Another Bum Bean Can Sender

[montmil]

UPDATE:    So the '81 let me down Thursday afternoon as I was ready to leave work. Ran the "parking lot tests" and they all pointed to the Bean Can. Grrr...

Called Rick Jones at Motorrad Elektrik on Friday to ask for his thoughts on my unlikely and way too early bean can failure. He was as baffled as I.

He did mention the possibility of the coil's HT leads being in contact with the wire bundle that pokes up out of the top engine cover. Said the Hall sender could fail with a heavy voltage spike that just might be generated by the close proximity of the HT lead.

Saturday morning, I pulled the tank and, whoa... the left plug wire was looped and laying on the three-wire bundle from the bean can. Moved the HT lead well away from the harness. Next, I pulled the can for inspection.

Double Whoa... The three-wire harness between the can and the terminal block was smashed. It had been pinched between the front engine cover and an interior web on the timing chain case. Thin does not begin to describe the insulated wires!

Grafted in OEM wire from a small stash of bean can parts, secured everything, hooked up the battery cable and the bike fired right up.

So. I don't know if the HT lead was the issue -could have been- but I'm pretty sure the paper thin wires were broken. At any rate the Hall sensor was not failed. It was the owner's error in routing and pinching wires. Back on the road and it did not cost a red cent.

BTW, Rick mentioned he no longer offers a bean can Hall sensor replacement service. He did say he would consider directing inquiries to me. I have replaced four sensors for four different bikes in the past few months. I have a supply of the Honeywell parts. If you have need for replacement services, give me a shout.

Monte

[Bengt_Phorqs]

Bummer, Dude!  So that's where you have been.  Let me suggest you call your new service Monte-rrad Elektrik.  But eventually you're going to be out of bean can parts.  You've given me some food for thought though since I just installed the new Dyna coil on the R65 this morning.  Better go back and look at the wire routings.

Can't fire it up anyhow since I never could extract the main jet venturi from the carb body.  It was galled beyond belief and PB Blaster didn't even begin to work.  FWIW, a Easy Out tool does not work in a brass fitting.  Looks like I'm going need to set it up on a mill and mill the blasted thing out and hope that I don't ruin the carb body.

[Bob_Roller]

Monte, if you need to get more sensors, Newark Electronics sent me a 20% off voucher, ( only good for 30 days) after I purchased the 10 sensors in May of this year .

I was tempted to order more .

If you go to the Motorrad Elektrik site and check out what the sensor assembly on the oilheads is going for, it's a piece of stamped sheet metal, two sensors, and a short pigtail of wire, for about $220 each .

You could replace the sensors on those in under 30 minutes .

[montmil]

$225.00 from Motorrad Elektrik for the dual Hall sensors that fit the R1100, 1150, and 850 4- valve models. Not much help for us Airhead bean can drivers.

I previously had purchased a half dozen Honeywell's from Newark. Right at $13.69 each. Plus, I already had two new units in the shop.

Rick also mentioned that he is about to release a new product that will completely replace the Airhead OEM bean can ignition trigger unit. Alpha is the unit's name. Has a digital advance feature instead of the weights. Utilizes the very same Honeywell Hall sensor as in the bean can. Unit price will hit $300.00 with ease.

I might wait for the Beta model. I learned not to purchase a Mk1- Mod1 (alpha) model of anything. [smiley=beehive.gif]

I'm going back together with another bean can this weekend.

Monte

[Bob_Roller]

That fully electronic 'bean can' sounds like a quantum leap from the mechanical advance version, not that it's a bad piece of technology, but you can't get the parts for it anymore, without cannibalizing another unit .

Rick Jones puts out some reliable after market parts, this one should sell like the proverbial 'hot cakes' .

[drewboid]

One other route to go is to replace the bean can and the ignition module with the Omega system that is driven off the crankshaft.  Only proviso is the compatability problem if you also use the Enduralast alternator. (although it has been solved by some people)

I have the Omega unit on my R75/6 and it works as advertised. YMMV