There´s a "spark" of life....

In the previous post I said a couple of days more in the garage would have the electrical system finished and possibly spark on the plugs... Well, that is kind of true but it involved a weekend of puzzlement and deep pondering over electrical circuits in general and this ignition system in particular. Nothing comes easy on this restoration. Part due to the nature of the work and part due to personal shortcomings. Here´s the story:

I really don´t like doing electrics and ignition systems. I suck at it, big time.

So, better start out easy and try to find out which breaker point serves which cylinder. 

There are three of them, of course. Red, White and Brown leads from the points that connects to the respective ignition coil up at the steering head.

Rotating the engine in its direction of rotation reveals the firing order when looking down at the top of each piston through the spark plug hole.

The direction of rotation is easily found by putting the engine in gear and slightly rolling the rear wheel in the correct direction and observing how the engine turns at the ignition timing plate.

Counter clock wise.

When one of the pistons reaches its TDC (Top Dead Center) you simply look at the timing plate and find out which breaker point is about to, or just opened. 

OK, the Red lead was for the Left cylinder, the Brown one for the Center and the White for the Right one.

First step was simply completed when the leads were connected to its respective coil.

Since the coils are all NOS I figured I could keep the brown supply lines intact on the coils and just replace the color coded ones with my breaker point leads. Easy enough!

Next was getting the timing correct. The manual says 3,45 mm Before TDC or 25 degrees of rotation. I don´t have any tuning protractor but I do have a TDC measuring tool.

This device is screwed into the spark plug hole and easily finds the exact TDC and also 3,45 mm BTDC. 

Here´s how you do it. 

Unscrew the measuring tool at least 3,45 mm (there´s a micrometer scale on it), find TDC by rotation the engine back and forth just around the TDC and fasten the pin of the tool exactly at TDC.

Turn the engine far enough backwards, turn the micrometer scale back in exactly 3,45 mm into the tool and keep it there.

Now, rotate the engine slowly, in the direction of rotation until the piston hits the measuring tool. This is the point (3,45 mm BTDC) the breaker point is supposed to start opening, IE the spark plug sparks!

It is also the point where you set the ignition timing index. On the left here this is done and as you can see it aligns pretty good with the Left cylinder index. That is excellent since I had the tool in the left cylinder. This was one of the things that had me worried using H1B components. Luckily I managed to find the correct ignition cam and the correct timing cam plate for the H1R. Otherwise this could have been more of a nightmare than it was.

This is where I had made the first mistake. I had previously adjusted the breaker points so the cams were resting on the rotating ignition cam. 

Wrong. 

That made the timing impossible to get right. The opening of the points were way too big and that also threw the timing out the window.

I had to start with the breaker point opening....

0,3-0,4 mm. That meant I had to rotate the engine and set each point so the maximum opening ended up at, or close to, the 0,35 mm I was aiming for.

With that adjustment done I was able to correctly time the left cylinder by turning the complete ignition plate so the breaker points start to open exactly when the left piston hits 3,45 mm Before Top Dead Center. 

A nice gimmick to get this absolutely right is to have an old transistor radio in the garage playing. When the points open and the current flows through the coil there is a distinctive sound over the radio, at least if your ignition system isn´t shielded for radio interference. And I´m pretty sure this system is not.

In this case I started in the wrong end and had no electrical wiring at all so no current on the coils. Maybe next time.

The timing of the Center and Right cylinder is made in a similar way, only now you don´t need the TDC-tool. You merely use the index, align the next cylinder and adjust the points to open exactly when the index hits then pointer. The Center and Right breaker points are individually adjusted via their mounting plates on the timing plate.

To make sure Ebbe got the crank perfectly mounted with 120 degrees separation between the cylinders I checked the 3,45 mm BTDC on the Center and Right cylinders as well. Better safe than sorry!

In order to get this 100% correct it is a good idea to do a dynamic check using an ignition timing stroboscope when the engine is running. Maybe later...

No spark without electrical wiring. Next was getting the components connected and wiring drawn.

I have had some bad experiences with poor ground messing things up trying to start several bikes over the years. Better do it right this time. 

The rectifier (on the right in the picture) is supposed to be grounded at the mounting point. I couldn´t be sure the front cowling stay (the "spear") was grounded good enough through the mounting bolts. Paint can be a pain when it comes to grounding components. 

The regulator, on the left in the picture, doesn´t need to be grounded so no need for any extra wires there.

