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Showing results for tags 'soldering'.
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New Diodes in Stock TCI
JoeKanuck posted a topic in Venture and Venture Royale Tech Talk ('83 - '93)
Good day. I've been getting more and more paranoid about my TCI lately. I didn't even know it could be a problem until I started reading threads about it. After studying these two threads; http://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?t=40414 http://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?t=43357 ...and getting some good advice, (Special thanks to Dingy and Timgray), I decided I should look inside the damned box to see what's what. Before getting into the job, I ran the bike and checked each exhaust pipe with a temperature probe to verify that all four cylinders were firing...and, good news, they were. To get the TCI apart, there are 4 phillips screws on the back cover, and 5 on the back of the board. Now here's the tricky part about getting the board out of the box; the proper way is to desolder the 14 wires from the board which lead to the connectors. I'm ok with a soldering iron but no wizard, and that board has been banged around for 25ish years and I don't know how much more abuse it could take. So I decided to try something different. I used a hacksaw and cut the box around the connectors. It was a pretty easy job and it was no problem cutting only the box and not damaging the board. That bit worked for me. If you choose to do any of this, by the way, you do so at your own risk. Anyway, the attached pics show what I found on the inside. At least 3 diodes, (the blue and tan bulbous units), were showing signs of serious disintegration. HOLY CRAPPOLA...! That sure gave me a bit of a fright. It made me thankful I tackled this bloody awful bit of mechanicking. I refused to pull the fairing off so I yanked the battery, battery box, air cleaner and air box. I also took off the lower right side fairing. This allowed me access to the TCI. I could reach the screws but they were bloody seized. Eventually, I got the left one out. The right one wouldn't budge so I just cut the tab off the box. I wasn't planning on putting the box back in its original spot so I didn't worry about it. Dingy suggested replacing the crap diodes with 1N4001 or higher diodes, so that was my quest for Sunday. The Source, by Circuit City, (formerly Radio Shack in Canada), had an assortment pack with about 20 diodes and as it turned out 10 of them happened to be of the 1N4001 variety. Less than 6 bucks later, I was off to tackle the bike. I won't go into what a frickin' pain it was to fart around inside that bike...I will just say that the cuss words are probably still echoing around that garage. Anyway, I took my time with the desoldering and soldering...(even though it may not look like it). After replacing all 8 diodes, I checked continuity with an ohm meter. One direction would show 600 ohms and the other would show nothing...perfect. I also checked continuity further down the board to make sure my soldering job actually fused to the traces. I had a couple of traces lift while soldering so that took some extra time to resolve. All of the testing seemed to indicate all was well so it was time to try it on the bike. After plugging the TCI and the rest of the bits back on the bike...SHOWTIME...! One stab of the starter and she lit right up. Fantastic. I let it run for a while and used a temp probe to verify that all cylinders were firing...which they were. I haven't taken it on the road yet...it's 4 am and I lost the will to reassemble the rest of the bike and tuck away the TCI. After much soul searching...the TCI will probably go back in its original spot...but held there with zip ties instead of those damed screws. I plan to silicone up the frankenstein-ish scar I hacked into the box, then, once I'm sure the thing is running right, seal the thing up in a bag with some desiccant. Anyway, so far, so good. I definitely feel relieved that I went through the effort. The paranoia was getting to me. Now, I feel confident that my potential TCI worries are probably in the past. One bit of extra advice; desoldering and soldering these bits can screw up your board. The diodes cost me less than 6 bucks. It would take a good electronics tech less than a half hour to do this job...an hour if he's drunk. If you aren't totally confident in your soldering abilities, take the job to a tech. It'll save you from screwing up an otherwise good TCI. Ok...it's 5am...I'll take the thing out on the road tomorrow, see how it runs and report back. -
We have all had times when we were afraid of our bike for one reason or another. Close call on a ride, a project we have never taken on before, or just being out there in a difficult situation far from home. But the tables have turned for me ...... I think the bike is a bit nervous if not down right frightened of what I might do to it next. I think taking it's nuts off the handlebars last week may have been more than it could deal with. Since last season I've been fighting a glitch in the CLASS controller. Not just one ... but three of them. Been through the solder fixes and cleaning up the connections all the way back to the compressor, chasing power and on every one of them I'd get an error code, or a couple different ones everytime. Sometimes it would run for a few second then error out or sometime get nothing at all. I'd change one out for another controller and start with different codes or failures. Never really bothered me as I had good pressure on the shock when it all started but every time I would try to run the controller I would lose a pound or two. Over time, it was getting lower and with my big ham bone parked on it I was feeling the effect when it got down to 35 lbs