I got the starter "ear" clearanced after work on the grinder, I installed the radiator, and one of the ignition coils. I just need to remember how the throttle body boots go on. They each can go one of 2 directions, but only one way will work. I'll look at some pictures of it on the microfiche. The cool thing is that one of the two jet ski coolant hoses I had laying around up at the cottage is nearly a perfect fit with the new TLR water pump housing. I still need to put a tee in that hose, so that cut I have to make in the hose, and the associated space with putting that tee in should be perfect. I'll get some pictures soon.
Ok, I had to figure this out before I went to bed. I used the pictures I found online to see how the TB boots went. Gooder Throttle bodies fit. Now to get the thermostat mounted. That will be tomorrow. Then wires, and electrical connections all over.
I'll have to have my buddy stop over and help me get the one last engine mounting bolt in. The bolt hole isn't lining up correctly, and it will need to be fanagled to get the bolt to go into the threaded portion of the frame. It's not something you want to mess up. Despite that, I got the thermostat housing installed, and I got a lot of electrical connections hooked up as well. Coils are mounted on the frame, a lot of cables routed, the crank case breather on. The stat housing to the radiator is hooked up as well now. It's getting closer...
I'm sure you are aware, but just to reiterate the importance of correct wire/cable routing...hopefully you took some good pictures before teardown. That is probably one of the biggest things I've seen with DIY work, is guys just throwing things back together and not paying good attention to the details of wire/cable routing. (not saying this is what you are doing) If at all possible, try to get things routed and laid back in exactly how it was before (assuming it was "factory") including using all the clips and stays ties. You be surprised how often electrical gremlins pop up later on because of incorrectly routed wiring...and I'm sure I don't even need to mention how important control cable routing is on a motorcycle. Most of the time you can kinda tell how something was by the wires "memory", I generally try not to fight memory unless I know it was installed incorrectly before...some of the factory service manuals give a pretty good picture of routing...some not so much. Anyways, good work!
Ok, lots of work done and no updates. I made the "tee" for the oil cooler from a few copper fittings. I also got all the hoses done. The jet ski coolant hose worked perfectly for the water pump outlet to the radiator. Two different sizes of heater hose worked for the oil cooler, and the t-stat bypass. I spliced the 97 2 wire harness into the 3 wire from the newer motor. The third wire is just a ground, that goes to the main ground. I added a ground wire, and a ring terminal and put that under the bolt that holds the main engine ground. I hooked up all the electrical connections. Put the battery in after a top off charge.
I filled the crankcase with fresh oil and new oil filter, filled the radiator and cooling system with reverse osmosis water, and put the tank on. One try, no bueno. I got a fuel injection fault. Ok. I saw why. Airbox temp sensor was unhooked. Put that together, and the fuel pump primed, no fuel injection faults, and I hit the starter. Oh boy. It lives. Now, I didn't have any exhaust on. No headers, nothing. So it got loud. I then started getting the headers on. They are started, but need a little more wiggling to get them lined up . There's locating pins that go on to show when the pipes are all on correctly. I've got more to do, the rear wheel and chain needs to go on, along with the rest of the exhaust, as well as the clutch actuator needs to be re assembled. But, it's very close to being on the road. I'm shooting for a test ride tomorrow night. We've got 3 more beautiful days before it gets cooler, but if I get it all rolling, I'll ride even if it's cooler. I typically ride to work as long as it's above 35-38° in the am.
Wearing the right gear, it's not bad at all. I don't even have heated gear, or even heated grips, but I stay pretty warm. Even at temps to the mid 30's. I don't take the freeways though. Getting the airbox on now, I came inside to watch a few plays of the raidaahhhhhhhhs game, and have dessert. I'm trying to get it ready to take it tomorrow to work, but I know that's a very lofty goal. It doesn't matter what what gets done tonight, if I don't get the clutch actuator assembled, so I suppose I should do that now.
Ok, done for the night. It's not ready to take to work tomorrow, but that was a very lofty goal. Plus, even if I did finish it, I wouldn't want it's maiden voyage to be a 65 miles round-trip. I'll take it out this weekend, around the neighborhood first, provided I can get the last few bits done. The clutch actuator is a pita. I can't get the clutch to engage. I must need to re clock it. There's 4 ways it can go in, but apparently only one way works to engage the clutch. Here it is after I assembled it. There's 11 ball bearings that go in radially into the sleeve, then the arm goes into the housing. I used heavy machine great to hold the balls in place prior to assembly. I got the rear wheel on, chain clean and routed, tank mounted, rear seat on, headers on, and water for coolant topped off. I ran it a good minute and a half. It sounds great. Now I just have to get it mobile. Closer....
