Well, 12 months on from when Billmc was looking for an update on my first 6 months - sorry Bill, didn't see it - I have to admit that I had a bumpy start at getting the bike back on the road for about 6 months.
I knew the motor, gearbox and drive train were all good. It was the electrics that let me down and I had a 6 month tussle with them.
First, it was the regulator. I surprised myself by diagnosing and fixing this as I've admitted previously on this forum that I was away from school the day we did electricity. Can't recall the specifics but I seem to recall that I had a one pot wonder (previous thread of this title under technical area) and ended up tracking it back to the regulator, which I replaced. Then I had 2 pots firing!
The bike would then run for 10 – 15 minutes and then cough, splutter, stall, try to run again and then repeat the cough, splutter …. I suffered the indignity of having the bike strapped to the middle of the bed of a very large tow truck and delivered to my home - from about 5 blocks from home. Nearly made it. When it cooled down it would repeat the pattern.
This prompted removal of the pod filters and replacement of the original air intake as excluding this as a cause of the problem. It remains that way until today, but this had no effect.
This time I sought expert advice to find out it was the ignition module which was overheating, so it was replaced, complete with heat sink paste this time.
At some stage I also discovered that it was a mistake not to include the generator warning light on my restored bike, as it is part of the circuit that charges the battery. Don’t ask me how I found this out. I now have one reinstalled.
Then it was time for a final tune and the coil failed and was replaced. This was, I think, just another coincidence of timing.
And so, with new regulator, ignition unit and coil, it ran really, really well! It might’ve taken about 6 months to sort out, but it now goes really, really well. The final tune was done by someone who makes a living out of working on Beemers, mostly airheads and he said he took it for a 15 minutes test ride and ended up in the hills 40 minutes later and not wanting to head home.
A friend who also rides an 83 LS took it for a ride and said it was truly like riding a brand new bike. He was very impressed. It’s not a long distance rider because of the seat / pegs / bars set up, but it just deadly on the local ranges and so much fun. It’s probably a younger person’s bike and a very different package to my Harley Davidson Ultra Classic Limited!
I have not had one hint of a problem since the final tune and coil replacement and it’s an absolute joy to ride. I’ve attached a couple of my favourite photos of the bike, which incidentally show off a bit of God’s own country where we live in Far North Queensland. Since the photos, I’ve replaced the Staintune sports mufflers with a set of Emgo reverse cone mufflers. They’re loud and I may switch back, but they much better suit the look of the bike.
Cheers
