T8's 750 Cafe Racer Project

[Chuck78]

Awesome! Glad to hear you are back at it!

What is causing your factory petcock to hit the cam cover? Mine is plenty of clearance. The Suzuki Factory petcocks are a lot more reliable than I gather some other bikes petcocks. I would definitely not want to be running manual on off petcock, as I figure I would be much more likely to forget it and let the carbs overflow. I would buy another new OEM petcock if I were worried about reliability.

Jim aka posplayr on here is the electronics guru.
Install a Polaris oem# 4012941 regulator rectifier ($50 used on ebay, don't use an aftermarket new equivalent to that part number, only oem Shindengen SH775 units under the oem# 4012941. Follow posplayr Jim's single point ground guidelines. Follow his charging system power distribution rewiring diagram with additional fuses installed. Use a standard Bosch automotive relay to power the coils and Dyna ignition. Use the orange coil power wire to splice into and extend and use as the coil relay trigger wire. Then run a new ground to the other coil trigger wire on the Bosch relay. Then a new wire from battery/power distribution point direct to relay common terminal. Then on the relay normally open terminal you run a wire to splice into the orange coil power feed wire and the Dyna. You would not believe how much voltage loss you will have at the coils with the Dyna turned on drawing power through the six or seven feet of wire and many old dirty connectors. The backside of the ignition switch (riveted wire terminals)is one of the biggest culprits. The kill switch is also in the loop. Much better engine/ignition performance after you do this.

As far as connectors, I just use some watertight bullet connectors of higher quality. Connectors that you can solder the wire into the pins and then assemble would be nicer. The ignition and headlight wiring are really the only ones that are very critical two carrying the full load of current through. They are the only ones that have a higher load and are terribly sensitive to voltage drop

[JonnyC]

Nice update!

Here's some info on what I did with the wiring, some of which can be seen here - http://www.dotheton.com/forum/index.php?topic=66251.45. Built from scratch. Wires came from a guy on Do The Ton, although it was a hodgepodge of different gauges. 110 MTW connector kit from Cycle Terminal, along with a few bullet connectors. Ratcheting wire crimper. Tesa Tape 51036 to wrap the wiring. Eastern Beaver PC-8 fuse box. Relays for power, ignition, headlight/starter. If I did it again, I would probably get the Solid State Power Box if it's still available.

If you need a bung for the tank, I have one sitting around that I didn't use. Also have a petcock, but it might not be low profile enough. I was going to go the same route as you as an alternative to the stock vacuum petcock, but decided just to pay the money for a new OEM one.

[T8erbug]

What is causing your factory petcock to hit the cam cover? Mine is plenty of clearance. The Suzuki Factory petcocks are a lot more reliable than I gather some other bikes petcocks. I would definitely not want to be running manual on off petcock, as I figure I would be much more likely to forget it and let the carbs overflow. I would buy another new OEM petcock if I were worried about reliability.

I can always count on you, Chuck! Haha thanks man. The cause on the clearance issue is that I'm using an 1982ish tank on a 1979 frame. The difference is pretty much two fold. 1-The cam covers are round on our older engines compared to the square ones on the later models. 2-This tank is longer and I also have it mounted at a slightly lower angle. It's just enough to run the stock unit I have into the cam area on the engine. I can probably take some pics tonight to give you a better idea of what's going on.

In regards to electrical I've done some reading on the Polaris regulator rectifier and it seems to be the way to go. I've talked a little to posplayr about the single point ground and he's been helpful. I'll definitely take his/your recommendations as soon as I rewire this puppy.

[T8erbug]

Nice update!

Here's some info on what I did with the wiring, some of which can be seen here - http://www.dotheton.com/forum/index.php?topic=66251.45. Built from scratch. Wires came from a guy on Do The Ton, although it was a hodgepodge of different gauges. 110 MTW connector kit from Cycle Terminal, along with a few bullet connectors. Ratcheting wire crimper. Tesa Tape 51036 to wrap the wiring. Eastern Beaver PC-8 fuse box. Relays for power, ignition, headlight/starter. If I did it again, I would probably get the Solid State Power Box if it's still available.

If you need a bung for the tank, I have one sitting around that I didn't use. Also have a petcock, but it might not be low profile enough. I was going to go the same route as you as an alternative to the stock vacuum petcock, but decided just to pay the money for a new OEM one.

Thanks for the link! Looks great! From the things I've seen lately the SSPB has been discontinued How about the Motogadget M-unit?

Send me a PM with some pics and info on the bung and petcock you have! If it will suit my needs I'll definitely take them off your hands.

[T8erbug]

Here's the petcock situation. I think I've made my decision on relocation. I'm going to weld in a bung in about 2"-3" aft the stock petcock location so I can install a Pingle unit. There's plenty of room there and I don't think it will be/look too obtrusive. I fiddled with quite a few options and I think this is the best overall for function and looks.



And upon closer inspection of the wiring job from the previous owner it turns out the sucker has done some splicage. It's got me a little worried but I think being armed with the wiring diagrams available on this forum I'll be able to figure it out and get it running again on the stock-ish harness. After that I'm thinking I'll get the M-Unit from Motogadget. It's pricey but at this point four years and all the money I've put into this project this is just a drop in the bucket. I'm just going to buy what works best for it now with less of an emphasis on affordability. It's just been so long I might as well do it once and do it right.