Ahhhh.. Success! It lives, and rides! There's still some odd bits to complete. The easiest is putting the front fairings on, but that completes it most, visually. I was able to get the clutch actuator adjusted without taking it apart.. RTFM, huh? . All I had to do was adjust the inner portion. The locknut removed, you simply turn the adjustment screw in until you feel the clutch pushrod , and then adjust the cable. Then cinch down the locknuts on the actuator and the cable. Reading is fundamental. I got the exhaust finished, and tidied up some wires, adjusted the chain and tighened the rear axle. I verified as well as I could with the motor off that the clutch actually did engage. I also rolled the bike to my brick wall to makes certain that the clutch worked while I put the bike in gear. You know, extra precaution. It wasn't necessary, but peace of mind is a great thing. I need to get shorter bolts for the front header to cylinder as there's a slight exhaust leak due to the bolts bottoming out in my helicoil repaired threads. I also need to bleed the rear brake, as it barely does anything, but on the stand I the brake does engage and stops the wheel from spinning. Hopefully a bleeding does it. Despite that, I ran it out of my driveway, and into the cul de sac. It ran great, nice and smooth. Fueling was awesome, spot on, smoother than it was with the original motor. The intake ports are round on this motor, the original had D shaped intake ports. The D shaped ports are great for max power, but get peakier with HP and tq numbers. It's a little dirty yet, but it'll clean up. I'll do some more work tomorrow.
Noise, noice! Speaking of...we need a vid with some propah "piped V twin" sounds! I always loved the sound of sport Vs with pipes...so sweet!
I think I can oblige sometime this weekend. I'll clean her up a bit, put the fairings on, get some better pics and a take a video of it running.
Well, I never got that last ride of the season in to work. But here's a quick picture I took after getting out operational before I put it away for the season today. That was a bit of work, with a few issues on the way. It's never done, I'll be swapping my case covers from the old motor onto the newer one as my covers are in perfect shape, these ones on it don't leak, but are not perfect. I was simply trying to get it rideable. Next up is the shock retrofit and some thorough cleaning. I'll try to get a video of it running before I totally tuck it away in the front of the garage around Thanksgiving.
I ended up buying another mityvac to bleed the rear brake system. My old mityvac was certainly lost in the flood that we had in 2008, when we lived a couple miles down the road. They sure are a great tool to have. When I installed the SS braided front lines and 6 piston front calipers and the larger TLR master cylinder, I had a heck of a time bleeding the air out of the lines. That mityvac made quick work of that job, and allowed me to take my bike out to Oregon and California for ride up and down the coast and all the crazy beautiful roads up there in 08. This shock swap is a kinda crazy thing, that some really smart and persistent TL owners found. See the TL's came with rotary dampers instead of shocks for the rear suspension. Great idea, really. Just the execution was needing more engineering. I'll post up more about this, but the end result is that Suzuki didn't leave much room for a traditional rear suspension, because they wanted a shorter wheelbase. V twins inherently are longer longitudinally than inline motors. Sportbikes handle better with shorter wheelbases. To keep the wheelbase short, they used a rotary damper. Well. They work, but they are kind of black magic. It's really a hydraulic valve with shimstacks. Formula 1 uses rotary dampers, but they spend millions on engineering. So, what we have is a shorter than typical area where rear shocks can go between the swingarm and the frame mounts. Many bikes can get around that with a linkage shock. Yamaha's newer r1 sport bike has a shock that fits the total overall length that my bike has. So the 04-08 r1 shock is a good candidate for shock swap. The r1 is a linkage shock, so in order to ride 2up, it needs revalving, but some just use heavier weight oil. What I'm told is that even with no shock work, the r1 shock is a big upgrade over the rotary. Now I'm a bigger guy, and I've got time to do it right over winter, so I'll last least swap out the oil to heavier stuff, but probably just take the shock to a place in town that is well known for sportbike suspension and have him re shim the stacks and set this linkage shock up for a direct mount use for my weight. Here's the shock. I need to remove the spring as this swap still uses the stock spring that's on the right side of the rear suspension. I also need a bracket to mount the upper shock eye. I've got those too. My buddy fabbed them up on his works water jet from a drawing I sent him.
