With this update, we’re in line with the actual progress so the next time I get my hands on the bike will be after two weeks at the minimum.
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Part 7: Many a slip between the cup and the lip!
The wiring harness was temporarily put in place for the console test last time and now Mr. P and I had to stove everything in its place and fit all the components correctly. First thing to go in was the ignition coil with all the necessary wiring done to it.
The ignition coil by itself is just a coil with no thinking of its own. Quite honestly all the thinking is done by the ECU and the relay hubs so these were the next to go in of course. I was not too keen on forcing the ECU into its rubber housing and subsequently into its main housing because just the thought of breaking something in the circuits and losing thousands of rupees was just not pleasant. We gingerly nudged the computer electronics in place.
Some if not, a lot of modern vehicles have charcoal cannisters to prevent loss of fuel from vapourisation. The cannister was quite dirty when we removed it and I simply wanted to wipe the dirt off with a brush at first but while doing just that, I saw dirt and debris falling out of the fuel inlet nozzles. I simply went ahead and cut open the cannister only to see a huge heap of dust and dirt inside, blocking off the inlet ports. I had to clean everything off and put the cannister back with sealing glue.
Meanwhile, Mr. P busied himself with fitting up the air filter assembly. To the eagle-eyes here, yes, we’ve missed a step here if you’ve figured it out. If not, it’s going to come out soon.
Next, Mr.P and I lifted up the engine onto the awkward-shaped frame and after quite a few minutes of exasperation, we slotted it in place.
The tank was fitted afterwards with the connections done extra carefully so as to not break any of the connectors.
We still had two major components to install before we could start the engine. Something felt off to me but I brushed the thought aside. The radiator was fitted with the hoses clamped securely and hooked to the coolant pump.
We filled up the radiator with coolant and moved on to the handlebar. Something felt off to me again but I ignored the thought again.
Hooking up the throttle cables was easier said than done. Since the R15 had dual cables, fitting the throttle retraction cable was a pain. This was further complicated by the awkward position of the throttle body, wedged between all those hoses and electric wires.
The difficulty of the throttle body assembly gave me the realisation of what was missing and was making me uneasy all this time. I had forgotten the charcoal cannister and the engine was all assembled!
With a facepalm, we set to work on removing the bottom bolts of the engine, hinging it on the top bolt and swung it out to install the cannister and make no mistake, it was one difficult part to fit. The screws were a nightmare to fit in, the hoses refused to go in, the clamps didn’t want to click in place. Finally after quite a bit of wrestling about, the cannister was fit in place.
It was time for the big reveal. The big question was clouding the air, “Will the trashed R15 start up after the complete overhaul?”
Key: ON
Kill Switch: ON
Start switch: Pushed
R15: Dead
Brian: Dumbfounded
I just could not digest the complete silence that followed the push of the start button. I really thought we were getting somewhere. Oh well, time for troubleshooting. The good part was that at least the fuel tank looked all nice and shiny with the new paint coat.
Fuel: Fuel lines connected and fuel pump was priming well
Electricity: Motor cranked well and there was a healthy spark at the plug
Air: Airbox connected to the throttle body which was connected to the engine
Everything seemed fine and I started scratching my head when it hit me. The idle air valve on the throttle body was not connected so with an open feedback loop, the engine was refusing to start. I hooked it up and re-tried.
Crank and crank went the starter motor without any luck. I turned the key off and on again. Cranked it a second time and there seemed to be some signs of life. I did another priming cycle of the fuel pump and a third crank cause hey, third time’s a charm. Et voila! The engine coughed and sputtered and roared into life!
Mr. P just stood there with a wide-open mouth of disbelief. The engine was alive! The scrap R15 was alive! We finally did it!
Yes, we did not fit the exhaust system so it sounded like a 1HP single cylinder farm pump but it worked! I switched it off quickly because I did not want to damage anything from zero backpressure because of having the exhaust can out. Fitted the exhaust pipe with a new copper gasket and started the bike again.
She roared up instantly into a purr that sounded almost like, “Hey, it’s alright, I’m okay now.” The noises were gone, the vibrations were gone. We were elated! Mr. P could not believe his eyes. There she stood, humming smoothly with no trace of evidence that just a few months ago, the only solution was a scrapyard. The idle was a little high, upwards of 1500 but other than that, butter smooth, butter!
We switched it off and went to town with the follow-up tasks. Cleaned up all the cables and tied them off with cable ties. The gear shifter lever was dangling about with a ton of free play so I took one of the spare washers from the old forks, ground out a bit from the inner diameter and fabricated a spacer.
I assembled this in-between the lever and the mounting bracket. I had to reduce a bit of the thickness from the gear lever to match the excessive tightness.
Finally, the gear lever assembly was mounted onto the frame. Things were starting to brighten up.
Mr. P took the bike out for a quick ride inside the community and came back with a wide grin and a loss of words. The test drive was quite a ride of emotions for the guy, considering that the motorcycle had to be literally towed on a flatbed when it arrived at my house months ago.
We were about to call it a day when we noticed two very pronounced indicators that our work was not done. After about 15 minutes of riding and enjoying,
1. The bike started idling at a manic 2300 rpm instead of the recommended 1300 rpm
2. The poor thing started spewing white smoke and the entire area was starting to reek of burnt oil
We were back to square one. This was a major blow because something in the engine was still not quite right.
Mr. P had to return to his workplace so I set about taking out the engine on my own. I took it all apart fairly quickly this time around and found the problem. The top part of the piston was slathered in oil.
I took apart the bore and gave it for machining and fitting a new piston with a 0.25 deviation. In essence, we gained 2 CC!
I also asked the shop guys to re-lap the valves just in case. They were adamant that the head was fine but I wasn’t taking any chances and I was definitely not willing to constantly loosen and torque up the engine head bolts. There were a few minutes of back-and-forth argument between me and the machine shop guys. Finally, I got them groaning and grumbling into submission.
Out with the old piston and rings. In with the new set.
I put everything back together quickly with a new set of gaskets and mounted the engine on the bike and gave it another start. It fired up immaculately with no smoke or oil smell. The leak issue was solved but the bike was still idling high. The throttle body had to be looked into soon but until then, I had other things to do. I started putting together the fairings to get a sense of how the bike was going to shape up.
We bought a set of grab rails because the bike had nothing to hold on to. Mounting the rails as intended seemed quite difficult so I came up with a new and monstrous-looking way to mount them. The width was lesser than the handlebars so no legal issues either. Of course, these images show the rails tied up with heavy gauge power transmission cable for a temporary visualization but I’m sure the end result will make the bike look custom-made for sports touring.
The rear mudguard was to be assembled on the swingarm. During disassembly, the screws broke off so I had to drill them out. Now, the swingarm only had through holes instead of tapped ones. I forgot this completely when putting the swingarm back on the frame. Now, I could fit the mudguard at the sides with bolts and nuts but the centre hole was out of reach and could not be fastened that way.
With the swingarm fully assembled, I could not take it out so I ended up having to reach far with my drill and made a 7 mm hole, used the homemade thread tap which I used on the wheels earlier and luckily, since the swingarm was just aluminium, the threads started forming. I fitted the mudguard with an M8 screw. That went well, phew!
With most of the work done, here’s a parting video of the current state. Of course, there are a lot of other fairings to be fixed, the headlights need to be polished and the throttle body issue persists but we finally made good progress!
Please do let me know if anything can be done with regards to the idling issue. With this update, we’re in line with the actual progress so the next time I get my hands on the bike will be after two weeks at the minimum. Until next time, folks. Cheers!
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