Ducati ignition, 888

Well I thought I would site the ignition box on the mudguard next to the battery, so I extended some of the wires and got it looking rather nice, however when I put the seat unit on, it just touched the unit so I had to move it down nearer the rear cylinder air box, not so nice, but I really can't see another place to site it.

Anyway, it started up well, although I didn't leave it running long as was in the garage with doors closed! Anyway that's pretty much finished, although I need to road test it!

The horn button on the 888 doesn't work, so I took it apart and it's a simple contact between the push switch and connectors, however the metal insert in the push button was missing along with the spring. I turned up a small insert and glued it in, and then bent a small spring into the right shape and put it all back together, the battery is on charge, so will test later.

Ducati ignition

So I am replacing the ignition system on the Darmah, because the pickups weren't working correctly on the old system, the new system replaces the pickups, the magnetic rotor, and the ignition boxes. It has LEDs to show you where the pickups are in relation to the crank position, which are then removable so you don't have flashing lights going all the time, it also has multiple ignition curves which can be selected by a rotary switch. The components that I removed were :-
The pickups and wiring loom
The Bosch boxes
The resistances
I am trying to wire up the new ignition box using the 12v feed to the coils and the return from each coil, plus the four wires coming from the new pickups.

I wanted to position the ignition box between the coils, but on checking with the supplier he suggested I keep the box well away from the HT side of the circuit. I think I have enough wiring to be able to site the box nearer the battery.

Triumph Swinging arm bushes

So as you may remember I made a little tool to  insert the bushes into the swinging arm of the Triumph, which worked very well, and was used loads of times as you will see below. The thick part of the tool is a bit smaller than the inside diameter of the swinging arm tubes, the thin part is a bit thinner than the compressed bushes. The threaded bar, is used to pull the bushes in (or out).

Unfortunately, with the bushes in, it was impossible to insert the hardened steel spacers, I forced a bit but it would wreck the bushing copper to insert completely. After much cogitating, and contacting the guys that sold me the bushes (LP Williams) I decided the only way forward was to remove material from somewhere! Using emery cloth I first cleaned up the inside of the swinging arm tubes, then working slowly I sanded some material off the inside of the bushes, trying every few minutes by inserting the bushes and then trying to fit the spacers, it took me about 10 attempts as I didn't want to have play in the swinging arm!

Eventually managed to get a tight fit and using my tool on the second spacer to pull it in, the spacers have a tendency to displace the bushes and can cover the grease nipple hole so I screwed a screw (metric) into the hole to prevent the bush from moving over the hole, this worked fine although need to make sure it is not proud of the bush otherwise there will be contact with the spacer!

Ducati and others

So quick news on the Ducati Darmah. Eventually made a paper tool from some diagrams I scrounged off the internet. Fixed the pickups and still exactly the same.

Chris had the brilliant idea to swap the wires back to the way they were (badly). Swapped them back and it started first kick!

Trying to work through the logic of what is going on!

Also got a Honda Transalp in for an oil change and some damage repairs. That all went fine although the footrest hanger was impossible to bend!

Also have another XR400 Honda in, this one bogs down when really hot (dessert), from internet searches, this model runs too rich so will be cleaning out and refurbishing the carb with smaller jets. And also changing the small (deceleration) diaphragm shown below.

Ducati Pickup adjustment

So the Ducati needs a special tool to align the ignition pickups, costing nearly 200 quid. So I thought I would use plasticine pushed onto the pickup faces, then replace the cover, turn the engine over and then see what's what with the plasticine. And it worked (to some extent). Obviously this doesn't check the angular position, but should enable me to get the distances right. You can see on the photo where the rotor has scraped the plasticine, the thickness of the plasticine will give the gap and as can be seen on the RH pickup, it also shows the angle of this pickup is not parallel to the rotor. I adjusted the RH pickup (which was the cylinder not firing) to be square to the rotor.

The second photo also shows that the rotor has also (at some point) come into contact with the clutch gear.

Triumph/Ducati contd.

The bushing tool worked really well so it was a doddle to screw them into position, I did have to adjust the diameter of the tool slightly, but now it works really well.

I now have to push in the bearing pieces, which is another challenge!

With a fully charged battery on the Ducati, I now am getting a spark on the rear cylinder but not on the front, swapping around the pickup connectore I can get the front to spark so the problem is coming from the front cylinder pickup wiring/adjustment/other. The resistance from both pickups is within spec. about 210 ohms, so the wiring etc.. would appear good, I need to now check to see if the pickup moved when I was messing about in there. OK off with the cover again tomorrow!

Ducati/Triumph

Went to try and start the Ducati this morning but the battery was dead. Some prat had left the ignition switch on Park!

So I put the battery on charge and then worked on the Triumph swinging arm, came to the conclusion I really need a press to remove the bushes and install the news ones, but I don't yet have one (it's on the list), so it was down to fabricating a tool to force the bushes out with a sledge hammer.

It was hard work, but eventually got them all out without any damage. I made another tool to pull the new ones into position, having thought that banging the new ones wasn't the best way to succeed. Have put the bushes in the freezer tonight and will try my tool tomorrow!