I see them.

Tonight was mostly wiring relays, but that sounds deceptively quick and easy. I connected coil and power to 5 relays that control the headlight, taillights, and turn signals.

All these wires will be dressed up when I’m completely done!

I also wired the starter relay. It is zip-tied to the starter itself to save me room for another relay socket.

What’s left to wire on the chassis:
front turn signals
speedometer sensor
connector or two to connect the relay outputs to the wiring for the body
brake light switch
horn relay and horn
a connector the license plate/trailer plug on the bumper
optional back up lights

I will then need to install the tail lights on the body and wire them and the headlight to a connector or two to mate the connectors on the chassis.

The hardest mechanical work left is to remove the fender brackets, though I will be putting the fenders on at a later date. Removing the brackets may involve removing the wheels. I also need to add spacers to lift the body so that it clears stuff it didn’t used to clear, like the engine and the springs on the front end. That will mostly involve stacking washers or cutting wood blocks or something for four spots, but I will need to weld an extension on the frame tab under the seat.

That should have everything to the point where it can be inspected and become street legal for the first time since it was wrecked sometime in the ’80’s!

I need a proper permanent footrest, though that will doubtlessly need to wait until after the weekend.

I had a good long chop at the trike on Friday night and all day Saturday. As is usually the case, I got a lot done but less than I’d hoped.

I spent some quiet time Saturday morning finishing the connectors on the speedometer, switch pod and the cable connecting them to the rest of the trike. I am using small gauge wire and isolating switched circuits with relays so that I can have a small but most importantly multiconductor cable going to the handlebars. The switchpod has 10 or so wires and the speedometer has 12 or so. Because a few wires (power, ground indicators, etc) are shared between the two, I made the cross connections at the connectors on the frame side. This also lets me run a single  wire for each function from front to back and all the wiring that goes on the body can jump to the body back there.

I also installed said speedometer and swtich pod….

This unit was chosen because not only does it display speed and mileage, but also engine RPM, fuel level (though I have not yet found and installed a fuel level sender; I will!), time and it has indicator lights for left and right turn, high beam, hazard, neutral and oil pressure.

I have something to connect to each of these indicator light. Turn, highbeam and oil will be as labeled. I will be substituting the alternator light for the hazard light, which I suppose indicates some sort of hazard. There is no neutral indication on the VW transaxle, but I think I will connect that light to the unused FIdle output in MegaSquirt and map it to indicate something useful, something like warmup or redline.

As a mildly interesting side note, all indicators except N and OIL light when power is applied. The N and OIL lights need ground to light. This works out in my favor on OIL because the oil pressure switch does indeed grounds when oil pressure is low and the FIdle output can be programmed for either, but by default, it grounds when active.

The two things that ended up delaying the most were rearranging the relay mounting locations to clear the slanted bit of the bodywork and wiring the fuse blocks.

I cut the panel shorter and am now rearranging relay sockets so that they clear the edges, clear each other and still have room for the relay to be replaced in the future. Way back when, the plan was that all the relays would fit in a nice straight line….

… but there just isn’t room to clear the back of the driver’s seat. There are now going to be relays all over the place. Oh, well. Reality bites.

Please note that the chrome ignition switch is only temporarily installed here.

I found, not surprisingly, that a two or three pin flasher will fit in one of my relay sockets. On one hand, it keeps a consistent look to all the wiring, but it also means I have added a socket when I really needed to lose one. 🙂

I also found, not surprisingly, that my turn signal relay is not enough load to operate the flasher properly. There are a couple of possible solutions. Arguably the best is to use a flasher made for LED lighting, which is not load sensitive and should flash a relay exactly as well as a light. They have been hard to find locally. I needed some more connector pins so I ordered them as well as a suitable flasher from DelCity.

The fuse panel wiring became needlessly complicated because of my own short sightedness. I originally wired all 8 fuses to switched power, forgetting that a few things, such as the actual ignition switch, need fused but continuous power, so I had to wire the fuse panel feeds a second time, four switched and four non-switched. Then I remembered that I wanted a separate power feed from a switched relay to so that a short in, for example, the brake light wiring wont blow a fuse that feeds the engine. To feed that relay, I needed a separate fuse, so I stole the top fuse on the panel, only then to realize that I had wired the top 4 as switched.

After all the connector moving and reterminating, I now have a main chassis fuse, 3 non-switched fuses and 4 switched fuses. Should be plenty.

