Post No: 6 - Wiring and Other Bits

Post No: 6 - Wiring and Other Bits
my email: neil@cbsonline.co.uk

OK folks - on with the wiring then. There aren't really many components on this bike so it should all be quiten basic and straightforward. The plan is to have it the cable runs as hidden and discreet as possible without going to the extent of hiding it within the frame tubes. I have my trusty Weller, temperature controlled, Soldering Iron with it's damp pad always handy. I've cut loads of strips of double-sided Velcro to secure the cable runs temporarily along the frame tubes. I have a selection of colours of modern, 0.5mm, 11 Amp, thinwall cable which is much smaller in diameter than regular aftermarket cable so it makes for smaller diameter bundles. I've gathered together a few offcuts of Heat-shrink tubing, Spiral-wrap cable binding and some regular PVC sleeving. All this stuff is available, by the metre, from CBS.

The stop light switch has screw terminals for the two wires. Fine - it'll work for a while but it's not the best way to wire a component that is not easily accessible and is in a prime position for attack from the elements. The 'Aviation' solution is to dump the screws and solder the wires directly and neatly to the terminals. Feed the wires through the smallest suitable sleeving and 'pot' the whole area with Polyurethane sealant. A wet finger will make a neat finish.

It's tempting to install connectors to each component so the components can be removed or replaced without disturbing the wiring. But I've chosen to go the 'hard-wired' route, running long cables from each component directly to where they will most easily connect to the other components. So, the three wires from the rear light have been fed through sleeving, which has been bonded behind the bead of the rear mudguard, al the way along to the swinging arm where it curls down then back up the inside of the frame side tube along with the alternator feed and the stop light switch wires.

Here are the three, sleeved cable bundles running up the inside of the frame tube, secured with a nylon 'P' clip.

Silly bugger time. I'd measured the potential movement of the swinging arm by the distance between the shocks and their bump-stops. What I didn't take into account is the compression of the rubber bump-stops. This means that it is possible for the rear mudguard to whack my aluminium battery tray if I hit a bump in the road. So, to PLAN B.

It's still useful to have a tray under the seat so I haven't totally abandoned that idea but the battery will have to be mounted up in the seat hump. Problem is, the hump is not really big enough. So here's the process I used to reshape the hump.
I first cut away the original hump leaving a hoop around the bottom edge.

I cut an aluminium plate to the new, required height and shape of the hump and Cleko'd it in place. I then cut several, 10mm wide strips of 1mm aluminium and shaped them to form a new dome profile. They were all drilled and Cleko'd at one end and just taped in place at the other end.

I loosely taped over the outside of the strips with masking tape and laid-up a layer of GRP and resin on the inside. GRP kits are available from CBS.

After curing, I removed the tape, revealing a reasonably shaped, new hump.

All the aluminium pieces were removed and the external surface dressed roughly with a sanding disc on an angle grinder. A couple of layers of woven matting were then laid-up over the outside.

 After trimming off all the edges and dressing down the highest spots it's time for some body filler in the low areas. When it's cured and rubbed down it'll look something like this.

It's now just down to filling and sanding in ever finer and smoother steps. A light coat of Matt Black aerosol paint before rubbing down will highlight any low areas still needing filler. The perfection level depends on the final finish you're after. Painted finish will require much finer surface preparation than say, leather trim.
If you're generating a three dimensional shape like this from scratch, here's a useful tip to refine the finish and identify the highs and lows. Just close your eyes and use the palm of your hand. You'll feel the surface undulations much better than you can see them.

Several 'fill and rubs' later it's finally good enough for one last coat of filler primer.

This is very good stuff. (available from CBS) Don't worry about runs, just spray it on until you cover the minor imperfections. You can even spray an area a rub it in to pinholes and scratches with your finger, then spray a bit more on top. I'll rub it down wet with 400 Wet and Dry on the palm of my hand.

OK, as I've mentioned, the plan is to store the battery in the seat hump so I'll make an access panel to get it in and out - and maybe even store a couple of tools and a rag. I've carefully measured and marked the opening size with a fine pen and masking tape and I've used a 25mm washer to mark the radiused corners. Here, I'm using a 1mm drill in my Dremel to drill a dozen or so holes around every corner. A good quality drill bit will also cut sideways so you can carefully 'rout' between the holes, cutting through the whole corner.

A fine-tooth, new hacksaw blade will cut cleanly most of the way through the straight lines. I removed the blade from the frame and finished the cuts by hand with the blade alone.