pressure. It was time...... I had bought the fittings to do the schrader valve mod to be done and stop fretting over it. Time to get my smooth ride back. Not something I wanted to do but ya know.... sometimes ya got to do it. So I had the bike on the lift, I got the work bench folded down from the wall and laid out the needed tools and parts. I laid out the teflon tape and fittings for the schrader fix. The cutters I needed and all the sharp tools handy. I plugged in the soldering pencil for the one last shot and final attempt at saving the CLASS. I felt I was being watched. I looked around and it was just me and the bike. Just us and the cutting tools and that smoking soldering pencil. I stuck the key in the switch to check one more time for a reading. It just shot me one more defiant look and flashed "35". Popped the release for the housing and lifted it out. As I pulled it up I brushed my finger against the button and the bike started to vibrate. I waited for it to code out but it kept going. The display showed 40, then 50 then 60 and stopped at 71. I stood there waiting for something, anything else to happen. I pressed the lower button and the pressure smoothly dropped to the bottom. I ground my teeth and closed Imy eyes and pressed the button to raise the pressure again. I could feel the bike vibrate and it stopped again. When I looked it was back at 71 lbs again. I could almost feel the submission. I had scared the bike to my will. I was the Alpha! So I celebrated with a ride. Been riding for two day now and made pressure adjustments at every stop I'd make. It's working flawlessly just like the old days. Enjoying the ride again on these danged Nebraska roads. So for now I'm going to keep the soldering pen in the saddlegbag and those nuts I took off.... On a chain around the handlebars. Just a reminder of who is in charge. How else can I explain it? The Gremlins did it? NAH.... nobody would belive that! Mike
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Hey gang, the one's that have already installed the Buckeye HO Stator,. what did you do as far as where you clipped the connector and did you do all the soldering in that tight spot? Or is there a way to re-route it so there is more room to work on the splice? I also now have about 60 pics of my taking apart the stator and also removing the rectifer/regulator as I will be adding the new up-dated after market one that I will be getting from SkyDoc. If you guys are interested I will do the write-up with LOTS of pics. I think the hardest part of this whole project so far is getting the stator bolts loose and removeing the gasket material. As I have seen in a photo from the other site it looks as though the soldering is done up high , but I can not figure out how to get this wire/plug up there a bit. [ATTACH]64092[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]64093[/ATTACH] So this part is done, all I need now is my new parts !!
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Doing a search on the forum for "Soldering" provided a lot of very good tutorials, tips and links to articles on how to solder...and how to fix the E4 error, which my 88 is experiencing All the tutorials speak of a soldering IRON. I remember my Dad had one, a big clunky beast about 10" long with a shaft about 1/2" diameter. I'm sure they come smaller but what I'm wondering is there any reason why I can't use a soldering GUN? Is there a quality issue here or some other reason everybody refers to an "Iron" and never a "GUN"? Are they one and the same as far as soldering is concerned? Am I over complicating things or is there something here I don't understand? Also, a lot of emphasis is placed on having CLEAN connectors to solder. If you have a solder joint that is bad (you can see the ring around the post) how are you supposed to clean it well enough to solder? The corrosion is probably inside the solder dome!
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My headset cord is bad, the cord that is on the gas tank. How do you and how hard is it to change or maybe have a new end put on by soldering?? I see that I can get a used one at Pinwall. Any help will be appreciated. thanks , maddog:fingers-crossed-emo
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As I prepare for my electrical work on the bike (Relays, ignition bypass) I was trying to find some way to tap into the 10 gauge ignition wiring but no one around here seems to have a useful connector and I can't really afford a 150 W to 200 W soldering gun. So, as I perused the soldering / welding section of our nearby Canadian Tire store, I ran across a mini butane torch called the Iroda Micro-Jet on sale for $7.99 and claiming to put out a 2,400 F. flame. I bought one and used it to solder two 10 gauge wires together and it seems to have done a great job. It only took a few seconds to heat up the wires enough for the solder to start flowing. Now...a warning here...this is a flame - a small one - but a flame none the less and a hot one at that. It will quickly melt or set fire to many materials so you have to be extremely careful where and how you use it. Still, I can see it being handy for soldering jobs that are "in the open". As well, I noticed that there was a "fire preventing" gel for sale in the same department. It's used to coat material near where a flame is being used to avoid damaging the material. I think I'll buy some and do some experimenting...this could prove to be useful. And another nice thing...the fuel cell for the torch is a standard disposable lighter...available everywhere for peanuts. The packaging states that a lighter is good for about twenty minutes of use. You can even adjust the temperature (To a certain extent) by using the adjustment switch on the lighter. Say, I wonder how well it works for starting camp fires?