The project is coming down to the wire. It will be tough to get everything left to do done in three available evenings this week so I can get an inspection on Friday and have it driving on the weekend. I can only try!

If you saw the pic I had here before, you will recognize that, even sitting in the back of the truck, this is a much better picture, showing some of the snakeskin texture.

Here’s a closeup of the seat itself.

A little detail of the back seat…

All that’s left to do is the rest of it!

The engine is running and there’s not much tuning I can do with it until the trike is on the street. I did manage to install a fuel pressure gauge for help troubleshooting. Besides, it looks cool.

While I was typing this, the trim shop called and the upholstery is done! It will be tomorrow before I can get by there, but I’m excited about it…

I am working on chassis tasks, including chassis wiring. The nerve center for the rest of the wiring is the speedometer and the handlebar switch. The speedometer also has odometer, tachometer, fuel gauge, clock, and six indicator lights, all of which are spoken for. The handlebar switch has switches for headlights, high beam, turn signals, horn and a momentary kill switch that I am going to use for the starter. Between these two units, there are 20-someodd wires that need to go *somewhere*. Since they both mount on the handlebar, I started there.

You may recall that the trike appears to have been in a wreck somewhere in it’s distant past. The handlebar was bent in that collision. I’m not 100% sure which, if indeed either, of the two bars is in unbent condition, but I elected to pay my attentions to the righthand and make it match the left.

I must apologize for not getting a ‘before’ picture. Using my newly acquired torch, I heated the lowest bend as evenly as I could and lifted the bar to match the left. This left the upper section slightly higher than it’s mate, so I heated the middle bend and pressed down to match the left. Then, viewed from the driver seat, the end of the grip section was pointed downward. I again heated the middle bend, but this time imparted a twist rather than a simple bend until the two match as closely as I can judge.

Please ignore that the bars are not mounted straight on the forks. That joint is not important to this particular operation. It will be important when it’s on the road, just not yet.

I then layed out the location for the speedometer and cut a piece of 1/8″ mild steel, shaped to fit at an angle between the bars and brazed in place.

While I hope to eventually re-chrome the bars, for now they just need to look better than this, so I sanded them to rough up the old chrome a bit, cleaned it with acetone and applied the same two part Krylon X-Metal treatment as I’ve used on the engine trim pieces.

Due to delays I wont bore you with, the body was finally delivered to Chris’ Trim Shop this morning.

This Blackberry photo does the material no justice, but this is the stuff I finally decided on.

Sorry about the dust….

Perhaps more importantly, I have the engine running! 

The first thing I did tonight was get the body ready for transport to Chris’ Trim Shop for upholstery tomorrow. I go get my material and drop both off for the work.

To protect the four “corners” that generally hit the ground first on the body, I wired and bungied a couple of boards to the low points.

The front still sat a little low, so I added a spacer to the bottom of that board, not shown here.

The board in the back is held on with a couple of ball cords laced through the tail light holes.

Now the body will be easier to handle with somewhat less fear of scraping the gorgeous paint job.

As for the upholstery, it’s pretty much a tossup between the left and middle choices. Since it’s only a couple yards of either, the fact that they are also the most expensive two is kind of incidental, $14.50 and $23.25 per yard, respectively.

It seems to me that the left one picks up the brighter tones of the paint better and it appears to me to be the heavier of the two, so it may well win.

The other option, available from the trim shop directly, is a black covering that has a snake or lizard skin texture, which I think is pretty cool for a dragon themed trike. I found something similar in purple on the internet, but it was so cheap per yard, I figured it probably not good enough quality.

So, unless something really cool jumps out at me, it will probably the the left one above.

I have basically 21 calendar days until Memorial Day Weekend, which is when I want to unveil The Dragon Trike, and only two more weeks after that before Trike Week.

Yikes!

So, tonight I did a bunch of little stuff, so much little stuff I’m sure I’ll end up forgetting to list some of it.

In no particular order, I:

mounted the trigger wheel sensor bracket
mounted the trigger wheel sensor
installed the newly purpled fuel pump block off

determined how to fabricate the CLT sensor

cleaned and painted the trigger ring

painted the distributor eliminator plug

put a coat of purple on the spokes

put the last coat of purple on the wheel hub

located and cleaned the distributor clamp (needed for plug)

put the body on temporarily so I could:
measure for the rear body brace

measure for the relay/fuse/ECU panel
estimated the thickness of the fiberglass where the ignition switch will go
measure the diameter of the ignition switch so I can acquire an appropriate holesaw

Perhaps the scariest,  yet arguably one of the most important things was to make a master list of tasks left to complete the trike.