Here's a look at the beauty of a wiring harness the previous owner left me to figure out haha

[steve murdoch]

That harness is nasty!
I once had a headlight shell full of alligator clips for electrical connectors from a previous owner.

[mmattockx]

Here's a look at the beauty of a wiring harness the previous owner left me to figure out haha

Wow. I will never again complain about my 1100E harness that is old and crusty but still OEM (as far as I have found, anyway).

I once had a headlight shell full of alligator clips for electrical connectors from a previous owner.

Even better. The things the chainsaw carpenter types do in the name of not doing it right or saving a buck just astound me.


Mark

[JonnyC]

That Motogadget is awesome, but you're right, it is pricey. I would say go for it! For my bike, there were a lot of "drops in the bucket" that ended up filling up the bucket. I'm considering doing a wideband AFR datalogger setup to dial in the carbs, which again would be a drop in the bucket

[T8erbug]

So, I finally got around to doing the petcock relocation and conversion to 3/8" NPT style. I bought a Pingel petcock, which has a good reputation and should last the life of the bike. I lathed down the heads off a couple bolts and inserted them into the stock petcock mounting holes. I did a sort of rosette weld around those, which turned out nicely and then butt welded a new piece of sheetmetal into the stock petcock opening. The bung welds turned out ok. I just need more hours behind a torch. Anything other than a straight line or without hand support is tough. Hopefully more practice will result in improving my steadiness. Anyways, at this point I'm willing to accept it so that I can move on to taking this for a ride. All in all it turned out pretty decent.











Oh, and as for location, if you couldn't tell, I decided to put it in the stock 1979 location (above and between the carbs and rearward cam). I think it's a good spot for it and the clearance is good. If I should decide I want it somewhere else, I can always redo it later on down the road. I guess that's the beauty of metal work. I also need to give thanks to JonnyC for sending me the petcock bung. He sent it free of charge just because he had it laying around and knew I could use it. He even paid postage! What a good dude. The GS community is full of good people and I'm happy to be a part of it.

[JonnyC]

Awesome work! That welding looks good! I'd love to get a TIG, but I can barely knock out welds with my MIG.

Glad the bung could be put to use.

[blackhammer]

I've got to say the m-unit was the best thing I purchased for my build, I also bought their wiring kit and two 3 button control blocks as well. Re-wiring from scratch i found fairly easy and left things far less cluttered. I also used an SH-775 and a dyna 2000 kit with coils...no fuses or spaghetti wiring and easy to hide everything.

im really looking forward to seeing your build completed.

[ttfraz]

I've got to say the m-unit was the best thing I purchased for my build, I also bought their wiring kit and two 3 button control blocks as well. Re-wiring from scratch i found fairly easy and left things far less cluttered. I also used an SH-775 and a dyna 2000 kit with coils...no fuses or spaghetti wiring and easy to hide everything.

im really looking forward to seeing your build completed.

Glad it it worked for you. I plan on doing that this winter. I gotta redo my harness anyways

[T8erbug]

Sorry this project has hit the back burner but I've been spending pretty much all of my time with school, work, or the girlfriend. Lately, I've been working a little less because of my school schedule, but here's what I bought with some of the money I saved before I stopped working so much. It's a RogueFab tubing bender. I was hesitant to buy it right away mainly because of the aluminum dies, but after a few test bends I'm really happy with what it can do so far. I can now finish my YZ490 subframe and do a subframe for a buddy of mine. I'll be able to bend hoops too, if anyone needs one! If you guys want to see it in action let me know. I'll probably post a video in another thread. Anyways, I just wanted to show off the new toy and let you all know I'm still alive!

Here it is with some test bends on .75" tube with .045" wall (pretty thin!) and absolutely no sign of kinks or wrinkles. I'm stoked to have this bad puppy in the shop

[Chuck78]

Ya know I was looking at the roller / screw-wheel type at Harbor Freight that dies up to 2", & wondering how good if quality bends it could do in terms of fabricating headers and exhausts... This style:


But that style with the hydraulic ram and just one curved guide piece surely could do thicker tubing for frame fab work.

Then I saw this, stand has both!


As soon as I saw the wheel type 3-roller machine, I instantly thought I'd need to have one of those eventually! Any comments on that style? I wondered about the quality of bends on thin walled exhaust tubing. Automotive exhausts often have those crimped in restricted areas on every major bend, but performance exhausts often are advertised as mandrel bent.

Great to hear you are still aspiring and tinkering on bikes. Life happens though, as we all know...

[T8erbug]

Those types are generally not much good for thin walled materials like exhaust pipe for a couple reasons. The roller basically only does large radius bends, and the tube bender (just like mine) is made more for doing roll cages or tube frames. Roll cages usually don't have radius bends tighter than 3X the diameter of the tube they're bending. Exhaust pipe is not only much thinner than that stuff, it also (most of the time) requires a much tighter bend radius. A recipe for becoming the mayor of wrinkle AND kink city haha. We can have a discussion about this, Chuck. Hit me up, you've got my email haha