The woes
continue!
Attempting to repair my RNS Tripmaster by soldering the broken wires
back into place turned out to be a bit of a disaster. Just holding the wires in
place and putting the sensor next to the front wheel magnet got it working
again so all looked good. So simply a matter of soldering the wires to the
contacts, except once I had done this….. it didn’t work at all!
I can only
think that whilst soldering I have managed to “fry” the electronics somehow….
Very frustrating! Oh well it wasn’t working before and it’s not working now, so
I guess I’m no further forward but I’m no worse off either.
So after a bit of
internet research I discovered the new ICO Rally Max that was reported as not
being launched until March was already available from Rally Raid Products. So I
bit the bullet and shelled out £263 for one (say it quickly and it doesn’t
sound so expensive).
I also treated myself to one of Rally Raid’s aluminium
combined switch mounts to mount both the remote ICO switch and the road book
switch.
An expensive luxury but certainly tidies up the left hand bar. Fitting
the two switches with their separate mounts was a complete pain last year as
they and the clutch lever mount all seem to get in the way of each other when
trying to tighten them up. The mount will also take a standard KTM switch
cluster but as I don’t have one that’s academic. It does however leave me
enough room for my aftermarket light and horn switch… result!
So having
received the new ICO, I mounted it in the same place as RNS had been on the road
book plate, simple as it uses identical mounts. The RNS will be retained and
mounted at the bottom of the road book plate as the clock function (that still
works) will come in handy. And if I can in future get it repaired, then it can
be run as a backup trip meter as most “proper” rally racers do.
Next task
was to sort out the road book switch that had given up the ghost on the Tuareg
Rally, again I could buy a new one but I decided to have a go at repairing it
first and save myself £36. The problem was almost certainly not the switch but
the wires leading too it, as on the rally we were able to get it working again
by wiggling these wires around so almost certainly a break in a cable
somewhere.
There are four wires inside an outer sheath and they are very thin
but luckily I had a length of almost identical four core multi cable (just
slightly thicker). I cut the cable about 5cm from the switch and the connector
at each end and stripped back the cables.
They were then twisted together with the new cables, a thin layer of solder was then applied to hold the joint tight (so are not simply a soldered joint that might fracture) then a small piece of heat shrink applied to insulate the joint and further hold it together.
Then a larger piece of heat shrink was put over the top to seal it up. This was repeated at the other end and…. Job done!
All that remains is to wire up the road book to the power supply and check to see if it works.
They were then twisted together with the new cables, a thin layer of solder was then applied to hold the joint tight (so are not simply a soldered joint that might fracture) then a small piece of heat shrink applied to insulate the joint and further hold it together.
Then a larger piece of heat shrink was put over the top to seal it up. This was repeated at the other end and…. Job done!
All that remains is to wire up the road book to the power supply and check to see if it works.
I have also
rewired the whole of the navigation tower with new cables, connectors, a new
fuse box (very fancy with LEDs to show if a fuse has blown) and everything
encased in plastic spiral wrap to protect the cables. I have also provided
power to both the ICO and the RNS. In Morocco I relied on the internal
batteries in the RNS to simplify the wiring. This has no effect other than the
backlight is disabled until you press a button. No problem I thought as it
it’ll be nice and bright in the sunshine. This in fact was the problem as the
bright sunlight actually made it difficult to read without the backlight, so I
learned a valuable lesson!
Power has also been provided to my GPS, not required on the Tour of Portugal but provides a compass and a backup speedo and a power lead to the GPS tracker that is supplied by the organisers. This allows them to know where we are but also records any speeding infringements!
Power has also been provided to my GPS, not required on the Tour of Portugal but provides a compass and a backup speedo and a power lead to the GPS tracker that is supplied by the organisers. This allows them to know where we are but also records any speeding infringements!
This weekend
a few final jobs will be done:
- Fit a new back tyre and check and re-lube the mousse
- Swap the new tyre on my spare front wheel to the other wheel as it has brand new wheel bearings
- Change the oil
- Fit a clean air filter
- Check all bearings for play
- Check all cables
- Make sure all bolts are tight
And check
all the new wiring actually works!