on the Monday, so we cleared out and went to Bandol for some well earned some bathing and seafood on the Monday.
I only took a few photos of the endurance racing, and the sunset on Saturday night below!
 |
| Sunset over Paul Ricard |
 |
| Endurance team 31 Ducati |
 |
| Endurance team 31 Ducati |
 |
| Endurance team 31 Ducati |
 |
| Endurance team 31 Ducati |
 |
| Carly at the beach |
 |
| Olly at the beach |
 |
| Stephen Mertens (Phase one endurance) |
 |
| The women enjoying the warmth of the pit boxes |
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