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Some of the buttons on my radio were getting little flaky. Also I was having trouble manually tuning the radio. I did some searching here and found that the buttons were pretty easy to get to. I ordered a bunch of buttons on line. They were only a few cents a piece. Taking the radio apart was a breeze and soldering in the new buttons was just as easy. Replacing all of the buttons took less than an hour. The problem was that the manual tuning and memory buttons still didn't work. I found that by tapping the handlebar mounted module, the manual tuning buttons on the radio would work. The radio scan button was gunked and worn out. I took the module apart and replaced the scan button as well as the CB tuning buttons. Nothing to it and now everything works like new! -
The difficulty separating the plugs was overcome by using WD40 and all the CMU wire connectors looked good but I sprayed them with electrical cleaner anyway. I now have the LCD display out of the CMU. Could a blown fuse be the cause of no LCD display? The warning light is the only thing that lights up when the ignition is on. Looked at this thread on the CMU removal and soldering on a MK1: http://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?t=33328 Hopefully it is the same as doing it on a MK2. Is it the strips indicated that need to be soldered or the connections (bumps)?
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Removed the fairing, (easy) and cleaned the audio plug with pin cleaner....if it happens again, what is the harm in doing away with the plug and soldering the wires together...seems like a permanent solution?..... -
There have been many times here where somebody has had questions about the proper way to re-solder the class controller on the first gen or other soldering jobs. I ran across this pretty good page on how to properly re-solder connections on circuit boards. Hopefully it will help some of our members who have not done much soldering. http://www.streettech.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Reviews&file=index&req=showcontent&id=68
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Hi To All, When I purchased my 87' VR at the beginning of this year I was not new to the First Gen. VR but now that this bike is 21 years old I have had to dig into her a lot deeper than I had on my other VR. While changing out the old battery the dreded "Battery Fluid Low" sensor fell apart in my hands. After crying the blues on this site, danob11 sent me his old one for free! Well now I had a part but being a Machinist by trade electrical issues are like Greek to me. A short time after that I received an invite from a small group of riders from this site that live in my area, so after traveling about 50 miles from my house my Fusebox fell apart at 55 mph. My brother came with the trailer and drug me home and I missed the ride. After some paperclips and crazyglue I again started out for West Virginia to make it to the WV Skid-In, this time with the bike fully loaded and with Jean on the back. We didn't even make it out of the state of Pa. and again the fusebox crapped out! I whinned on this site again:fiddle:, and Lonestarmedic sent me pics of his fusebox replacement, answered all of my questions and assured me that even though I am all thumbs with wire, I could do this! I bought a soldering gun, a new fusebox, a s***load of wire, and over the weekend of the 4th installed the battery sensor and the new fusebox. I only burned myself about 50 times, and I also found out that a soldering iron lights my cigars really well, but doesn't work for soldering after that without a good cleaning! So many problems went away after the new fusebox install, from poor charging to excessive amp draw when the brake lights were used to just flat not running! My most humble apologies to the riders I stiffed on my first outing and to Skid and his wife for not making it to the Skid-in. I also owe an apology to my wife Jean for dragging her to Bedford, Pa. and making her push me on the VR! Thank you once more for the help and friendship on this site, As I have gotten older I have found it harder to accept help from other people but the people on the VR.org site have softened my heart and I just wanted to say so. I posted a few pics of the new fuse box, If anyone has any questions about where I got the parts or is struggling like I was, or needs some brackets made, Please just ask! I feel I need to "Pay it Forward" for the kindness you all have shared with me. Ride Safe, Earl
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