I cut a pair of 1mm aluminium side supports for the lid and riveted them on the inside with under-flush, countersunk rivets and a smear of Polyurethane adhesive/sealant.

I made a cardboard template for the battery support tray and transferred the shape to a piece of 1mm aluminium. I trimmed and folded it to fit fairly accurately on the inside of the seat hump.

A couple of layers of CGP matting around the edges will bond it and seal it neatly in place.

I fitted a CBS Glove Box Latch to the lid and riveted another strip of aluminium to the bottom edge as a retainer.

 You can just see that I've dressed down some areas around the inside edge of the lid to make it fit flush  when it's fitted.

And here's the battery it situ. I've lined the inside of the compartment with small pieces of CBS self-adhesive foam sheet and I've cut 'packing' pieces from some dense grey foam that I found in the workshop. A small block of the foam on top of the battery will hold it down when the lid is closed. There is no other battery clamping required. I made a little (white) 'slipper' plate for the latch from PTFE sheet and riveted it to the inside. You can see that I've filled over all the under-flush rivet heads ready for rubbing down and painting.

A quick dust over with CBS Silver Engine Paint, then Clear Lacquer. That'll do for now. I'll sort the trimming out then look at painting it properly with two-pack.

The front mudguard and it's brackets have proven to be a bit of a problem. I don't really like the black, powder-coated one that came with the rolling frame. It's wire support and rubber mountings are clumsy and over-engineered. The stainless one I bought is heavy and poorly shaped and it's riveted-on bracket is nowhere near the right shape and size, despite being a sold as a 'T140' item.

So, here's the latest, aluminium one. It's radius is just about right for a neat, parallel fit around the tyre with about a 1/2" gap. It's light and quite nicely shaped. I bought a chrome T140 mount on ebay that looked the part but was waaaaay the wrong size. I don't know if the problem is mine - being wrong about what forks I have, or if folks are just selling universal stuff and declaring it suitable for all sorts of different bikes. Anyway - my ebay account will be busy selling on all this stuff when this bike is finished.

So, to make some simple and elegant mounting brackets for it. I cut a couple of short lengths of 10mm rubber fuel hose and wedged them inside the mudguard - front and back. Then set the mudguard on the tyre and held it in position with some bungees. It's a good, secure, temporary mount that will allow me to make some brackets. 

First, as usual, a paper template. I used a piece of folded paper and drew the front half of the bracket on it in pencil,  cut out the shape with scissors and opened out the fold, giving a perfectly symmetrical shape. 

I roughly cut two pieces from 2mm aluminium, drilled the four mounting holes and bolted them together. My linisher rollers are a good size for dressing down the curves.

I annealed the top ends of the brackets so they would bend easily in-situ to the shape of the mudguard. I found a few stainless M6 coach bolts so I filed the mounting holes square, cut the bolts short and bolted it together with rubber washers and nylocs on the inside.

Yup - pleased with that. Just needs a good polish-up. I'm wondering if I should have made the mounting brackets from 3mm instead of 2mm. We'll see if they break.

On with the wiring than. I welded a couple of mounts for the horn and Regulator to the seat cross bar.

Replacing the wires in the Horn / Dip Switch with thin-wall cable will reduce the cable bundle diameter by half. And soldering them will improve reliability.

I drilled the headlamp bowl and installed a replica Lucas paddle toggle switch for the lights - just ON / OFF - I won't bother with a side light. Below the light switch is a momentary push-button switch for programming the Motogadget instrument. Both are CBS items.

 There are five wires on the LED headlamp so it made sense to wire it into a multi-pin plug and socket.  This six-way one with 1/4" spades is part of the CBS range.

 I wired it all up temporarily using CBS 'QCON' quick connectors for the multiple live and earth cables. The wires will be shortened and tidied up once it's all checked out OK.

The same at the back. The 'Veethree' GPS speedo sender is mounted on bracket with a clear 'view' of the sky through the GRP seat. They recommend installation with no steel or metal above it. I wonder if that includes my two Titanium hip joints. I've fitted an inline fuse holder with a 20 Amp fuse and a temporary Ammeter in the +12 volt battery feed line. 

I've ran the front to back wires along the inside of the top frame rail. They will eventually be wrapped or sleeved. The large grey cable is from the GPS sensor to the Motogadget instrument. All other wires are thin-wall.