So, I made an extra ground wire to be sure. This is the "spear" mounting screw with the new ground wire connected to it. In the last picture you could see the other end on top of the rectifier.

In this picture we can see the ignition coil and the fastener for the high tension cord. On H2:s the high tension cords are built-in with the coils, but here they are replaceable. I do have a plan for what kind of cords to use. We´ll talk about that later on.

Connecting the components here was actually quite easy. Color coding worked to 90% and the last 10% was easily found out via the wiring diagram in the manual.

The Brown one from the regulator and the Red one from the rectifier shall both be connected to the Ignition switch. The rectifier, Red one, hot wired to the battery and the regulator, Brown one, over the ignition switch. 

Three Brown wires from the ignition coils together with the Brown one from the regulator to the switched side of the ignition switch.

It took some figuring out how to do this the best way. I though I had some nice three-way-bullet-connectors in stock, but no, I did not. Better get creative, then...

If you have the correct parts and tools, making wiring is actually quite a bit of fun, once you have figured out how to connect the parts smartest.

On the left here is the female connector crimped to the wire. These "bullet" connectors are used on all Japanese bikes and are readily available at many venues over the internet.

Next is the shrink tubing. This seals the connector from the elements and keeps water and dirt off the crimped part.

Finally the protective transparent rubber cover is attached and the connection is done!

Easy peasy.

Since I didn´t have any three-way connectors I fixed it another way. Two wires in to one bullet connector. Not optimal, but it´ll work out fine.

That looks good enough for me. The objective here was simply to get current from the ignition switch to the coils and regulator. Done!

That completes the switched side of the circuit. A bit of shrink tubing and another bullet connector slightly modified to fit the ignition switch and it was time to move on to the unswitched side of the system.

That was easily done. I merely had to pull a wire from the battery to the switch and connect another lead to the "hot wired" rectifier. 

Electrical system connected and built. Will I ever dare to connect a battery and flip the switch? That, my friends, is a completely different ballgame....

I mentioned the high tension cords earlier. My plan was to use the ones supplied with the H1B coils. They are NOS, they are Kawasaki original spec products and I believed they would fit. They also have these nice "L", "R" and "C" labels on them. Seems like a nice touch. The only problem was that one of them, the "C" one was way too short. 

On the H1B the coils are all mounted under the tank and the center coil is fastened right above the center spark plug. On the H1R the center coil is mounted far up front on the "spear". I had to use another cord temporarily. In the meantime eBay was consulted and a brand new H1B/A7/A1 high tension cord was located  and bought from Wisconsin, USA.

At this point I had been working on the bike a full day doing lots of other stuff as well, but I couldn´t resist testing the electrical system and check for spark. In retrospect I should have waited and thought things through a bit more...

Connecting the system to a battery was easy enough. A well charged Z1 battery would most certainly do. 

These flimsy "jumper cables" will be fine. There´s no starter here that needs a big amp output so this will work.

And the connections at the battery box. Better check carefully that the plus terminal doesn´t come in contact with the frame or the negative terminal. We don´t want any short circuits here!

Really nervous when I pushed the switch in to switch the ignition "ON". Would it blow the fuse, start a fire somewhere? 
No, nothing happened, and that´s good! Now, A gentle spin on the rear wheel... Nothing.

No spark, no sound, no nothing! 

GAH!! I knew this would happen... Well, I pulled the switch out and for some reason tried spinning the rear wheel. Sparks on all three! What??

I measured and checked everything over and over and came to the conclusion that I did have spark on the system when the ignition switch was turned off and there was no current on the coils...

I was tired, it was the last night before going off to work so I decided to leave it right there. I needed time to think this through and look carefully at the electrical wiring systems for the H1R and the H1B. 

OK, happy to have spark? You bet! But why when the switch was off....?? I had some thinking to do during the weekend I was off working.

I have the H1R wiring diagram in my iPad and brought that to work to think things over. How hard can it be? 

I had done all connections according the schematic and still that strange phenomena. 
Could it be something different with the H1B coils versus the H1R:s? 

It is simple enough to see that the coils need current on the positive terminal through the ignition switch. How does it look on the H1B diagram?

More or less identical diagrams apart from the fact that the street bikes have lots of other things going on in the system, like lights, more complicated ignition switch, turn signals and brake lights etc, etc... But the similarities concerning the regulator, rectifier and the current to the coils are very real. Looking at these schematics throughout that weekend was driving me more or less crazy.

Finally I realized I must have gotten it all wrong there, that late night, being tired and over enthusiastic having completed the electric system. 

