I haven't made any more "maintenance" posts in about a week. I
had to work was lucky
enough to still be needed at work last Thursday and Friday. On Saturday I started trying to figure
out how to rewire my accessories... I've always used the void in front of the battery for
all the wires and relays that need added, but it is very cramped there and hard to
add circuits or any other stuff... I use a PDM60 programmable circuit breaker instead
of a fuse block, here's how I installed it five or six years ago when I got it...
I disconnected and labeled all the wires for all the circuits... BigBF quad horns, Motolights, Cobra
lights and heated gear... plus I added a new circuit to run the BFGPS. I struggled to decide how
to set everything up, I wanted it to be slick and neat like some setups people have
posted here. I gave up pretty quickly on putting everything behind the side cover, that seemed
just too cramped. I really wanted to install the PDM60 like you see it here, but that would have
meant having a ton of visible wires having to somehow disappear behind the center covers,
so I gave up on that...
The casings on the cheap relays I had been using just pulled apart when I pulled the connectors
off the spades, I hope the new ones I got (for $20 each!) are better. I never mess with relays
unless I print out the Rattlebars relay picture
...
I needed a good ground bus, so I made one, it works, I hope it is good
... I plasti-dipped
it after it was assembled.
I finally gave up on not using the manual slot and tool bag area... I put the ground bus down
in the manual slot along with the two relays, and put the PDM60 in the tool area along with
my new waterproof USB receptacle... I have a 6 foot kevlar USB cable that stretches back
to the handlebars. I had to remove the PDM60 numerous times before I remembered how to
program it correctly, so my goal of having an accessible harness was met, even if it is not "neat"
like I wanted it to be. The PDM60 is not hard to program, but it needs windows, so I had to
drag out an old windows laptop and remember stuff like "what COM port is associated with
the PDM60 when it is hooked up via the USB programming cable"...
Next I moved on to the alternator... the Log Truck has 98,500 miles on it now and I've never
looked at the alternator, I feel like I'm riding on borrowed time and risking messing up a ride
if it goes out while I'm riding with a group. I ebayed this nice looking alternator from a low
mileage bike for $40 or $50 a few years ago.
Here's my old alternator. I'll send it to the MARS guy if he is still around.
Back when alternator covers quintupled in price I ebayed a good one for about $30 before
used ones went up too... my alternator cover has begun to wrinkle, so I decided it was
time to match up the nice looking alternator with a nice cover...
My theory is that flexing the cover while removing it from the metal bracket leads to
the chrome failing... my "new" cover came still on the bracket, so I haven't flexed it.
Getting the old alternator out and new one in went pretty easily. I removed the center cover
bolts so I could move it up out of the way, and moved the ground wire, tank vent tube and
coolant overflow tube out of the way and moving the alternator up and back did the trick
without much trouble.
What was REALLY hard for me was loosening the alternator from the pins in the holes where
it mounts to the engine... when I helped Stanley Steamer a few years ago, I think we
just bonked the old alternator a few time with a rubber mallet and it was loose. On mine
I resorted to banging in some wooden carpenter's wedges and progressed to a plastic
wedge before it came loose. I got the plastic wedge from a kit of plastic "car interior" tools
that people use when they take the interior lining off their car doors so they can
fix something inside the door... I'm keeping it in my tool box as a Valkyrie special
tool...
I fished a few other ebayed items out and installed them... the little holder-downers on the
smog caps are no longer available, but I got several good ones recently...
The thing your headlight mounts on if you have a Standard or a Tourer is no longer available,
but I got a good one of them recently too...
I got started putting my tins back on, but stopped after just the rear fender. It has been
95 or so (96 today) every day for the last few weeks and I'm about over it. I'll go into work
tomorrow (95 again) and finish up (I hope) on Saturday - it will only be 71 on Saturday
...
It will probably be snowing or something in two weeks for the Fall Color Ride
...
We haven't had any rain to speak of the whole month of September... prior to that, all through
the winter and all through the spring and summer, we had plenty of glorious rain, and the
most bountiful muscadine season I've EVER seen... check this out, these are wild muscadines
not those awful cultivated ones you get in the supermarket... September's lack of rain
caused all the leaves to fall off the vines...
It breaks my heart that not even I could eat that many muscadines, so tons of them are already
shriveling up and dropping to the ground
...
I hope to test out the Log Truck Saturday and find that everything works!
-Mike