The main, analogue display on the Motogadget instrument shows RPM up to 8,000 rpm. The dual-line digital display always shows speed on the top line. The bottom line is selectable for various functions - here it's set to read Volts.  Not sure why the Green Neutral and Red warning lights are on - they shouldn't be.

Here, I'm wrapping the front to back wires with our 'Spiral Wrap'. It's available in three sizes and is brilliant for tidying and protecting looms or even single wires. You can spur-off or add wires easily.

I can select 'Volts' to read on the Motogadget instrument but I'm happier with a simple ammeter to tell me what's going on in the charging department. I don't want one on the handlebars so I thought I'd install one directly connected to the battery, in the seat. Here, I've temporarily fitted a 2" Durite one from the CBS range but I've ordered a smaller one which will sit a bit more discreetly, under-flush inside the seat.

 I don't have, or need an ignition switch but I do need a switch to turn off the Instrument and it's associated electronic bits - the GPS sender and the RPM pick-up. This is a simple, Micro ON/OFF toggle switch from the CBS range, mounted in a 6mm hole in the headlamp shell.

I wasn't happy with the mirror mounting the first time I installed it. I've already lost an expensive stainless mirror from my Rocket because the mounting system was crap and this looked no better. It came with an expanding brass, split cone and a split aluminium sleeve. An M6 bolt through the mount is supposed to pull it all together to open the cone and tighten it and the sleeve inside the handle bar. But, because it only expands and clamped at the very end of the bars it could be wiggled loose easily. With the Comet's vibration, it would soon fall off.

I made a new, long split sleeve and ground a groove along it's length for clearance of the welding seam inside the handlebars (most bars are made from seamed tube). This then acted like a key-way to prevent the sleeve turning inside the bar. I offered-up the mount to get the correct orientation for the mirror head and fixed it to the sleeve with M3 screws then ground the heads off. I silver soldered a nut in the end of the split brass cone to make it solid. Much better.

Well, that'll about do it for this post. There's only the seat to trim and re-paint and the speedo to set up using the instrument's 'Teach' function. The ride to our local MoT tester is about five miles so that'll be a fair shake-down. Laters.

Post No: 5 - Even More Other Bits

Post No: 5 - Even More Other Bits
my email: neil@cbsonline.co.uk

We're back on the ramp to sort out a few of the teething troubles that arose on yesterday's test ride. First an oil leak from the area of the return banjo feeding the rockers. I at first suspected a dodgy 'O' clip around the short rubber hose on the banjo but when I removed the banjo my suspicions turned to the inboard Dowty washer on the banjo, Dowty washers have a raised, rubber ring bonded around the inside diameter of the steel washer which seals on the two mating surfaces - in this case, the banjo and the crankcase, as the banjo bolt is tightened - usually a brilliant seal. The problem here is that the inner edge of the hole through the banjo has a significant chamfer - right where the dowty's rubber bit would seal. Hence metal to metal contact and no effective seal. Oh well, so much for modern technology. I annealed a couple of copper washers and replaced the Dowtys.

Part of the starting procedure with old British bikes is 'tickling the carb' which inevitably results in a few cc's of fuel dripping over the engine or gearbox - or in my case, directly onto and into the alternator. Not good. My RGS has a stainless tray, sandwiched between the carb and inlet manifold, with a drain pipe down to frame level. The Comet offered no such simple fixings for a tray so I made this stainless 'gutter' from a section cut from some 38mm diameter stainless tube. I silver soldered end pieces and a 8mm drain tube with some clear PVC pipe down through the gaps to road level. It's held in place under the carb with an 'O' ring. Simple and (hopefully) effective,

I bought a stainless rear mudguard but I didn't like it. It was poorly manufactured and like the rejected front one, not symmetrical. So, Plan B - an aluminium rear mudguard - but it had a formed 'dent' in it to clear the swinging arm. I offered it up and decided it didn't need the dent so I beat it out.

Here, I'm annealing it with my Propane torch. I heated the local area until a piece of pine softwood just leaves a black burn line when stroked across the metal. Allowing it to cool naturally leaves the aluminium soft enough to reshape.

 I beat out most of the dent with a round rubber mallet on a leather sandbag.

Then finished planishing it on a freshly dressed Dolly and panel-beaters hammer.

