The Blue Streak Gets New Clothes

[Shoganai]

As anyone who knows me knows I'm hard on my bikes. And two events that involved Steve and this bike hasn't been good to it either.
The left fairing fracture and tanks dents were his added touches.


Over the past month I traveled twice to S.C. to help my father gut and remodel his master bath. I learned to hang sleet rock and wall paper. I learned to remove the old vinyl floor and prep and lay in a new vinyl floor. I refinished all the wood work as well and helped install a new step-thru shower.


While I was gone, Steve took it upon himself to get my bike painted. We had talked about and it was agreed it would be cheaper to find an undamaged fuel tank to have painted than to repair the other one and Steve found one on EBay.


Here's the parts list:
1. Fuel tank - bought used - got painted
2. Side covers - bought new - got painted
2a. Side cover insulation - new
3. Mirrors - OME - got painted
4. Turn sig. lens - new with gaskets
5. Belly pan - Like-new, bought w/ bike from owner
6. Tail - Like-new, bought w/ bike from owner
7. (L) & (R) Mid-fairings - Like-new, bought w/ bike from owner
8. Front fender - Like-new, bought w/ bike from owner
9. BMW rondels - new
10. Upper fairing - stolen off the Shop Whore and currently at the paint shop.





























To my knowledge, this is not a K1100RS fender, but came with the bike when I bought it.




While we had her naked we'll attend to some other maintenance issues as well.


Ok, I'm off the garage to start undressing her. Steve will be home about 1800 from teaching MSF and I hope to have a lot done before he gets home.

[argent brick]

Love the blue paint. Kinda wish my brick was blue not silver.

[mystic red]

That be a LT fender. Your place is like ours, in one aspect anyway, with the occasional stray shotgun shell laying around. :yes

[motodude]

It took me a while to figure out that the belly-pans were, in fact, belly-pans.   :embarass:

[Shoganai]

Random pics so i can remember how to put it back together.






































Off to grill the burgers.

[Rick G]

Thats looking good Shogs I really like that blue.
How come you are putting the LT front fender on, I reckon the RS one looks better.

[Shoganai]

I thought so.
If anybody want's, you pay shipping and it's yours.

That be a LT fender. Your place is like ours, in one aspect anyway, with the occasional stray shotgun shell laying around. :yes

Rick G, see above.  :yes


j o   :neener:

[sh00ter]

What you got wired up in the tail there?

[Shoganai]

I have sleep apnea.
We wired a way to charge a special battery pack so that I can sleep anywhere without power and still use my machine.


If anybody want's details on how we did this, PM me with your email address and I'll send you the link.

[sh00ter]

Got it......cool.

[Rick G]

I thought so.
If anybody want's, you pay shipping and it's yours.

That be a LT fender. Your place is like ours, in one aspect anyway, with the occasional stray shotgun shell laying around. :yes

Rick G, see above.  :yes


j o   :neener:

I already have 2 spares but thanks.

[Shoganai]

So...ya know as soon as you think 'I'll just..." it turns $ into $$$$.  :shock:

Ok, the bought fuel tank looked good on the outside but bad everywhere else. The sending unit looked nasty-untighty. The fuel pump doesn't work when hooked up to the bike. (could be an electrical issue looking at sending unit)

So we thought, 'hey we'll just swap fuel pumps...simple...right... :roll:




This is what I found in my old tank.





This fell out of the filter tubing.







The fuel sump filter was torn on both sides also.



I could use some new fuel line as well, both inside and out.



My tank.



Bought tank.



The one from my tank on the right.



An attempt to protect the new paint from Gwen and tools.

[Shoganai]

So I was scrounging for parts today.

I looked in the SW and found this. Not surprised really.





But the fuel line inside the tank looked the best of all three so I pulled them off.

NAPA had a replacement sump filter.



Ok so this is what we got: Fuel pump and sending unit from the original tank, internal fuel lines from the The Shop Whore and new inline fuel filter.

Then it all went to hell in a hand basket when I put the fuel lines on the outside of the tank.



Yeah, that a piece of plastic tubing poorly glued in place of the metal ones the fuel tank was built with.



For comparison...they should look like this.



So now I need to take the tank to the machine shop to see if they can do anything to amend this so that there are aluminum tubes there as it should be.

[Rick G]

After you clean the glue of there may be enough Aluminum to tap thread and screw a fitting in.
The weld on the original may give you enough metal.
You may also use a fitting that goes through from the inside and has a nut on the outside to tighten, if the inside surface is flat and clean.

[Shoganai]

I like the fitting idea.
The last thing I want to do is screw up the new paint w/ welding.
I'll mention that to the shop tomorrow.
Maybe some epoxy putty on the outside to ensure it's liquid tight.

After you clean the glue of there may be enough Aluminum to tap thread and screw a fitting in.
The weld on the original may give you enough metal.
You may also use a fitting that goes through from the inside and has a nut on the outside to tighten, if the inside surface is flat and clean.

[Shoganai]

Today I loaded up the truck with original badly dented tank, the replacement tank with the missing fuel line nipples and the tank off the Shop Whore. (it's got 2 dents but not as bad as the blue tank)


I first went to the paint/body shop. They were reluctant to touch the fuel line issue on the grounds that they were back logged with all the storm damaged cars and welding aluminum was not their specialty. Also welding would damage the paint job. I got a quote to repair/paint the SW tank at $600.


