Project 999

It's a good thought, but unfortunately doesn't work because the Oil travels along all the gaps between the individual strands of Copper, not just along the outside of the bundle of strands.
It may work if I ran some solder down the end of the cable to solidify it, and put some really good adhesive heatshrink over the end, but I think I'm always going to be fighting a losing battle.
I need to stop it getting in there in the first place, and now everything including up inside the cable is covered in Oil it's incredibly difficult to eliminate it all so a sealant like 3Bond will stick to it.

Despite my usual 'make-do-and-mend' attitude, I know when a new unit will be the best option.

 

I ordered a new Stator from LN Parts on Ebay in the end.

I took a chance, it being at the cheaper end of the prices available, but I’m sure they are all made in the same place and LN are just less greedy than other suppliers.

It looks OK, is really well potted around the internal cable ends, and the outer ends look to be crimped well, but I’ve not got around to fitting it yet.

Feeling a little despondent with the Stator situation, I thought I’d have a play with something I can be more creative with and see an improvement when it’s done.

 

As mentioned earlier in the thread I picked up an Aftermarket Racefit exhaust silencer at a price I couldn’t turn down because it was in ‘a bit of a state’.
I already had a Horizontal cylinder header pipe with no CAT so the silencer got some attention.

It doesn’t look too bad in these images, just a little corroded.












I decided I wanted to try and keep some semblance of a standard bike and use the existing rear light and number plate bracket etc.

Comparing the image below of the underside of the Racefit and Standard silencers it can be seen that the standard parts will not just bolt straight on.

I did call racefit on the off chance that they might have a bracket left in stock, but discovered there had never been any effort made to accommodate the standard equipment, it was assumed aftermarket indicators and a rear light would be used, and it was suggested a bent bit of Aluminium would do the job.

Despite the willingness to talk to me, and advise offered on several aspects of a rebuild, I got the impression there was a little ‘bad blood’ flowing somewhere with this silencer, and assume there is a story somewhere to be told.

Note the Mild steel Rivnuts that have been used in an otherwise all Stainless construction, and that a couple of them, seemingly for the cable assembly heat shield, are missing.
Annoyingly the holes for these are about 4mm too far apart to fit the Heat Shield and I’ve had to file the holes in the heat shield into slots to fit it.



As you can imagine, I couldn’t resist starting the bike with the Racefit in place, but it was blowing exhaust gasses out of so many unintentional holes it wasn’t a fair indication of what it would sound like in good condition.

I ordered some Stainless Steel Pop Rivets and Rivnuts and gave it a better inspection.

 

Apart from the overall corroded condition there were some more specific areas of concern.

First off, at the top, right at the place where it shows sticking out of whatever tailpiece is used there is a gap where gas has been escaping.





Note it looks like dent, and somebody has tried to seal it up by adding an additional pop rivet, which was unsuccessful.

Next up were two additional holes drilled in the inlet pipes.



They are past where the header pipes insert to, and another member on here confirmed his similar silencer does not have the holes.

So using a lump of Brass round stock inside the tube as a support for the molten stainless wire I welded the holes up.



There was also another big hole underneath at the forward end where a pop rivet was missing.

 

With the silencer apart it was obvious that it had only ever been packed really loosely with wadding after the perforated tube had been wrapped with wire wool.

The gas flow within the silencer had then packed the loose wadding into the sides and it was rock hard in those areas



I was however impressed with how much effort had been made with an internal structure to link the top and bottom of the outer sleeve to spread the load and support whatever was hung underneath.



I took a better look at the gap on the top rear and discovered it wasn’t a dent, but had been fabricated incorrectly from new.
The very fine TIG welding is nicely done, but the outer part of the end cap has been pulled in creating the gap.



But at least it was easy to put right by cutting and rewelding:

 

The outer sleeve cleaned up to an acceptable standard, and the inner support went back in with the Stainless Steel pop Rivets and Rivnuts.





To repack it I first used the Blanket type material that is supposed not to disintegrate and blow out the end. It’s also supposed to expand a bit and fill any space as a low melting point bonding agent built in to it melts when first used.
I wrapped it round each perforated tube twice and put a couple of stitches in place with cotton to hold it in place whilst I worked:



With the outer sleeve riveted back on I then packed all the gaps with loose fibres using a length of dowel to push it home:



All back together it looks much nicer, and when tried on the bike it sounded really nice.
Although I understand it will sound different after a bit of use.
I used a smear of Exhaust assembly paste on all the joints as I was putting it back together to help seal it all up.
At the moment it’s not too loud, probably quieter than the Ducati Performance Remus end cans I have on both my M1000 and 1000SS.