The first thing I did after returning from work was hitting the garage and checking the ignition switch...

Yeah, You guessed it. The switch is "ON" when pulled out and "OFF" pushed in. 

In my deranged state of mind that late evening I made many mistakes including the wonderful achievement to get a simple voltage check over a circuit breaker all wrong ending up spending a full weekend thinking over something that was correct all the time. Thankfully I didn´t do something stupid, just left it on the lift and went to work... 

A few days later the long high tension cord arrived and I could replace the temporary one with a more original looking cord. 

Seen here on the right with the "C" label waiting to be attached. Those NGK spark plug caps will have to do for now. The original H1R (21130-015) are, of course, impossible to find. I do have a plan for something more stock looking, though.

Now that the wiring was all done it was time to put the wiring loom in place on the frame. As I said earlier, the loom is rather long and I had to make a loop of it as it exits the ignition cover. My plan was to pull it up under the carburetor, over the chain cover and then up towards the steering head. Not good.

It had to be like this in the picture on the left. Looking at old pictures and photos of other H1R:s around the world I found that this is the way they are mounted. You can also see the black lead on the frame tube going to the battery.

I had a couple of options regarding fastening the wire loom to the frame. I had some stock wire loom bands used on the H2:s and the older rubber type used on the A1/A7:s and real early H1:s. None of them looked right. In old pics it looks like it is simply taped with electric tape to the frame. Easy enough, but I couldn´t have it that way. 

The solution? Vulcanizing tape! 

A wonderful product I have used on many occasions through the years. It looks like simple electric tape but forms a solid rubber tube when stretched about 50% and then applied in as many layers  you need. It is even possible to fabricate O-rings with this stuff. I think its main purpose is repairing cooling tubes on automotive applications etc. 

I replaced the electric tape on the loom exiting through the ignition cover. Much tighter and a better seal than the ordinary tape.

To the right here I´m making the rubber fasteners for the loom. The loom sits on the inside of the tubing and 4-5 turns with the vulc tape stretched to approx 50% got it done!

I think it looks very genuine and a bit like that flimsy electric tape from the old days. I feel a lot better about this method though. It won´t come off easily!

I think I´ll replace also the H2 bands holding the battery lead. I´ll fix that later on.

What else needs fixing?

The front brake... I never adjusted it properly, merely put it together.

I was planning to safe-wire these screws holding the front brake torque arm to the brake plate. Janne had some nice lock washers handy so why not? Lets try them on.

As you can see they needed some adjustment also. Tab too wide and hole too small. I think they are original on the Yamaha TZ:s and they obviously use 8mm screws and Kawasaki 10mm. 

Well, not too difficult modification to do. Cutting the tab and filing the hole up a bit. The drilled hole in the screw head tells it used to be safe-wired before. For now, I´ll go with this solution. I think it looks better than the wire.

Finished! Except for the final bending of the washer to the screw head. Well, you know by now, I always do everything at least two times... Better leave that to the very end of the build when all is done and tested.

Adjusting the front brake is done in a couple of different steps. The idea here is to have both brake linings on each side touch the drum simultaneously. Each lining on each side is moved by one brake lever on the brake panel. They are connected with an adjustable rod. The method is simple enough.

Adjust the connecting rod as short as possible to make sure the rear brake lining doesn´t touch the drum when the large lever is pulled by the brake handle up on the handle bar. 

On the left here I have adjusted the connecting rod. notice the difference in angle between the large and the small lever. It is quite clear that the rear (small) lever will not move the lining towards the drum before the large one.

The next steps require the possibility to rotate the wheel freely. Ok, I´ll have to fix that first!

Tricky one... I couldn´t use a jack under the engine since I already had the exhaust on (see my point about always doing things at least two times....!!) 

I ended up putting a large hook up on the ceiling. Thankfully I had noted where I have the beams under the drywall ceiling...

A perfect fit right above the steering head. A ratchet tie-down and up the front end went!

Here it is hanging from the ceiling and resting on the stand on the foot pegs. Worked like a charm!

I must share this video of the front wheel spinning freely...

Imagine it is a 50 year old wheel. I think it spins very nice. The slight wobble seen on the tire is probably due to the tire being empty. I´ll check up on that later when I´ve filled it up.

The adjustment starts with the large lever on the plate, the one actuated via the brake cable. I started out with unscrewing  the brake cable adjuster until the front brake ling started touching the drum. Then backed of until the wheel could spin freely again.

