With a waterless coolant it should not rust at all, and the stuff can be siphoned and filtered through a coffee filter to remove any particles and reused indefinetely so if you put it that way it's actually quite cheap, I'm just on a tight budget because I'm also fixing the Alfa at the same time, just ordered 777eur worth of parts from germany yesterday, stings a little...

 

Great progress Matti.

Good luck with the 5K prize, you deserve it on effort alone!

 

Haha yea like I`d have a chance! Have you seen the level of bike building around here? Just google some names like Veikko Sikiö or Sami Hovatov and you see what I mean. The Sikiö bike with the curvy front fork is like 99% self made including the engine!



My goal to enter into the show is more inclined to getting my name out there and since it`s an official MMAF season opening, maybe get a foot in between the door of the exhibition center as well in the next winter. I don`t really care if I win or not, to get the bike there on display is the ultimate goal for me as is.


Time to finally get cracking with the one thing I`ve put up till later for a long time: The keyless ignition module. I don`t really know why I dread it`s wiring so much since it shouldn`t even be that big of a deal...



Relay sockets and the main unit fitted into the box as per suggestion by the maker, the main unit is originally meant to be mounted inside a car for a keyless entry unit but has been modified to be used as a keyless ignition unit so the box itself is not moisture protected and is recommended to be fitted inside a protective casing.



Just a wee bit worried will the box fit inside the tail since I don`t currently have it to test but I trust it will...

Tomorrow gonna tackle the wiring.



Not long before the stickers are coming off. I decided long ago to remove them just before the first start after the rebuild.



Sprayed three or four coats of lacquer onto the coolant reservoir, can`t really remember anymore which was it. The color is very strange, it seems to be extremely hard to capture on camera, I had to shoot it with a fairly powerful LED torch to show the real color instead of just black with a blue-ish strip in the center.

 

Had a few ups and most definitely a few downs today...

Today had been reserved for garage time for over a week ago since my wife and the bouy went to visit her parents so I don`t have to mind the noise. And what do I do? Catch yet another flu! Shivering on the puter with 38c temp ATM, but since I`ve already lost three whole garage days and it IS one door away if I get too ill I decided to go anyway. Both my and my neighbors wives work three shifts so we have an agreement that if the other is sleeping no excess noise can be made, and guess was I about to make the midpipe for the exhaust today? Fine, I´ll do the electrics and other low noise stuff instead...







The "nitrous bottle" is in place. The bottom comes pretty far out from the cage and will get ground contact if I tip the bike but I guess I just gotta try to keep it sunny side up. Rest of the parts are still on the way so can`t finish it yet.



I decided to finally tackle the keyless ignition module and I`ll tell you it was no easy task! I spent five hours sitting beside the bike doing wirings and trying to make out the wiring diagram. Speaking of it, the diagram managed to give me a few grey hairs on a few parts. I literally sat there with a blank stare more than once comparing the diagram to the bike and cursing out loud that I have training for this, why cannot I figure out one simple relay card, no matter how I looked at it teh wiring simply did not follow the diagram! Then I got one of those "what if " moments, and turned the page. Apparently the 2002 DSSA is a some sort of a hybrid regarding the wiring diagrams as if some part didn`t go as it did in the diagram, a turn of the page and hey presto it matches exactly to the mark1 T595! The wires still need some tape to be bundled to gether but the keyless system is now fully functioning, which means there is no igintion lock what so ever on the bike, the "key" is a similar fob that some cars have as remote door locks with the exception that I do not have to remove it from my pocket at all, when I approach the bike the indicators flash and a status LED lights up, when I mount the bike and pull in the clutch lever the bike "wakes up". When I leave it at a parking lot I can either flip the engine shutoff switch that now shuts down the whole bike or just simply leave it idling and walk away and it shuts down itself once I get far enough (a few meters)

...and then the sky fell...

Contempt with my progress I started buttoning up the rest of the electrics replacing jumper test cables with soldered joints when I noticed the spark plugs are not in place, so I decided to put them in so no crap finds their way into teh cylinders. First plug went in without a hitch, the second one went down the threads but when I started tightening it I heard a loud *crack* FUUUUUUUU! Carefully I threaded the plug back up and did a very thorough inspection to it, the only problem I found was a small aluminum shaving lodged between the crush washer and teh plug thread, the thread itself was in A-1 condition. Noteworthy, these plugs are 300km old. I also inspected the plug well as well as I could using a LED torch but didn`t find anything amiss, spesificly looking if the aluminum shaving would be missing from the top of the thread but no. So I took the number 3 plug and threaded that into the middle hole with zero problems, took one last look with the last plug but found no damage to it whatsoever so the crack must have been the shaving, I threaded the plug down only to discover it does not tighten!!! and now I cannot get it out either!!!

So now I have all the bits and bobs to finish the bike sans the waterless coolant, basically zero budget and a cylinder head removal in my hands! The PO has had to fudge the thread before me as there was nothing wrong with the plug when I lifted it up from the middle hole.

I`m not actually even pssed off, just disappointed and tired of all the idiocies the PO has done...

Gotta sleep on it and think about what to do but basically the only thing that can be done is removing the head and taking it to a shop, gaskets and work around 500eur yaay!!! Any brilliant ideas how to remove that plug? It doesn`t catch on to the thread, it trieas and jumps right off.

 

There's nothing wrong with the threads, the daym plug broke! So THAT'S what caused the crack. Dummy dum dum me for threading it back down... now I gotta find a long counter-thread extraction bit or weld a rod onto one to get the rest up.

 

Wow, I haven't seen anything like that before. Good luck getting it out!

 

A five corner torx bit slightly tapered in a bench grinder, few sharp taps with a hammer and skyfall cancelled! Phheeeeeeeeewww!

