Engine test stand

[Guest]

Has anyone on here ever built a stand for doing a pre install engine check. Something where you can fire it up and run it without it being mounted in the frame. I see them advertised, but for the amount of times I will probably use it I cant see spending several hundred dollars on one. Also what is the minimum electrical needed for my 1981 650e. I would think battery, on off switch, fuel supply, coils, and ignitor. Does that sound about right?

[BigD_83]

I'm not sure what you are asking about the fuel supply. There is no electrical pump requiring power, Did you mean fuel gauge?

Are you planning on riding at night?

[Olefart64]

Sorry, didnt really make myself clear on that point. I was refering to what electrical pieces would be needed on the test stand to run an engine. (my 81' 650 engine) I want to build a run stand to start the engine outside of the frame.

[Cipher]

id buy a junk frame for same bike and pare it into a basic stand.

[Nessism]

The factory manual for your bike has an electrical section which shows what's needed for the ignition.

[uk gs nut]

I had a GS1000 running on the floor. Sitting on an old car tyre, tire. Remote fuel tank and coils etc mounted on a mount plate. No exhaust and pod filters.

[CincinnatiKid]

I had a GS1000 running on the floor. Sitting on an old car tyre, tire. Remote fuel tank and coils etc mounted on a mount plate. No exhaust and pod filters.

sounds incredibly loud

[Cipher]

I had a GS1000 running on the floor. Sitting on an old car tyre, tire. Remote fuel tank and coils etc mounted on a mount plate. No exhaust and pod filters.

What kind of mileage did you get?

[RichDesmond]

Has anyone on here ever built a stand for doing a pre install engine check. Something where you can fire it up and run it without it being mounted in the frame. I see them advertised, but for the amount of times I will probably use it I cant see spending several hundred dollars on one. Also what is the minimum electrical needed for my 1981 650e. I would think battery, on off switch, fuel supply, coils, and ignitor. Does that sound about right?

I wouldn't bother. Pulling/installing the motor, even a couple of times, would likely take less time than building the stand. Plus, if the motor doesn't start after installation, most of the time the problem is electrical or fuel related and doesn't require pulling the motor to correct.

[tom203]

Unless you have plans to put this motor in a gocart, I'd skip the stand. Running the motor with basically no load tells you very little. The fun comes later, so get to it!

[Olefart64]

Appreciate all the input, but I think im still going to go with the stand. Have had a couple of of pretty nasty bike crashes over the years and its hard to get down and twist around sometimes to get to what I need to. Even with a lift its hard to get to the vacuum ports to sync carbs, and with my glasses (bi focals) hits hard to see clearly into tight spots. Getting old aint for sissies I can tell you that!!! Any who, thanks Ness' for the manual idea. I didnt even think about that. I will post some pics as I build it just in case some one else is interested.

[Olefart64]

UK GS Nut, A car tyre with a running engine. Sounds like you one upped Grog from the old B.C. comics!!!!

[Olefart64]

Sorry sorry, it was Thor who road the wheel, not Grog!!!! Whew.....almost made a terrible mistake there..........

[salty_monk]

Should be pretty simple to build.. I built a very simple wooden stand to keep mine level whilst we worked on it. Not sure I'd have run it on there though.

You probably only need to pickup the bottom front & the rear engine mounts unless you plan to spin it over to work on the bottom etc is my thinking.
That would leave best access to the top end, carbs etc.

A junk frame would work if you could get it cheaper than the material but if you can weld it would not be difficult to make your own.
It might be quite nice to have a spare set of lower mounts you could weld/bolt to your frame, they would be the hardest to replicate I would say.

You'd want to bolt the frame to something substantial.... Interesting project.

For electrical you're going to need coils & the ignitor box for the ignition plus power (to the starter, coils & ignitor, that's about it). You can run it straight from a battery, no need to hook up the charging circuit unless you really want to.
Your bike should have an "electrical panel" beside the battery box, it should basically have everything you need on it incl the starter relay so just mount that to a board.

You may well need a scrap wiring loom, for the plug to the ignitor (or if your bike is manual advance you could run a Dyna S instead, no special plugs needed then, it basically wires up the same as the old points do.

[Cipher]

Sorry sorry, it was Thor who road the wheel, not Grog!!!! Whew.....almost made a terrible mistake there..........

Clams got legs! Funniest line in newsprint history.