Next was the small lever (rear brake lining).

Wile slowly spinning the wheel you adjust the connecting rod until the rear ling touches the drum. In this position the rear lining will hit the drum first. Not good. Back it off until the wheel turns freely again.

Now you are close!

The final test is to pull the brake lever on the handle bar and check that both linings touch at the same time. This is done by carefully adjusting the connecting rod until the free play is gone on the rear (small) lever. It sounds complicated but it is rather straight forward when you think about it.

When your done on both sides, the slack in the brake cable won´t be too big and hopefully the adjuster up at the brake lever will be able to take it out with a margin to spare for adjusting the brake during riding with fading brakes.. 

Time to get cracking with this friend again!

There are lots of fasteners to safe-wire on the front end of the bike.

I feel comfortable doing some of them now. Some I will save for later, until I´m positively certain that particular fastener will not have to be loosened again. 

The rear (small) brake lever on the left hand side brake plate.

The large one, front left brake ling lever. Not perfect, but it´ll do...

The left brake cable attachment to the adjuster on the brake plate.

The steering head nut and screws. I´m kind of proud of this one... Three fasteners with one piece of wire. Ok, I know, it should have been tighter, but it´ll do for now!

And the top triple tree pinch bolt. This was the last one this evening. I need more wire!

It is "Bloody business" restoring old racing bikes...

I managed to hit my forehead on the rectifier bustling up and down adjusting the front brake and safety-wiring the front end. I didn´t notice it when it happened so this was a nice surprise when I looked in the mirror! 

And that selfie, my friends, will be the end of this post. See you all next time! 

Hopefully the aluminium tank is getting done soon at Alucars and maybe I can borrow Janne´s pit starter. Yeah, soon time for the first start attempt....

Stay safe and keep the front rubber on  the asphalt.

Spring is finally here!

/Per

Cables, Carb sync, starting out with the electrical system and other small items.

Getting that restored exhaust system back on the bike sure felt good. It also gave me a boost to continue with the other stuff needing attention. I have had the cables (throttle and choke) laying beneath the bike on the lift ready for mounting for a while and now was the time to get it done. 

Once the cables are on and working I will be also be able to get the grips on and, sort of, get the "cockpit" more or less ready for starting up. 

Putting cables on also means adjusting their function and making sure everything works as it was once intended. Let´s start with the choke cable.

I had stored the choke cable complete with the plungers and springs on at the lower ends

The first thing to worry about was the routing of the cable. Part in relation to the frame parts and part in relation to other cables on the bike or cables coming on later. 

Once that was figured out it was more a matter of fettling in cramped spaces getting the plunger housings correctly aligned and screwed in to the carbs.

When all three were in place in their respective carb body I greased the choke lever and its housing up at the handle bar.

On the right here the parts are ready to smack back together. The cable is fitted to the moving part and the sheath is in position at the housing, top of the picture.

 On the left is a still leben picture of the tool tray while working with the cables... 

It feels like a miracle every time I think about what I´m doing here and what I´m actually working on. 

I think "surreal"is the best word that comes to mind.

Now that the cables were fixed at both ends it was time to adjust it for proper functionality.

The choke plungers enrich the mixture of gas given to the engine when lifted from the bottom of their position in their seats. The more you lift the plungers, the richer the mixture. That´s the reason why they should lift quite simultaneously when pulling the lever.

The easiest way to to that is to adjust the adjusters so the lift of each choke plunger is approximately the same when the lever is pulled.

Here´s one way to start. Screw the adjusters out a similar amount and measure the approximate length screwed out to be equal, or close to, on all three adjusters. That is a good starting point. 

The fine tuning is done by measuring the exact free play on the cable by lifting the cable sheath from the adjusters. The chokes aren´t that sensitive, but if you are thorough here, you won´t have any issues with idling on a could engine later on.

 Normally there´s also an adjuster up at the lever where you can fine tune the tension of the cable for all three plungers at one point.

No such thing here on the racer. I guess they figured you would warm up the engine in the pit and then never use the choke during racing. That means there´s quite a large slack at the lever and I guess I´ll have to live with it or shorten the cable some. 

Nah, won´t happen....

One of the good moments...

Putting the left hand rubber grip back on the handle bar! The very same grip I carefully removed close to three years ago.

The left side is now done. Working clutch lever, choke lever and the grip in place. Nice.

This is one of the best pictures so far, I think. You can see it is getting more and more complete.

Ok, Lets move on to the throttle cable.

