The Trike

Had a new customer call me up, asked if I could do electrics on his trike. Yeah, no problem says I........

After undoing most of the blue insulation tape that you can see in the photo, every little bit had been cut, the wires twisted together, and wrapped up again.

No wonder it just stopped working apparently.

So I started to look for a replacement loom. It was the only solution in all reality.

BUT......there's a twist.........

There are no looms in the UK at all. Plenty for the later XJ900 models, but none for the early models.

So I start looking elsewhere. I found one, in DELAWARE, USA. The seller will not post to the UK..........so i'm mullered.

The only option is to re-wire this one. So I get stuck in.

Cut out all the crap and start from more or less scratch again. I took wiring out that used to be the mains lead for a household radio for gods sake.......

As soon as I touched the fuse board all the power went off, so that got replaced with a new 8 way bladed board. I created two looms for the rear lights, there were 19 live connections plus 19 earths just to the rear lights, so the two looms split all the lights and went down to 2 different fuses. That way if ever a fuse popped it wouldn't take out all the rear lights at once, he'd always have some form of lighting at the back.

This trike is a mutt with VERY big fleas.

It's a hard tail, so no rear suspension at all.

It's a 1983 Honda CB1000C frame and forks, with a 1979 Honda CBX1000 loom, and a 1985 Yamaha XJ900 SECA engine.

I've no idea what the clocks are off, the ignition switch is spurious, it has push button start, the horn button is on the dashboard????, the brakes are dragging really badly, there's a stripped bolt in one of the rear wheel hubs, the rear brake pipes are WAY too long, and the forks need some attention.

It took me several weeks on and off to eventually get everything working again. All the lights working, indicators, horn, brake lights etc.

Had the engine cranking over and a lovely spark from the plugs, great I think to myself, nearly cracked it.

Then I looked at the air filter pods that had been fitted. Some joker had stuffed the inside of the filters with KITCHEN SCOURING PADS to restrict the air flow instead of re-jetting the carbs. The utter cowboy (or girl).

Now, I can't re-jet until I know the engine is running sweet, so I put the plugs back in...........and it went half a turn, rattle rattle rattle, half a turn, rattle rattle rattle........

Ah hell, the starter motor is screwed I thought. So I sourced a good replacement, fitted that........no......half a turn, rattle rattle rattle......

So it's the starter clutch then. Which means the engine has to come out and be stripped. Not happy.

When I got inside the lump, the starter clutch housing had a crack in it, which meant it wouldn't last much longer, the starter gear had ridges on it that would make mount kilimanjaro proud, and the starter chain was that loose it had worn 1/3 of the way through an oil feed pipe.

Searching for replacement parts was a complete loss, gaskets were either on back order with no guarantee of supply or no longer available, as were the starter clutch parts. And the prices were horrendous.

So we had come to a crossroads with this one. Order the parts and hope for supply and rebuild the starter clutch and chain, take it away and think about it, or find a donor engine.

The last bit, the replacement engine, comes with a problem itself. The later model engines have a different loom and CDi. Which means all the work I had already done is in the bin.

So it would have cost a replacement engine and a replacement loom complete with all the relays and CDi please.

Probably best to try and find an accident damaged but running nicely XJ900, get it for not much money and I'll strip it for the engine and loom.

Which is exactly what the customer has done on my recommendation.