Those robber connectors should be banned by some law. I got a bag of them in my truck in case I need to macgyver my way back to civilisation from getting stranded somewhere but always remove them and make proper soldered connections as soon as I can. Omg what horrors people sometimes do with those, it's not fun finding a tangled crowsnest of one color wire and a few dozen of those ram tucked behind a car radio, seen it and far worse... Not to mention those naturally aren't watertight so the exposed wires corrode surprisingly fast.

 

yeah dude couldn't agree more! thats a good point though, i carry wire in my tool kit should i need to twist and tape something but those connecters shall be going in the kit as well haha

i was definitely hesitant about using those connecters, I've seen a handful of ****e wiring jobs like like that, one of which actually burned a friends car door from the window motor lol just a temporary quick fix to stop me needing to pull connecters from the terminals to get room to work with.

wasn't overly keen on having to use the same colour of wire but because of where it is, it's pretty accessible so if need be it can be untaped but otherwise the other colour wires are hidden to stop confusion in the meantime. I'm definitely guilty of ripping apart a pile of old plugs and cables to get some wire though haha

 

well,

replaced the pads with EBC HH's and damn they have a nice bit of bite. didn't realise the old pads were as out of tolerance as they were.

encountered two electrical gremlins. first caused by those daft piggy back connectors i used to power the speedo. it took like a minute of riding for it to realise it had power one day and number two happens to be the neutral light switch is temperamental, when its hot and parked up it decides that its no longer connected and won't let the bike start, i suspect its the clutch switch diode as i get a bit of neutral light coming through sometimes when I'm riding and pull the clutch in. easy fixes though and they're only intermittent.

she's riding well though.

 

hit a bit of slump with progress at the moment, i can't really mess with the electrics much more until i see where they are going to end up being relocated to with the tail swap. otherwise i might have to re-lengthen after shortening it all down lolz

before i can make a start with the tail swap i need to get the thunderace insured so I've got another motor should it take longer than expected, also need to get a seat catch / number plate for the r1 tail.

// so here's an up to date to do list.

to get:

(immediate)
- a slightly smaller number plate
- r1 seat catch


(when i get round to it)
- braided lines
- fat bar clamps
- fat bars
- Tygon 2375 tubing (reservoir delete)
- damaged fairings to make a belly pan out of (possibly)

to do:

(next step)

- modify the subframe to take the r1 tail
- fabricate a tray to relocate all the electrics up under the seat

- make sure there's none of the current wires rubbing on anything
- install crash bungs

- run wiring for heated gloves
- get that damn steering lock sorted lolz

- decide on a final mounting position for the speedo
- make bracket for steering damper

(cosmetics & maintenance)

- paint engine casings black
- stainless bolts

- radiator guard
- couple of bits to sandblast, paint or powdercoat (possibly frame/swingarm)

- oil change & treat with zx1
- valve/tappet clearances

- rejet
- full front caliper strip down and rebuild

 

so,

on the plus side i have got all the bits and pieces in hand to get the tail swap on its way.

but to put a downer on that i've been battling a no spark scenario at the weekends and every other night for well over a month now and I've beyond lost all patience for it haha

starter functions so that rules out any off the safety switches.
i have continuity where i should have continuity.
i have resistance where i should have resistance.
throttle position sensor functions.
icm has been replaced.
ignition pickup sensor replaced.
fuel cut relay replaced.

theres no way 2 coils or 4ht leads have failed at the same time either.
which leaves the wiring open to question despite having continuity...

can't even just be sneaky and replace the wiring loom as i need it shortened and routed the way i have it.

so its a case of tearing down all the wires in the ignition circuit one by one, checking solder / connections and hope i find an open circuit somewhere.

bit of an awkward one anyway! but i'll get there, just a bit disheartening having to put the project on hold for such a length of time whilst i learn far more about electrics than i bargained for.

--

just ordered some seals for the 929 callipers amongst a pile of parts for the ace. so i can do a rebuild, polish the pistons and stop that nasty sticking. interestingly i found that the 929 uses two different piston sizes which makes it particularly awkward to find seals at a good price.

// 929 uses 30mm + 34mm pistons in both callipers

// 954 uses 30mm + 32mm pistons in both callipers

only reason i could think that might justify that is for the sake of modulation, so that it takes less pressure to get one set to move and take initial bite, so that you get a smoother and more progressive feel from initial bite to full braking force. can't imagine it would make a great deal of difference or perhaps theres another reason, feel free to correct me on that, I'm purely guessing here but i thought it was quite interesting.