A little more issues here with the routing of the cable assembly. I tried a few different routings and ended up moving the tacho cable above the frame pipe for spacing of the throttle and choke cables. 

I´m not sure it´ll stay there for good, but for now it gives me more space for the other cables. I checked the thickness of the cable versus the rubber blocks and it is OK. The blocks are thicker than the cable so it will not be pinched by the tank.

When the routing had been decided (for the first time, there might be two or three more times, later on...) I double checked the position of the jet needles. 

3rd position, the middle one, is a good starting point for later adjustments. 

That small circlip keeps the needle in place in relation to the throttle slide and determines how much fuel is sucked up through the needle jet valve at part throttle opening. Intricate but ingenious!

Here´s another smart solution. This small, strangely shaped, washer locks the throttle cable in place inside the throttle slide. You can see how it blocks the way out for the cable

The hole in the middle of the washer lets the jet needle protrude upwards. The little circlip in the last picture is located below the washer and thus holds the needle in place and at he correct height. Smart.

 The last part before putting the slide back into the carb is getting everything on to the throttle cable in the correct sequence.

First the carb body lid, then the carb body lid rubber gasket, the throttle spring and finally the slide assy with the needle in place. Tricky but fun!

Now that the throttle cable was routed through the frame and connected to the throttle slides down at the carbs it was time to get the throttle grip ready and greased.

First a check in the parts manual that I have all the parts needed. No lock washers below the pan head screws. Interesting, but that´s the way its gonna be...

Ball bearing grease, or normal universal grease, works fine. Take what you have handy. The throttle tube slides over the handle bar surface and a light coat of grease makes the action smoother and better. We want it to feel like new, right?

These parts were easy to install. Plenty of slack at the cable end. Here on the left the throttle cable has been mounted in the lower part of the throttle grip housing.

The throttle grip tube in place, greased and lubricated.

On street bikes this can be a pain, but here the handle bars aren´t that wide so the throttle cable is long enough to allow the grip assy to be slid on to the handle bar without removing the cable again. 

As I´ve said before, I usually do everything at least twice!

The next step was simple enough. Put the top part of the housing in place and tighten the screws. Check for cable clearance around the steering neck and also that the brake lever can move freely all the way in towards the throttle grip housing. 

All cables installed. The routing of the tacho cable above the frame tube might be changed later on, I have not decided yet. We´ll see when the tank arrives.

On the left here I was checking the cable routing when turning the handle bar full right and left. 

I might have to fasten the cables in a better way than just letting them sit loose and slide here and there.

The video below shows my simple technique using spoons to sync the carburetors. The left carb in the video (the right on the bike) seems to be reacting first when I pull the throttle grip. In this case you need to make sure all the cables are correctly seated and at the bottom of each adjuster...

Here´s the problem clearly visible...

Too much slack in the cables can make the sheath hook outside the adjusters in an unwanted way. Come to think about it, that is why those small black rubber covers are there. They keep the cable in place inside the adjuster. Mine are a bit cracked and broken so either I will try to find new ones or I´ll just have to safe-tie them, 

If I pushed the splitter housing of the throttle cable a bit backwards I forced the cables in to the adjusters and the synchronizing is totally different. This is the way they are supposed to fit so this is where I started adjusting the cables. A large clamp held the splitter housing in place while I adjusted the carbs.

That sure looks a lot better, doesn´t it? The trick with the spoons works great and I use it all the time when working on street triples for the initial, static, sync of carbs. Later on when the engine is running it is a lot easier to use a vacuum instrument for fine tuning but, the thing is, most often I don´t have to change things at all from this basic adjustment.

Another difference on the race bike is the lack of an idle adjuster on the carbs... The street bikes all have some kind of idle adjustment possibility, either by a screw that lifts the throttle slides from the bottom of the carb bodies or a screw that lifts them from above, located in the carb lids, just beside the throttle cable adjusters. The H2:s have a screw on each carb body next to the fuel inlet and the H1:s use the adjusters from above. the function is more or less the same, just different ways to go about it.

It seems very obvious that idling is not the most important thing here. Once you get this beast started the rider is on the bike and can keep the engine running by simply keeping the slides lifted enough through the throttle grip. OR, you can adjust the slack of the cable short enough at the common adjuster up at the handle bar.

The short video above shows the action of the carbs so far. I believe this synchronization will be good enough for the first start of the engine. 

