1967/1969 Bonnie Rebuild Desert Sled Project - Any Advice

I've never seen this. I'll have to take a look. Thanks.

 

So, I’m looking for some advice on troubleshooting a failure to start. I got my bike all put together, oiled and gassed. Went through the procedure with my carbs, no leaks but fuel tickled out. Power in the battery, etc, so as far as I knew it should kick over. It kicks over, just not getting any ignition. So advice on the best way to troubleshoot this newly re-built motor to see what the problem is. Thanks.

 

OK, thanks for the troubleshooting advice. Checked my wiring and wasn’t getting any power to the coils. I fixed that and tried again with great success. After a few kicks I got it running good enough to ride a bit and is sounds quite loud and strong. I’ll be needing to adjust the idle and then take it out to get it heated up a bit in the next day or so. Thanks for all the great help with this project. I’m sure I’ll be needing more soon as I work to get the bike running at it’s best! If I could figure out how to put a video on the site I would.

 

Ignition off but keeps running.

OK, working to diagnose my engine/electrical issue. I have the pazon electronic ignition and the podtronics POD-1P-MAX regulator, rectifier with built in capacitor. I have one wire from the positive battery terminal that is fused. This fused wire is split into 2 power wires to 2 toggles. One toggle is my ignition toggle, and this is connected to: the coils, the podtronics regulator and the brake light. The second toggle is my lights toggle: power to the headlight and the tail light. So all these power wires are through the fused main wire from the positive terminal of the battery (I wired this with negative ground).

Today I started the bike as normal, with the ignition toggle on and the bike started right up. I then switched off the ignition toggle and it kept running. I then removed the fuse from the battery power wire and it continued to run. After I shut it down (with the gearbox/clutch) I was able to start it up without the ignition toggle powered on. After waiting a few minutes I was no longer able to do this, but was able to start it again once I had the power connected.

So I thought that perhaps the podtronics/rectifier was the reason it was running without the battery connection. But now I am not sure, because once I removed the fuse and it kept running, this meant the podtronics was no longer connected to the battery. By the way, the negative terminal of the battery has 2 wires connected - one to the podtronics and one to the common ground point on the frame where I ground everything else.

So I am not sure why it keep running, but it does. So I will need a kill switch, and am wondering to what should I connect a kill switch - thanks for any feedback!

 

Thank you for the many comments and advice on my issue!

So, the issue has been resolved . . . with help from Mike Grage at The Bonneville Shop. I posed my questions to him and rather than summarize, here is what he wrote - Thanks Mike!!

I did have my red+ wire from the podtronics and my + wire to the coils on the same circuit. So even when the switch was in the off position and even when the battery was disconnected, power was still going to the coils from the regulator. I moved the red+ from the pazon to another (it’s own) circuit to the battery and all is well.

From Mike:

Hello Brian,

I had to draw out a wiring diagram to help me understand what’s going on here.

One question. Do you have the red (+) wire from the podtronics connected to the same ignition switch terminal as the coils? In other words, are they on the same side of the ignition switch? If so, that is the problem. Nothing is stopping the charging system from providing power to the coils. Moving the red wire to the other side of the ignition switch will fix it.

If that is not the case, and it continues to run with the ignition switch in the off position, the contacts inside the ignition switch are failing to open the circuit (cut power to coils). In other words it’s stuck in the on position. You can check it with a test light. With the key in the off position the test light should remain off (not even dim) when checking the terminal with the white wire.

Link for ignition switch: https://www.thebonnevilleshop.com/p...ton-bsa-pn-30608-g-31403-g-31899-s45-60-0989/

Personally, I like to make the power to the coils (white wire) run through a handlebar kill switch like the one in the link below in case the main ignition switch fails.

https://www.thebonnevilleshop.com/p...a-2-wire-kill-switch-button-pn-35835-lu35835/

Hope this helps.

Sincerely,

Mike Grage

Technical and Customer Support

 

Front brake squishy - So my rear brake is solid, but the front brake is squishy and just barely stops the front wheel when the brake lever is fully compressed. I put new shoes on the front and cleaned the drum with a wire sheet before assembling. I suppose I will be taking the wheel off to take a look in case I have assembled it improperly. I am wondering if any members have experience with this and if there is something simple I am missing. Thanks for any advice!

 

OK, I don't remember putting in shims. I see on my parts book the part W2026, "abutment pads," and these must be what you are referring to. From the part diagram it is hard to see what they look like or where they go. Are you aware of somewhere where this is more easily seen? And thanks!

 

OK, I see, I'm pretty sure I did install those, but will be taking it apart today to see what is all looks like. Thanks!

 

So I took the front brake off and here is how it looks. First off it seems like it is assembled properly as is - unless any member can find some fault that I can’t see. Any suggestions are welcome. I do see that one of the brake shoes seems to be having only about 10% contact while the other looks like about 60% contact with the drum. So, is this where I need to shave down the brake shoe high points so they will have more contact? If the brake looks assembled properly then perhaps this is the fix? Thanks for taking a look.

 

Thanks Capt. I was just doing this today and think I've ground enough off to get more contact on the shoes. Now to reassemble. By the way, do you have any advice on how to determine the correct length of the rod assembly for good braking?

 

Darkman, thanks - I was wondering how to make this adjustment.

 

I followed the advice of forum members and sanded the high spots off of the brake shoes until it looked like I had contact on most of the shoes. I then put the wheel back together and on the bike. Now I am finding what may be a contributing problem, something I wondered about when I was initially concerned about my front brake being “squishy.” It seems my brake cable - which is 47.5 inches long - is too long by about 1 to 1 1/2 inches. I am not able to adjust it to get enough pull on the brake arm. Has anyone had this problem before? I would think I should try to find another cable of shorter length rather than try to shorten it myself? Thanks for any comments!