A set of shiny new VIncent Valve Covers arrived yesterday so I set about making a spanner from some 1/4" aluminium that I had left over from the engine mounts. I clamped the plate onto my rotary table and, with a 6mm slot drill, plunged through the plate and made a cut before turning the table 60 degrees to make the second cut - etcetera until the 41mm A/F hexagon was complete. 

I dressed out the corners with a file then roughly trimmed it on the bandsaw and linished it.

I was reluctant to hack off such a large part of the Featherbed frame but it just has to go. It serves no purpose for what I have planned and anyway, I can keep it and glue it back on if I ever need to.

Here's the Left Hand footrest and brake pedal. It's a modified aftermarket set. Quite nicely made, simple and elegant requiring only two additional holes in the frame. The little aluminium block on the mounting plate is an adjustable stop for the pedal. I'm gonna try to devise a discreet stop switch in there somewhere. More about that later. You can also see the ali chainguard that came with the frame. It's made from 3mm aluminium and Tig welded. Probably close to what I'd have done myself. Nice.

And here's the Right Hand footrest. Just one additional hole in the frame this time. I resisted using the three-hole mounting plate like on the other side on the basis of simplicity and the fact that you can never see both sides of the bike at the same time. The problem here turns out to be the kickstart lever - It's right in the way of my shin making it uncomfortable to ride and difficult to change gear. Hmm.

I found a Triumph Trident kickstart that folds at the bottom. It has a similar Cotter Pin locking system that took a small stainless shim to match it to the BSA shaft. I also reshaped the gear selector lever by heating it with Oxy/Acetylene and re-bending it so it's 1/2" further out from the casing. Job done.

This CNC'd aluminium mirror fits the bill. I'd never ride without being able to see what's coming up behind me to knock me off. Again, it's discreet and elegant and with it's convex glass offers a brilliant view rearward. The mounting method is a bit naff and I've already lost one from my Rocket so a bit of modification is required.

 Several years ago I had Laser Eye Surgery which allowed me to dump the glasses and gave me vision as good as when I was sixteen. I can read the smallest print and see to perform the most fiddly, tiny jobs PROVIDED I HAVE GOOD LIGHT. This seems to be one of the quirks of Laser Eye Surgery. In dim or murky light it's a struggle to see fine detail  -but in bright light - WOW. So,  I've dumped some of the 8 foot fluorescent fittings in the workshops and splashed out on a few of these Low Bay LED lights. This one is only 600mm long but emits a brilliant white light with good spread and consumes only 50 Watts - a quarter of the fluorescent light it replaces. Sadly, they're not cheap. This one is currently priced at £110 but the prices are falling all the time. I reckon they're a brilliant investment.

Time to tackle the rear mudguard. Here's the new aluminium one, sitting on a roll of masking tape on the tyre. I like the idea of fixing it to the swinging arm so that it moves with the wheel and is not fixed, with a huge gap, to the frame. Getting an even gap around the wheel is a bit of a compromise because as the chain stretches, the wheel will, of course, move further back. I devised a mounting method that could, if need be, move with the wheel.

I  made a forward mounting bracket from 1.5mm thick stainless and fixed it to the swinging arm 's square cross-tube with an M6 bolt in an M6 Aluminium Rivnut.

A rivnut is a threaded insert that can be installed in any tube or sheet to give you a deep, strong and secure thread for mounting other components to. They are available in sizes from M3 to M8 in Aluminium, Steel and Stainless. First you have to drill a 10mm hole in the tube. I've marked it on masking tape and I'm using a step drill bit in an angled air drill. Access is awkward but it's possible without removing the rear wheel.

The Rivnut is 'pulled' with a Rivnut Setting Tool which  squeezes the rivnut inside the tube, locking it in place a bit like a pop rivet. This is our big boy's ratcheting Rivnut tool but others are available from CBS in all price ranges.

The rear mudguard needs additional mounting and support so I used a one metre length of 12mm diameter, !.5mm wall thickness aluminium tube. I annealed the middle six or seven inches, flattened it and formed it to fit inside the mudguard.

I used two pieces of aluminium angle as vice jaws and annealed and flattened the ends of the tube, after cutting them to length,

There's gonna be a lot of vibration on rear mudguard mounting points so I used an old Aviation trick and fitted a 'Doubler' to the inside of the forward mounting holes. A Doubler is, very simply, a second layer of material, riveted or bonded to an existing piece of material to increase it's strength in a particular area. Here, I've formed a doubler from 1mm aluminium and shaped it to match the inside of the mudguard. I clamped the doubler, drilled two 3mm holes and inserted two Clekos (see CBS catalogue or website) to hold the two parts together. Two more holes were drilled on the other side and four 3mm pop rivets were used to hold it all together.