I´m planning for a tour around the small Island I live on, here in Stockholm, after that first start up... We´ll see how the neighbours will react when "Esso´s" old bike rumbles through the streets. That will be something to remember! Not too far away in time, either...

On the right here is a picture of the air intake of the middle carb. No air filter. You can also see the small black rubber protectors that will go back on the throttle cable adjusters later on. As I said, mine are not very good so I´ll try and find new ones.

And there it was! The last of the exhaust retaining springs... I found it looking for electrical parts for the next project on the bike.

The Electrical system.

I had a number of battery trays made a couple of years ago, remember? Now it was time to get one of them out and preparing it for the building of the electrical system. I had a couple of old, dry charged, batteries in stock and one of them was put in to service as a mock-up here.

If I remember correctly the most common type of H2 batteries look this way with the vent house on the left side together with the positive terminal and the negative one on the right. This is what I would prefer later on when I´m going to buy a new battery for the bike. 

The search for the electrical parts also revealed a couple of rubber parts I had missed/forgot about.

On the left here is the gear change rubber in place on the gear lever.

Fits like a charm!

And here is the brake lever rubber grip, complete with the 6x12mm pan head screw that holds it in place. It is coming together now...

I found two very good looking ground wires in one of the boxes and figured I could use them as a start on the wiring.

I´ve seen in numerous pictures from the racing pits that the engine also was grounded to the frame and battery terminal. Good ground is a vital part of any electrical wiring. I made it easy for myself and routed one from the engine to the battery terminal and one from the engine to the frame, at the muffler bracket to be exact. That´ll do for starters..

There´s only one, small fuse in the electric wiring on the bike and it sits right at the battery plus terminal. this is a NOS unit from eBay. The exact correct part number. Worth its weight in gold...

I didn´t like putting another connector between the fuse and the battery terminal so I cut off the connector on the longest piece of cable going out from the fuse box. 

A cheap aftermarket connector was stripped of its ugly, blue insulation, and fitted to the wire with a piece of shrink tubing behind it.

If you use the correct tool, there´s no need to solder these connectors. They clamp extremely hard when used correctly.

This will look exactly like an original connector when I´m done with it.

The final touch was made by the heat gun. The heat shrinks the tubing and makes a weather resistant, good looking insulation of the connector. Like it was built that way in the first place!

This is the first trial fitment of the battery to the frame. Remember I had none of these parts and thus NO idea what it would look like or how it would attach to the frame. Simple enough. The battery tray hangs in the rubber bands that go over the frame tube! If you look closely underneath the battery you can see a small spring there...

In the parts book that part number is the same as the springs that holds the exhaust pipes to the cylinders. Now, I only had six of them... But I found my stash of rear brake light switch springs, H2.

Would I be able to use one of these?

The nice thing with these spring are the length of the lower par of the spring. That part could be extended and made to fit this purpose perfectly. 

On the right here is what it looks like from the other side, through the frame. That works for me! It is even a Kawasaki part. Couldn´t be better. Later on I´ll just clamp it better to the battery tray. The long part of the spring is just perfect for holding it to the frame at that large hole. Another small victory.

The top view of the battery tray hanging on the frame tubes. It´s quite clear they didn´t know how to solve this problem with the battery when they designed the electrical system.

Maybe they had plans for the CDI ignition introduced on the H1R-A the coming year but changed their minds ending up with a battery that needed mounting to the bike. Who knows? 

The H1R-A 1971 doesn´t have any battery....

Another one of my major concerns done! I really like that battery tray and all the parts around it. Turned out great.

My next session in the garage will be wiring and ignition. On the left here is a great starting point for that work. 

The battery box with the rubber bands holding it to the frame, the NOS fuse box with a nice, standard bullet connector for starting the wiring and that ground wire connecting the battery to the frame and the engine. I´m pleased so far.

On the right here you can see the two ground wires from the frame to the engine and further on to the battery.

You can also see how tight the fit is for the battery tray in the frame. Not much clearance between the rear fender locking nuts and the frame tube on the right. Tight, but not touching!

The last picture in this post. the status of the bike right now.

Carbs and throttle cable in place and synchronized, choke cable mounted and adjusted, the battery hanging solution figured out and the electrical system and wiring started. A couple of days more in the garage and I´ll be ready to adjust timing, ignition and checking for those precious sparks...

I need to figure out how to turn the engine fast enough for those checks without owning a pit starter. That´s a problem I need to address as well. Does anyone out there have a good tip on who makes and sells them? I´ll need one soon!

Thanks for reading and see you all soon!

/Per