This blog is about the MegaSquirt conversion of the engine in my VW powered trike. There is another blog about other parts of the reconditioning of this trike and another at my trike blog. The trike referred to here is currently known only as either The Purple Trike or The Dragon Trike.

With the trike in place at the BTW clubhouse, I took the body off and set about trying to start the thing up. It hasn’t run since I took all the intake, ignition and charging components off to install motor bling.

Before and after:

Even before it came apart, it wasn’t running right and with the benefit of the experience troubleshooting the Yellow Trike, I now realize that I probably have some form of intake leak. On The Yellow Trike, it was around the throttle shaft of the carburetor. This one appears to have about as much play as that one did. If it turns out to be that, I will borrow the new carburetor off the Yellow Trike to get this one running enough to know that there are no other intake issues, then I will crank up the EFI project into overtime because I see no reason to spend $160 on a new carburetor to use temporarily.

Of course, in the attempt to test fire the engine, it appears that fuel is not getting *to* the carburetor and that even if it were, the battery is too low to crank it, so while the charger tops off the battery, I am here typing away. Which give me some time to organize my efforts.

I have elected to rob the MSII and Innovate O2 sensor off Buzz to get the trike running. That will save me about $500 in parts and shipping and waiting. I will need to get a DB37 connector for the wiring harness and find some kind of weatherproof box to put all the guts in, primarily the MSII controller, relays and fuse block. It should be big enough to put the trike’s other fuses and relays in as well.

A suitable intake manifold has been ordered and has in fact been shipped and is scheduled to be delivered this Thursday (11/05/09). Once I have it in hand, I can make the adapter plate to attach the motorcycle throttle bodies to it.

After that, comes lots of little bits that need to be done. In no particular order (and subject to change):

Attach trigger wheel to crank pulley and install (change belt)
Mount trigger wheel sensor
Mount EDIS module
Mount EDIS coil and wires
Wire EDIS system
Pull distributor and plug hole
Put fuel pump in tank
Put fuel gauge sender in tank (not really EFI, but should pull tank only once)
Plumb fuel to TB
Cylinder head temp sender for CLT?
IAT on/in TB
Lots of tuning.