Look to the East

Wasn’t going post again till I got home but today I had a problem with the Laverda
I was going from Hungary through Austria and had just been through the 3 big tunnels ( 2x8km and 1x6km) and had stopped to refuel. All done, turned ignition on and nothing. Fuses checked out OK so did a swop round with the 3 relays and on it came - main feed relay had failed
This was only modified and relays fitted 35 years ago by Steve Winterton, things just don’t last anymore
Concern was why did it fail? going though one of those tunnels and having a complete power failure wouldn’t be fun.
Heat - Temperature lower than it has been.
Distance - only done 250kms when failed.
Lights on - maybe - I never use lights unless dark but have been through tunnels.
10,001 built in operation failure - could be.
So would it go again
I set off and Sod’s Law the next 10kms 8kms of tunnels, one after another, most short 300 and 500 metres but some 2 or more kms
I decided to leave lights off for the rest of the day - surely they can see a big orange mass and the tunnels were mostly lit up.
Did another 180kms and all OK
So was it just old and tired - I know the feeling - we’ll find out

IMG_6126.jpeg
 
growler said:
Wasn’t going post again till I got home but today I had a problem with the Laverda
I was going from Hungary through Austria and had just been through the 3 big tunnels ( 2x8km and 1x6km) and had stopped to refuel. All done, turned ignition on and nothing. Fuses checked out OK so did a swop round with the 3 relays and on it came - main feed relay had failed
This was only modified and relays fitted 35 years ago by Steve Winterton, things just don’t last anymore
Concern was why did it fail? going though one of those tunnels and having a complete power failure wouldn’t be fun.
Heat - Temperature lower than it has been.
Distance - only done 250kms when failed.
Lights on - maybe - I never use lights unless dark but have been through tunnels.
10,001 built in operation failure - could be.
So would it go again
I set off and Sod’s Law the next 10kms 8kms of tunnels, one after another, most short 300 and 500 metres but some 2 or more kms
I decided to leave lights off for the rest of the day - surely they can see a big orange mass and the tunnels were mostly lit up.
Did another 180kms and all OK
So was it just old and tired - I know the feeling - we’ll find out

View attachment 106784
Click to expand...
I run with lights on all the time, on all my old bikes; admittedly LEDs now.
But then, I don't have any relays, apart from the horns on my SF2 and I hoot a lot.
Paul
 
Had a problem with lights on riding on my non Laverda , totally Japanese ( sorry and all that ) , late `nineties motorcycle not so long ago ...........

Overheating of wiring and terminals going into the connector ......... not the relay ( which just handles the switching I think ........ you`ll have probably sussed I`m no expert ) ...... problem solved by using 28/030 cable to replace the dental floss the maker likes to fit as standard ..........

Bloody " electrickery " , as Catweazle used to say ......... another favourite was " telling bone " ( telephone ) ......

Sorry , I`ll shut up now .............
 
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Read about the failed relay with interest. As I've wired my bike to run all pre-fuse power through a relay to bypass the ignition switch, I'm thinking a nice insurance mod would be to fit two relays in tandem so if one fails, the other will still be there to handle everything. I've never had a relay fail but the thought of total power loss either at speed or at night or both is a tad scary mary.
 
Off topic, but try my old BMW 750/5 Q..
Had the push in key on the top of the headlight and age took its toll..
Lived out west of Sydney in the Burragorang Valley countryside, and it had the occasional habit of popping up at night, invariably in a bumpy corner.. no power, but more importantly, no bloody lights..!! 😦:ROFLMAO:
Quick stab and away we go, but had some scaries I can tell you.

:cool:
 
piranha-bro2 said:
Read about the failed relay with interest. As I've wired my bike to run all pre-fuse power through a relay to bypass the ignition switch, I'm thinking a nice insurance mod would be to fit two relays in tandem so if one fails, the other will still be there to handle everything. I've never had a relay fail but the thought of total power loss either at speed or at night or both is a tad scary mary.
Click to expand...
You may be overly paranoid about the possibility of a relay failing. It isn't something that gets regularly mentioned on this forum (or elsewhere that I may or may not have noticed). There are plenty of other things in this world to get anxious over.

On a similar-but-different note...

About six months ago I was on a ride with a friend who has a Mk II LeMans. I noticed that his indicators weren't working, so we did a little investigating at the end of the ride. Oddly the bike had two flasher cans, wired in parallel, which had both failed. I am unsure of the reasoning behind this arrangement, perhaps related to the inclusion of a hazard warning switch which flashes all four globes together. I just can't imagine that both flashers would be operating in synchronism. The combination of the two were replaced by a single electronic flasher can, it does everything required of it.
 
What are your three relays for? I have one to bypass the ignition switch which carries power for the ignition which is constant, and the other intermittent stuff. And one for each for high and low beam which cary the highest amperages the bike has, and lights on is mandatory here. You can test if it was the milliamp switching circuit which failed in the relay, or the high amp contacts that get switched. It is also simple to reconnect the wires to put the load back through the switches if a relay ever failed.
 
No problem yesterday and it was very hot, had to put on lights a couple of times when I saw the police, once they did this thing on autobahn’s when they come flying past lights flashing then zig zag across road (right in front of me) and slow the traffic down few a few kms then just take off again
Lots of big queues either accidents or road works, Germans are good, even pull to the edge for sidecars, must have done 10kms yesterday between lines of cars (only one irate driver so not bad)
Steve Winterton set up the relay/fuse board under seat on a separate plate with long lead so you can just take it out and put on back of bike so problem was sorted in 20 minutes and half of that was trying to find spare relay (bought a couple when I had a relay fail on a Guzzi) in the bottom of sidecar
 
Got home yesterday afternoon, the Laverda and I visited 14 countries and covered 5570kms (3500 miles) so not bad for two old un’s doing what we enjoy and was built for - where shall we go next? IMG_6126.jpeg

IMG_7052.jpeg
With the Mikuni’s fitted the Laverda is returning 14.75km/lt (42mpg), it was half that with the Dellorto’s (no raw fuel build up in end of silencer - see how many Laverda’s result in a very black finger, go on give yours a finger)
IMG_7134.jpeg
 
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