There are basically four categories:

1. Things needed to start/run/tune the engine

attach and adjust trigger ring
connectorize EDIS sensor
mount EDIS module
mount coil pack
cut plug wires as needed
wire relay/fuse board
mount ECU in weatherproof box relay/fuse board
wire all sensors etc to ECU
mount fuel pump and filler spout to tank
mount fuel tank (possibly higher off ground)
connectorize fuel pump
get fuel filter
connect fuel pump to filter and TB
build CLT sensor
connect vacuum to MAP; plug unused ports
mount O2 sensor
wire OS sensor module
baffle in stinger (for my ears)

2. Things needed to make the trike driveable/testable

build throttle cable
connectorize and install switch pod and speedo
install throttle
install grips
wire alternator light
wire oil pressure light
wire alternator to battery
mount and wire ignition switch
modify/build rear body bracket
mount relay board to body bracket
finish front wheel

3. Things needed to make the trike roadworthy/legal

wire headlight
wire tail/brake/turn lights
find front signal lights
wire front signal lights
find backup light
wire backup light
wire license plate light
find license plate
get and install front brake cable
mirrors
inspection
build footrest
install bumper

4. Things needed to finally finish the trike (mostly cosmetics)

fenders
polish rear wheels
through body filler tube
This as complete a list as I can imagine at the moment, but I’m sure I will remember other points along the way!

What’s more tedious than wire brushing 36 spokes? Cleaning them individually with acetone and taping the threads so you can paint them.

I also base coated and painted the hubs. Once the moving hub dries, I have one coat to do on the side hidden in this pic.

A coat of purple on the spokes and I’ll be ready to give lacing the wheel a try.

We stopped at the local motorcycle boneyard and found a front wheel that should work for the dragon trike. It’s a 2.50×17 from a Honda CL70 Passport scooter/moped.

It was probably serviceable as is, but most of the spokes were lightly rusted, and the hub was a bit unsightly, so I elected to unlace it. Having trued a wire spoke wheel in the past using these and other directions, I think I can rebuild it. Besides, now I can paint the hub purple like the engine pieces.

If it sounds tedious to remove 36 spokes, wire brush each and sort them by the bend in the head, don’t try it with 120.

The same boneyard had a new tire of the proper size, a Cheng Shin moped tire. It was only $7, so it was hard to pass it up, but upon reflection, maybe I should have. It’s rated at a maximum speed of 50 km/h. That’s 30 mph for US. I found a nice Michelin Gazelle rated for at 93 mph from BikeBandit. It’s on the way.

Beginning with this post, I’m going to start displaying most pictures inline rather than with links. I’ve had a little feedback that indicates that people who look at these updates almost never click on the links, so they don’t see the pictures.

Unfortunately, I again neglected to take any pictures until I was finished.

Because of the location of the exhaust, the hitch is a bit to the right of the center line. I don’t expect this to be a problem and it was far less complicated that trying to both center it and stay out of the way of the header.

After mocking it up on the bench in several ways, I decided that the easiest would be the simplest, too. I cut a piece of 2″ x 1/8″ flat mild steel and cut a semicircular hole in one edge. I then ground it to match the profile of the bumper tubing at the angle where it meets.

I sanded all the paint off the contact areas of the receiver tube, clamped the plate in the proper spot and welded the plate to the receiver tube. I then mocked it back up with the bumper and tack welded the flat to the bumper tubing and the back of the receiver tube to the bumper tubing there.

I flipped the bumper over and welded the flat to the bumper tube and as much of the contact area at the back of the receiver tube as possible. This back joint looked too small to me, so I sanded more paint off the bottom of the tube and welded a small flat piece to bridge between the receiver tube and the bumper tube.

I also added a mounting tab for the license plate. By its location, it will also probably hold the interface for the O2 sensor. Sorry for the funky upsidedown pic. No, that is not a small anvil stuck incongruously to the bumper tube. It is actually sitting on the step of the workbench with the face on top, but I wanted the license plate bracket to look “normal”.

I dressed and sanded all the joints and it’s ready to hand off for powder coating!