I drilled through the two mounting holes and flattened the inside of the rivets

The rear wheel chain adjuster studs make perfect mounting points for the stay. Two, M4 Button head bolts will secure the mudguard to the hoop at the top of the stay. It'll need some rubber in between though.

Here you can see the riveted Doubler and the forward mount with it's rubber spacing block and rubber washers.

Here's plan 'A' for the bolts fixing the mudguard to the hoop. Two M5 Button Head screws with large, curved stainless washers and rubber washers underneath.  The stripped seat moulding is just sitting in place.

I'm not sure about these big washers. They don't look very pretty but they may be partially hidden by the rear number plate. Here's how I shaped them anyway. Quite simple really - just clamp the washer in a vice between two pieces of aluminium angle with about 5mm sticking up. Give it a gentle tap with a hammer to bend it just a little. Then lift it up another 5mm and bend it a little again. Etcetera. With a little practice you'll have two washers perfectly curved to match the curvature of whatever you're fixing. 

                                   

I want to re-trim the seat so it has first to be stripped of it's vinyl cover and foam.

There's room under the seat for the battery and some electrical stuff but it needs some sort of tray to mount it all on. Here it is - a piece of 2mm aluminium sheet, folded on our little bench folder.

I'm drilling and tapping the frame tubes to mount the tray with M4 screws.

The battery is Lithium Ion and weighs next to nothing. It's sitting on a pad of 3mm self-adhesive foam from CBS. I made up a clamping strap from 1.5mm stainless and lined it with the 3mm foam. The strap is secured at one end with a rubber bonnet hook. The rectifier and horn are mounted beneath the tray, in the air-flow.

I searched around for a rear light for quite a while before settling for a small, LED lamp from Germany. It's 'E' marked and seems very bright despite is diminutive size. I removed a lot of surplus metal from the mounting bracket leaving just one plate, silver soldered to the housing.  I bent the plate a few degrees until the lamp sat horizontally .

After weighing up the pros and cons of Seat / Mudguard mounting I decided to mount the lamp and number plate to the rear mudguard. I reckoned that the aluminium mudguard would be ok with the weight of the lamp and number plate.

Plan 'A' is to transform the lamp into a bespoke unit by moulding a perfectly formed mount that will support and position the lamp perfectly. First step is to support the lamp in 'mid-air', exactly where it will end up. I cut a couple of short M6 stainless studs and bolted them through the mudguard. Then, with the lamp positioned perfectly, I tack welded the studs to the lamp bracket.

Back on the bench, I silver soldered the studs on the back of the bracket then ground off the welds on the front.

I then covered the area around the mounting holes with Sellotape, taking care to get no overlap or air bubbles.

I remounted the lamp housing on two pieces of bundy tube, retaining it's position and angle ......

.... and began to build up around them with P38 filler (available from CBS). This can be done in several stages - rubbing down and re-filling until you have a pleasing, symmetrical shape.

Here it is, freshly painted with Red Oxide primer. I often use real Red Oxide Primer on bare steel components. It gives good adhesion and coverage along with some degree of rust protection. (Available from CBS)

It's easy to see the high and low points when you're rubbing down.

This is the lower, number plate support bracket - a simple 'U' shape made from 2mm aluminium, fixed with a single, short M6 Bolt and nut. The number plate will be secured with self-adhesive Velcro.

The finished lamp and mount.

With a nice, pressed aluminium plate. No visible fixings. Yup - pleased with that.

Stainless spindles, washers and nylocs for the frame spacer and swinging arm

Here's the rear brake pedal and it's mounting plate. I made an adjustable stop on the mounting plate. This is the Mk2 stop which I made a little wider than the first because......

..... I wanted to fix the rear stop light switch on the back of the plate using the same two mounting bolts. The stop light switch is a simple, 'pull to make' switch available from CBS. I shortened it's spring and drilled and tapped the bottom edge of the brake pedal to fit a piece of M5 studding, bent at 90 degrees.  Simple and discreet.

Spot the stop light switch. You can just see the tip of the plunger behind the mount and the actuator bolt under the pedal. The wires should also be well hidden on the inboard side of the frame tubes.  

That'll do for this post. Plenty more in the next one.