--

so the stainless headers are off and getting cleaned up with a drill/sanding mops and sand paper for all the really awkward bits. going to give them a wee polish up afterwards as well. replacing the copper crush gaskets when they go back on as well. completely forgot to take a before picture though *facepalm*

--

well the ace' is stupid fast, been having a lot of fun with it, forgot how much a set of dirty renthals sharpen up the turn in speed and it uses the same blue dot callipers as the early r1 so the brakes are on spot but if I'm honest its just not as fun as the cbr, can't wait to get it back on the road and get some big bars on it as well.

--

 

I think this is a very well documented build.
And it seems that you put alot of thought and research into every move you do

 

aww dude, only just seen that comment and twigged hahaha yeah man its my custom cowl

 

thanks dude =] yeah i do a fair bit of research before i touch anything, mostly its because as soon as i take something apart, i need to get it back together to use on the road asap but you can guarantee that you take something apart to do a job you realise that you don't have the tool or the right part... like every time.

i love build threads that actually aim to share knowledge and experience rather than just 'heres a picture of my new tail' style threads. I'm just trying to show the level of thought that went into the build & process from my own relatively inexperienced perspective. i guess when i look back theres a fair bit of indecision and hmm need to tweak it a little more posts but i'm a designer so thats the angle where i come from, nothings ever quite right or finished haha still got loads of little bits to document like the actual change in ride height for example.

and as always i write way too much haha cheers for the input though, glad to hear that you've been reading my waffle.

 

so, once again i've not had much time at all to get near the cbr. life being life. thunderace being... a thunderace.

haha anyway, after much hassle and sleepless months the wiring issue finally revealed itself. you've probably seen a couple of desperate pleas on the forum trying to figure out where it was going wrong, it turned out to be gremlins. the y/b from he icm to the coils wasn't working as it should. in spite of it testing as it should, constant battery voltage and ground signal to tell the coils when to spark from the icm. it wouldn't give me spark on the button. the wire finally gave in and highlighted the problem. I'm actually quite humbled by the fact it wasn't a wire i had even had to modify when i shortened the loom. go me haha. seriously though... electrical gremlins, they can go forth and multiply.



here is the aftermath of chasing wires and leaving a bike uncleaned all winter after being on salty roads... hell of a deep clean is needed, good thing the frames going to get stripped back and powder coated at some point.



i've ended up in a position where I'm as well off addressing the entire wiring. so for the last few weeks I've been waiting on my wire guy to get me wire and supplies. custom wiring loom is en-route. still can't believe how much down time that electrical ****le caused.



semi polished headers =] the intent was more just to give it a good deep clean as it was staring to look worse for wear but i got carried away. looks much nicer in hand, the camera flash highlights where they're needing wiped over P=

//

so i haven't abandoned the build folks, some progress has went down. once I've got my supplies there will be a writeup on the wiring. for the record some of the wire is a pain in the bleep to get a hold of haha but best to keep it as close to oem with the colours. once she's back running its going to be off to the welders to get this tail sorted.

pheww.

 

// wee update

bit of cleaning done and a quick radiator flush (will need a deeper flush when it goes back together) whilst waiting on my wiring supplies.





headers are on, copper crush gaskets done.







nice and shiny




polished end can and link pipe, cleaned and greased exhaust clamp.




finally got round to making the steering lock function as it should, it was needing the pin ground down about 3-4mm or so.




the angled bit is to help it clear the bit on the frame for the lock, i had already ground this down but i tidied it up a wee bit whilst i was at the pin.




the pin would sit flush prior to being trimmed down, this illustrates how much i had to take off.




i've probably already shown this bit but, this is where the steering locks pin goes into if you haven't seen it before. i had to take a fair amount off of and the bridge section in the middle to clear the ignition and pin when i first put it on. needs a wee tidy up mind.




so far so good and then this lovely bit of rot, completely disintegrated as soon as i touched it.




id much rather repair than replace, had a look at replacement radiators though as mine is a bit rough and is slightly dented but the cost is unreal, £70 for ones that are in much worse condition than my own haha £140+ for tidyish ones. so a wee bit of cutting and welding is going to be happening with the fan shroud. if anyone has suggestions as to something that is easy to make fit from another model, let me know a couple of brackets and you can pretty much fit anything though.



quite chuffed with the little bits of progress that have been happening the last couple of weeks. hopefully seeing someone about cutting and repairing the nasty bits of rot off the fan shroud tonight as welding isn't something I've put my hands to yet.