Hi Guys,
.
A friend has recently blown the engine on a car because of a water leak from a rubber hose. The vehicle showed no signs of over-heating until it 'stopped'.....( On
MOST ENGINES, there is no coolant warning light fitted ) and I thought that the Wing just
MIGHT be able to do the same thing.....so a ' Warning Light ' was needed to show if Coolant / Radiator Fluid loss was occurring.
.
I now believe that a warning light for coolant loss is
vital, I have just heard of someone else doing the same thing!!...There is NO warning switch on the expansion bottle to the coolant loss and once the temperature sensor is no longer having water pass over it the reading can go down and NOT up
.
I realise that to most riders my light is ugly and probably horrible, but you can get much more attractive lights and I think that the actual idea, is a
good investment to protect our engines.I had a coolant hose burst on a Kawasaki, luckily it was whilst I was stationary in traffic !!....But I must admit that is scared the $h1t out of me...I thought that the steam was smoke and that the bike was actually on fire !!.....If I had been traveling at speed, I am not sure that I would have seen the steam, until the engine stopped
.
I thought that I would also link the light to the oil pressure switch to warn
More Clearly of
BOTH of the dangers. I could not find one that was suitable !............. By 'Suitable' I mean Cheap, Effective and Waterproof. So I made my own !
.
I bought a super bright LED 'shift-light' that was fitted in a cheap metal tube intended for cars......I then had to find a suitably tough, secure and waterproof mounting.......So I start with digging around in my ' Keep It Because It Might be useful Some-day ' Bin and I find a very nice alloy Land Rover Series 3 brake slave cylinder, which looked a bit like this...but with two mounting studs fitted in place,
Attachment:
IMG_7453.JPG [ 51.16 KiB | Viewed 98 times ]
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remove the piston and drill out the alloy so that the 'Shift-Light' fits. Water proof the inside of the shift light and silicon it in place. Mount it on the handle bars and it looks like this....
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Attachment:
IMG_7004.JPG [ 87.69 KiB | Viewed 98 times ]
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Then just add black paint and it fits right in......
Its wired to the oil pressure warning switch.......but I
still needed to know about the Coolant fluid level. I bought a short metal float switch, from Ebay, that can be mounted vertically! It is basically a magnetic switch that is held open when the 'float' is at the top. Once the float drops the switch closes and so the LED lights up to warn me of fluid loss.
Attachment:
$(KGrHqF,!p0E8WnhVECwBPGC9Gb-7!~~60_1.JPG [ 3.88 KiB | Viewed 98 times ]
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But, it would not quite fit in the usual Honda expansion tank..
, I should have bought a different kind that WOULD fit, Then
other Riders could use the idea and it would be hidden from sight under the side panels.
.
.
....A replacement was needed, ( and I had plans for the 'Space' that the old tank was currently occupying )....luckily I had just converted my sons PW50 from an oil pump to pre-mix. The 2 stroke oil tank was the perfect size and shape to fit the float switch into and also to be moved to its new position under the very front of the 'Faux-tank' by the headstock.
Attachment:
IMG_7017.JPG [ 43.61 KiB | Viewed 98 times ]
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Then it just needed wiring into the LED circuit and 'Covering Up' in its new location....(we cannot have a 'Bright White' bottle on a Matt Black bike...
)
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IMG_7034.JPG [ 74.63 KiB | Viewed 98 times ]
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The shiney alloy part that now occupies the 'space' previously used by the Honda coolant expansion tank did not stay shiney or 'visible' for very long.....
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Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2012 7:30 pm 