 

The bracket I fabricated from Stainless Steel flat bar to hold all the standard rear end equipment is a little more complicated than a bent bit of Aluminium, and did involve a couple more Rivnuts being added to the underside.







I had to spread the number plate bracket out at the base, and give the legs a bit of a bend.
The upshot of which was that with a standard Number plate light fitted I had to lower the number plate a few mm to fit. This was done by plug welding a stainless plate to the original bracket:



I’m pleased with the way it looks on the bike with the standard rear bodywork and Ducati Performance pillion pad eliminator.





I now have a spare Subframe to cut up so I can properly try the RS Carbon single seat unit seen earlier in this thread.
So that’s something else I can play with to avoid dropping the Oil and Coolant to change the Stator.

 

I didn't get that exact impression Sev, the guy I spoke to was more than happy to talk, actually I struggled to end the conversation.

He was interested in how it had faired over the years, and ran through the whole story of development, manufacture, how many they made, what they were selling them for etc. He did seem genuinely pleased it was still around and going to be used.

Thinking back to the conversation, I think he was a little annoyed that he couldn't get past the prejudice of people dismissing anything that didn't have a Termi label on it.

 

That's quite an offer, many thanks.

Would certainly like to know what the cost would be to send it to the UK.
If nothing else but to give me another option.

 

This project has annoyingly just been covered up in my workshop for a few weeks due to injury, illness, and other more pressing commitments. But on Friday I managed to get most of the day working on it.

I swapped out the Stator and appear to have finally cured the Oil leak where it was tracking along the Stator cables and dripping out of the connector block all over the Horizontal Cylinder header pipe.

I’m hoping it’s the last time I have to drop the Oil and Coolant for a while.
It was getting expensive, as I couldn’t bring myself to put the old Oil back in each time despite it only doing less than 5 mins on the bench each time.
The last lot did come out much cleaner than the previous ones though, so the system has had a good flush out.

The Ebay Stator I brought in the end appears to work well.
I charged the battery whilst doing the work and with the engine off it was showing 12.95V.
With the engine running I’m getting 13.6V at Idle so it’s charging at least.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/333269544931?ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649

 

I changed the awful aftermarket levers that were on the bike. They are just far too short to get more than a couple of fingers on them, and really don’t suit the bike in my opinion.

This is what was on it, I couldn’t bring myself to embarrass the bike showing them fitted.



The original levers were included with the bike, but they are silver, and again I don’t think they suit the bike. I could have just sprayed them Black, but I know paint would just rub off.

I purchased a pair of 1098 Black levers from EBAY a while ago so fitted them instead.
The 1098 activates the Brake Light switch differently, but I swapped the sprung loaded part of the 999 lever on to the 1098 lever and sorted that.
You can’t see the Silver bit unless you look hard so I’ll just leave it Silver.

 

The bottom front corner of both lower fairings I’m going to use are cracked, so to stop the crack going any further I used some small offcuts of Stainless Steel mesh and epoxy to strengthen the backs of the panels.



The Stainless mesh is really useful stuff, I’ve used it several times in situations like this.
I brought it years ago in a roll to cover the Soffit ventilation gaps in my roof when I replaced all the woodwork a few years ago.
https://www.robinsonwirecloth.co.uk/online-shop/Soffit-mesh-stainless-steel-30m-roll-p49612077


The NHM Clutch cover also got a rub down and fresh coat of Matt Black paint, but will need to come off again to do some detail cleaning of the Clutch case behind and around it.
I also noticed the Clutch Springs have started to rust, so will need to clean them properly.



I might even change the cover for something else, but haven’t found another I actually like the look of.

 

I do still have an electrical issue with the bike somewhere.
It’s not a new issue, but I was sort of hoping changing the Stator would sort it out and it hasn’t, but I knew that it wouldn’t really and was being lazy.
So I spent some time investigating.

As mentioned the battery on the bike was charged to 12.95V, and with the engine running at idle was showing 13.6V both measured with a good quality meter directly across the battery terminals. But the Voltage on the dash is showing 10.95 and 11.20V.

Assuming the Voltage measurement is generated at the ECU I thought that perhaps I’d forgotten to reattach the separate Earth lead to the ECU body, but on checking it’s in place.

Bearing in mind I’d started the bike a couple of times and it hadn’t been running long enough to recharge:
Measuring between the battery +ve and -ve terminals gave 12.5V.
Measuring between the battery +ve terminal and the ECU body gave 12.5V.
So I believe the ECU is properly Earthed.
Measuring between Red/Yellow +ve supply to the ECU and ECU body also gave 12.5V.
So I believe the ECU is seeing full voltage.

I also checked the Earth to the Clockset, which appears good.

So does anyone know for certain where the dash Voltage measurement is generated?
ECU, or within the Dash?