It spins!

It has been a real long time since I have posted anything I've just been super busy with school and the project getting everything wrapped up so that I can graduate. The video should speak for itself on where the project is. I just need to attach the chain. I was going to go for a test ride the other night but in the mess that my garage has become I lost the master link and was not able to put the chain on but once that store opens on Monday I'll be getting a new link and going for a spin!

On a side note, I did have to fix another mistake of the !@#$! that I got the bike from. He totally destroyed the rear brakes! He wore through the pad, the metal plate that holds the pad, and had begun to melt the piston itself! I just don't know about some people. Here are a few pics so you can see for yourself.

It's a little hard to see but I still can't believe it happened. I also had to helicoil the swing arm for the chain adjuster bolts. The threads were totally non-existent, I don't know who it was even staying together.

Everything is finally starting to come together, I have run into a lot of problems that were beyond my control with bad parts, but hopefully that is all over now.

It’s been a little while since I have posted and I have a little to get caught up on .

I decided to dive into the existing wiring of the motorcycle it ended up being quite a pain. I spent quite a long time on it tracing wires all over the place trying to get rid of what I no longer needed to help lose some weight and clean up some of the mess of the tangled wires all over the place. I was not able to get rid of as much as I had hoped must of the wire was just going to the fuse box which is at the tail end of the bike and back to the lights.

After quite some time of working on it and tearing my hair out trying to figure out what the crap the previous owner was thinking while trying to rewire things himself I finally stumbled across a repair manual for the GSX-R. I went through and traced over everything that I thought I would need or want in color so that I could see it. Once I had this things went soooooo much easier, I had tried to find a wiring layout earlier but was unable to I should have just searched a little harder and saved myself some time and headache.

I got all of the lights to work, I think the reason the blinkers are not flashing is because I just don’t have enough load on the line without having the front turn signals attached. Once the new ones arrive it should be fine if not NAPA sells a relay for a couple bucks that will work with any system so I’ll try that if they do not flash with the front and the back hooked up.

I got my low beams and my high beams to work, they are not very bright because I kind of jerry-rigged a 12 V systems out of a trickle charger so I could test to make sure it all worked.

I may have an issue with the tail lights though the brake light is constantly on, I checked the foot switch and the hand switch with a volt meter and they both only put out 12 V when the switch was pressed. I will have to play with that more later I was just excited that I was able to get all of the lights to even come on at all.

I got an email from Bryan at EV Source saying that he had all the cabling that I ordered. He was nice enough to let me come and use his tools, so I loaded up the bike and headed over to his shop to get to work. He has a great hydraulic crimper which made the process quick and easy. If you are interested he does have a rental policy on all his tools where when you send the tools back to him he will give you your money back for the tools.

These are actually just some garden shears but they work great for cutting cable.

I decided to go with 2 AWG wire for everything it is a little heavier but I should not have any issues with overheating and getting that melting smell that people talk about from using the wrong gauge of wire. These little wire strippers worked out pretty slick too, there is just a dial at the end to adjust the height of the blade and then you just turn it around the cable a couple times to strip the ends off.

Last important tool is the heat gun for the shrink wrap to go over the ends of the terminal connectors.

Crimping the ends.

Heatshrink.

The finished project!! There are still a couple of cables I need to make but I did not have my relay switch mounted yet so I did not know the lengths that I needed yet so I’ll have to come back and finish that up.

My buddy Adam came up on Saturday to help me with the bodywork, he has experience working with fiberglass so he came to fix some of it for me.

There was a crack and some small holes in the side fairings so he patched all of those up and then the piece that holds the side fairings together in the middle was actually in 3 pieces and he was able to get it all back together so it was is as good as new! I still need to go over and sand them down once it sets up and repaint it but at least it is fixed now.

The result of putting the 3 pieces together.

I decided to get rid of the tachometer and the temp sensor and modify the cluster so that it will hold the Switch relay and the display.

I have not attached the display yet I just cut the hole for it is all but I’ll need to seal it up with some silicon or something to prevent the moisture from getting in.

All together now!