 

Oh man, it's great that it was all intact and in one piece!


Good job getting 'er out.

 

Man I`ll tell you I am BEAT!

I`ve been toiling like an animal for the past two days in the garage, my wife promised me a full day to work on the bike since she saw I can`t even sit still or keep my mouth shut about it being so close to finishing so she rather sent me to the garage than have me jumping to the walls inside so I took full advantage of the time and did everything I possibly could.





Everything didn`t exactly start out peachy. I ordered two thermostats to have one to fit on the bike and another to store away. Well, both have the same product number but the sender could have bothered to look in the boxes to verify they actually match. The Stant that I ordered was what it was supposed to be but the other one is completely different and useless to me. I contacted the seller and they said no problem just send it back for a full refund. Suuure I`ll be sending a 6 buck part back to the USA and spend five times it`s worth on postal fees... so another deal gone bust, at least the other one was right so I could button up my coolant system.





I opened up the front end and inspected the notorious steering bearing. Looks like someone could have already relubed it although I doubt it. I however pumped the bearing full of new grease and bolted the front back up and it seems the steering did get remarkably lighter so I suppose some lubrication was due.



The new handlebar clamps came in. I did some measurements and carved a line to 4mm into the base of the clamps...





...took down the big old file from the tool wall and filed away. The angle was actually surprisingly easy to find with just a large file, only one test fit and re-filing was needed to get the angle right.



Little grinding was needed to get sufficient space for the nuts to the underside.







The dirty bars fitted. I can already tell the improvement in the riding position is remarkable, completely transforms the whole bike. I`m just worried will the new clamps clear the tank as I don`t have it right now to test...



Gonna be tight but I think it will fit.



The keyless ignition status LED found it`s way into the battery box, I meant to put it to the top triple but when I learnt it stays on even after the power is switched I decided I con`t want to be watching it all the time and put it there.



I also fabricated the missing midpipe to the exhaust. It now clears the rearset and still IMO looks pretty decent. Still has to come off as I fudged the paint, some crud from the towel I used to wipe it clean apparently got caught in the pipe and "jumped up" after I sprayed the paint on, there is also a run on the other side that will also be sanded and painted over. Will not win any beauty contests but not exactly horrible either.



I also battled the airbox in place after taping all of the wiring harness. There is NOT that much room at the sides of the airbox and some...persuasion was needed to get the box in place. I might still reopen it and try to further tidy up the harness but that is probly a next winter`s job.

Dare I say it? Apart from the fairings, the fuel couplers and a few coolant connectors the bike actually is pretty much done! Once the fairings come in a few weeks I still have to do a little modification to the tail lamp and glue it to the fairing but if I could somehow provide fuel to the fuel pump without the tank, the bike would be as is ready to be started!

 

Got the new brake lines the other day, didn`t exactly go as planned... First I wanted for some reason to find a UK dealer, something to do with originality or something, just seemed right, not to mention the fast delivery compared to China or USA and no VAT at customs at EU internal deliveries. Found the right kit, ordered and paid it being a bit tired. Looked at the order saying "Congratulations, you have just succesfully ordered a brake line kit for a 2002 Triumph Daytona 955i!"

Wait, what! Noooo!!! What I MEANT to order was a SPEED TRIPLE kit as the Daytona lines are too short! A quick message to the seller asking if they could still change the order, they replied "would be better if you send us the measurements to have them exactly right! YES! Off to the garage to measure. The only hitch was that at that point the new handlebar clamps had not yet arrived so basically I had to totally guess where the bars are going to end up, and.... well,







They do seem to be a high quality well made kit, but espacially the right one IS a little long... Gonna run them as is for now but I might reorder yet new ones possibly the next winter, we`ll see, they are not exactly cheap...



The LPG valve has been a total nightmare. Not knowing much about gas fittings I just ordered a bottle valve vaguely resembling an authentic NOS valve, but didn`t take into account the thread. The side where the hose is supposed to fix into the valve has a 21,8mm left hand thread, a standard most of the people here has never even heard of! I`ve been searching high and low for an adapter, finally found one today, only to discover that once I bought it (a set of four different adapters to be precise) and screwed it into the valve I noticed it TOO has a left hand thread, just a different size in the other side so I`m back to square one! Having spent about 30eur on useless adapters of different kinds I decided that since it`s not a pressurized fitting I might try one thing that was lurking in the back of my mind, so I grinded (or is it ground?) some of the thread off the valve...



...fixed a reducer fitting into a drill and filed a slot into it`s threads...



Spun soldering lead into the threads, screwed it down as far as it went with the criss-crossing threads...



...pressed it all the way down...



...and carefully warmed it up with a gas torch until the lead melted into the threads. A fluxless solder would have been better but don`t got any so that`ll have to do. Holds 8 bars from a compressor so shouldn`t have any problems holding where it`s going.







Not bad eh? Some like some don`t, just like with everything else. Can`t please em all so please yourself right?



I was going through the electrics making sure everything works and to be honest paniced a little when I noticed that the turining indicators do not function. Paniced because they are hooked up using the original wiring so the fault can be anywhere! Luckily it was the first thing that I tried, which was bypassing the relay with a jumper wire. Turns out the original blinker relay does not function whatsoever with LED indicators so an electronic relay took right care of that. Feels weird cause it does not tick at all.

Then I ran into a serious issue. Apart from the not yet arrived front brake fluid reservoir and a thorough wash, I ran out of things to do! The ONLY thing that is yet to be done is the fixing of the tail light housing into the tail fairing which I quite naturally cannot do before I get the fairings so basically I gotta sit on me **** for at least a week, possibly two, trying hard not to split in two waiting to get the first smokes out and the first test ride with the resurrected bike!