Love it. That's how my ninjette project has been going this past year; the biggest ticket items were tires ($200 for the pair) and a Trail Tech gauge which was not needed but looks cool. Plus I plan to swipe the gauge back whenever I get rid of the bike.
I'm almost done with the first phase of this project which was to make it road worthy. Just an oil change and speed sensor (pickup) to go. When I fixed my coolant leak on the last post I rushed putting it back together and forgot I had removed the rectifier and had not bolted it back in properly. So back apart things went.
As you can see having the proper tools for the job makes life so much easier. lol
I had completely removed the pair system as part of this project. The actuator in the airbox didn't need to be removed but since I had the little gizmo that fooled the system into thinking the system was normal I decided to ditch it. I mentioned being a packrat before and I found a plug that fit perfectly for the airbox.
I'm a packrat, not a hoarder. The majority of this stuff is now in the trash but it put into prospective the scale of refreshing an old SV and what may need to be looked at on an older machine. It also made for a cool photo op.
Not everything goes to plan. I tried going the budget route on the speed sensor replacement when I just should have gone OEM on that one. Well, now it looks like I will be anyway. Turns out I didn't need to go budget and a Amazon retailer is selling an OEM sensor for what I paid for this one. When I put the two side by side it looked like there was no visible difference (mine currently has no teeth though) but when I went to install it the bore was a different size... by the smallest of margins. I got a little frustrated and tried the slight bit of force and... oh crap (think monkey forcing a square peg into a round hole... I was tired). Now, I'm not bitching that it broke but if it was the OEM bore size then this would not have happened. Some parts should just remain OEM.
Since I'm still waiting on the second speed sensor in I decided to work on a small Ducati fix. Late last summer I found one of the front turn signals just dangling off the side of the bike. Of course I thought someone had accidently bumped it off but it turns out the rubber base degrades over time causing them to just fail and this is a 16 year old Ducati now. Replacements are out there but they are few and far between and a little costly. I was lucky to find someone had a 3d print file as an option and yes, I have a 3D printer. It did require a bit of 'trimming' but it worked! In the pic the turn signal on the left has the new base installed (that also helps hold the orange lens in place).
Speed sensor came in and and the SV is done... It be fixed! It's also officially mine since I finally went to the DMV to get it titled and registered in my name (I've had it in my possession for just over a year lol). I took it out for a nice little ride yesterday and it was a blast. When I got home my son asked if we could start the lessons and so we did (I'm a former MSF instructor and still have my course book). He's signed up for the full course in March but this will help get him use to the SV.
With this I think its time to end the Fix It Project Thread... Just this one. The bike still need more love (like those wheels lol) but that's for another thread.
I finally got a new battery charged up and coolant added in the radiator. Hit the ignition and I'm greeted with the FI flashing... C23 (Tip Over Sensor (TOS)). I'm scratching my head because even though its been over a year since its been started it was running just fine before I started this little project. I take the sensor off and can feel the 'trigger' part still rotating inside it. I broke out the service manual and tested the voltage and resistance and sure enough its hitting the voltage for when its triggered. Service manual says replace, I say lets fix it. I open it up (easy to do) and see that it has a bit of corrosion on the contact points. A bit of PJ1 cleaner and a soft toothbrush and its looking good as new. Install it and still C23... UG...hold on... Install it right way up, no more C23. lol View attachment 60043
This post follows the lines of "if a tree falls in a forest and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?"... If you make a modification and take no pictures did you really make a modification?
It was nothing overly special and the more I thought about it the less helpful documenting it became... So what did I do you're wondering? I changed out the headlight bulb for one of those LED blub thingies. Now, some input might be helpful to others but then I realized I don't run a stock SV headlight and I don't know if what I did (trimming) would have to be done by others looking for a better lighting solution. I run a generic headlight bucket which holds a headlight housing from an Indian Scout, its nothing fancy, its just what I had access to. The H4 bulb in that thing was pitiful and desperately needed an update. I'm not a fan of funky looking LED headlights and I actually I removed the odd looking cheap Amazon thingy that was there when I got the bike for the more traditional single bulb set up. Making the change though was a nice upgrade. No more dim yellowish light, now its nice and bright/white.
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