I went and exchanged 2 of my bluetop's for these yellow's got to love Sam's Club they didn't even think twice about me trading them I could have run them completely down (I hadn't even used them) for all they knew and they exchanged them straight across.

You can see the posts sticking up on top and they have got to go! I need all the space I can get!

I will have to cover them up with some silicon or something to prevent anything from arcing across the battery.

There they are all nice and smooth!

The sides also have a slight lip that must go as well so took my sander to the sides as well to make them nice and smooth everything on here is just one tight squeeze after another.

It might be hard to tell but it really is nice and flush now.

Here is just the frame stripped down, I still have some old electrical to remove but I haven't gone through and traced any wires yet I'll I need is the lights everything else must go.

I'll go through once and put the pieces together with out the batteries and motor and then again with everything.

This is the first bolt on part which adds support as well for the middle row of batteries.

This is for the battery under the seat it didn't really need a plate there but we built it up a little to get the battery up off of the motor so it would rest on the plate and not on the motor. This will also help keep the motor from transferring its heat to the battery if it were to be sitting on it.

This is for the middle row of batteries, the hole plate is removable allowing for the installation and removal of the motor and batteries below it. It bolts to the angle iron that is welded to the front of the frame and the bulk of the weight will be supported by the bolts you'll see in the next couple pictures.

they are 7 1/2" bolts with just some galvanized pipe for spacers.

Welded some angle iron to the inside of the frame and that's where the bolts attach to. There is really only 3 parts that have to be bolted to the frame everything else is welded to it.

This is for the controller originally I was not going to put it here, but after thinking about it it should be the best spot. Having it here will prevent anything from getting kicked up from the road and damaging it.

Now time for the batteries! Here is the first one that just sits in the lower tray.

This pieces of angle iron just bolts right to it so it can be removed if necessary and as you can see it just barely fits.

There was 1 thing that we forgot to weld and that was a support for the motor. Right now the only thing holding it up is the bolts on the front and it needs some sort of support arm on the back of it. Right now it sort of rests on the battery, but with a support arm that will get it up off the battery.

The other pieces is bolted on now.

I have placed down some think rubber for the batteries to sit on to help with the road vibration. The rubber came from an old conveyor belt at is about 1/8" thick.

The middle row is where the yellow Optima's will go with the side mounts giving the needed added space.

Again I laid down a piece of rubber for the battery to sit on.

These non-spillable batteries allow for any mounting position so being on their side like this helps keep the battery a little lower so the gas tank can still fit on with out any problems.

The plate fits nicely over the batteries but I definitely will want something over the batteries to prevent arcing because it is just barely over the top of them.

The last row of batteries will sit on their side and the posts will be in the middle, 1 set on top and 1 on the bottom.

Top it all off with the controller and everything is mounted on the bike.

It sits slightly higher than I wanted it too, but should still work out ok. I wanted it to be flush with the frame that way I could have plenty of room for the charger.

I am looking at a Quic charger currently I was going to go with a few smaller chargers, but when I contacted Quic they told me that since I was doing this for a student project that I could get 50% off!!! so I figured I better jump on that offer since it is a way more efficient charger and will save me like $300 on it.

I made a cardboard mock up of it and it should fit inside the gas tank i just need to cut a little more out of it.

There are still a few unnecessary pieces left in the gas tank so I got out the trusty grinder and went at it again.

It looks kinda ugly but it is a real tight fit in there to use a grinder I will have to clean it up a little more later and see if I cant get rid of the whole thing.

This one was easy to get to so it cleaned up pretty nice.

It fits a lot better now with just a little bit more cut out of the tank. I made the box slightly bigger then the actual size of the charger so when I get the real one everything should fit even better.

With the mock-up of the charger in the gas tank it fits on the bike without a problem.

It's all coming together I am getting closer to being done, there are only a few things left to do. I need to strap the batteries down somehow so they do not move around, get the cables and wire it all together, buy the charger, install the contactor, replace the brake handle, and at that point I should be able to start test riding it to get it geared and the controller tunned to my liking.