Next I drove to the machine shop.  I explained and showed them what they were looking at and how it was wrong and what was needed to make it right. We batted ideas around and in the end they said it would be less expensive to have the SW tank repaired/painted.


Ouch.


I drove home and told Steve we should just write off the $700 invested in buying and painting this tank and consider painting the SW tank. I was pretty dejected over the whole affair.


He said no and would work on a solution.


Well then I guess I'll work on an idea too.


I started by using a Dermal with a stainless steel buffing brush and found what looked like JB Weld was fairly easy to remove.


I was pleased to find a thick pile of aluminum still around the broken tubes.






I took it back to the machine shop and now that the welder could see what he actually had to work with he agreed to repair it for $120 - $150. :clap


I brought it home, removed the sending unit, pump and filter and washed the inside to remove any trace of fuel.


In the morning I'll figure out a way to make it hold water while upside down so when he is welding it the tank can better dissipate the heat.

[Shoganai]

Ok, the tank project is moving forward again.

This morning Steve pressure washed what's left of the bike in preparation for new wiring.



The scope here is to remove ALL the non-native wiring and clean up the patch worked wiring in order to build a wiring harness just for the following:

1. Tank bag power
2. GPS
3. Green LED dash light
4. White LED dash light
5. HID's
6. LED running light
7. LED power control box
8. Gerbing heat troller
9. Blue Sea fuse box
10. CPAP power converter
11. CPAP charging system switch
12. PIAA lights
13. White LED switch

As I was removing the sticky black tape and electrical tape I swore I was NOT going to put that nasty, gummy stuff back in there.

I'm going with Non-Fray Expandable Braided Sleeving.

And I want to clean up the ends like this.



Next is just a pics of what I did and to help me remember how this was all connected up.










Before digging too deep, I removed the battery and CPU.
















































Tomorrow I'll go to Fasenal for zip ties, new wire, wiring labels and waterproof connectors.

Oh and a butt load of fuses. :shog

Steve made a GREAT suggestion tonight about using trailer wiring. :clap

[Rick G]

Have you considered using circuit breakers instead of fuses makes things easy when time counts.
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/5-x-20A-RESETTABLE-BLADE-FUSE-CIRCUIT-BREAKER-AUTOMOTIVE-MARINE-AUTO-5mm-20AMP-/370616727124?pt=AU_Car_Parts_Accessories&hash=item564a7a7654

[Duc750]

Quick way to purge the tank for welding is to hook it up to a car exhaust CO purges it beautifully. Best done with and older car/bike due to less emissioins crap

[Scott_]

You know, now that you say that, we use Nitrogen at work when silver soldering copper refrigeration, and oxygen piping to reduce the oxidation of the pipe internal surface. It also removes any flammable vapors, or gasses.

[Shoganai]

Time to update this thread.

The next episode involves me trying to convert the rear turn sigs from 1156 to 1157 LED. It started with me going to NAPA and after explaining what I wanted to do, I can home with this.

In the center it the OEM socket I have to convert.







It's been 2 monthes since I did this so some of the "WTF was I thinking" at the time has been lost. But I'll post the pics anywhy.




I think I was attempting resolve the issues with converting from one to two contact and support the base of the buld.










I think I was hoping to use the OEM negitive point to help hole this together.




I think I was trying to also deal with not just the side pins being asymetric but the LED bulb base was longer than the 1156.

When I put the LED bulb in, it caused the washer to pop off the holder.





So I changed glues.




I dremaled a channel for the asymetric pins.







That didn't work either.





But it was closer.





As you can see the base still had to be deeper.





I pulled the OEM contacts.







Back to the need to make the base deeper. I bought some nylon bushings.








(Did you NOTHING sticks to nylon...I didn't  :embarass:)



.

[Shoganai]

So I drill and dremel until I have this.







I had cut the spring earlier trying to deal with the limited depth of the OEM base and couldn't find a replacement. At this point I'm thinking the spring area needs to be shallower, again still struggling with the base depth issue.


I tried the foam.

























It seemed to work until I put the bulb in it.










At this point I'm closer. The bulb seated well in the deeper well but also at this point I don't know NOTHING sticks to nylon. Note the seperation of the nylon and base.


  :lol:


.

[Shoganai]

Still under the spell of flawed reasoning, I attempt to find a way to keep the nylon on the base.







It's then I discover the nylon bushing caused TWO new problems.

1. At 0900 you'll note it sits too snuggly against the plastic pinch that must be compressed to add and remove the bulb base from where it sit in the lens holder.

2. At 1500 you'll note it sits too snuggly against the negitive pin so that I can't slip a connector over it.




Fixed.






Again, the nylon thingy....I try every glue option I knew of and nothing worked because I was just then understanding NOTHING sticks to nylon.



However, I was again a little closer.


.

[frankenduck]

They're LEDs.  They last "forever."  (Usually 100,000 hours or more of being lit.  That's about 11.4 years. :yow)

Why not just solder a couple of wires with blade terminals onto the contacts?

[Shoganai]

I, in fact, finally came to that when I started on the front sigs... :embarass:

They're LEDs.  They last "forever."  (Usually 100,000s hour or more of being lit.  That's about 11.4 years. :yow)

Why not just solder a couple of wires with blade terminals on the to the contacts?