I am about to go out and attempt to install an Audiovox CCS-100 cruise control onto a Kawasaki KLR-650 to have the world's one and only KLR-650 motorcycle with electronic cruise control. Wish me luck, guys! -Badtux the Mechanic Penguin
2 days ago
Saturday, August 26, 2006
16 comments:
Ground rules: Comments that consist solely of insults, fact-free talking points, are off-topic, or simply spam the same argument over and over will be deleted. The penguin is the only one allowed to be an ass here. All viewpoints, however, are welcomed, even if I disagree vehemently with you.
WARNING: You are entitled to create your own arguments, but you are NOT entitled to create your own facts. If you spew scientific denialism, or insist that the sky is purple, or otherwise insist that your made-up universe of pink unicorns and cotton candy trees is "real", well -- expect the banhammer.
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Cool, I would like to know how that works out.
ReplyDeleteYou are a better Mechanic Penguin than I am, Badtux.
ReplyDeleteAll the best!:-)
--ml
Make damn sure it has a POSITIVE mechanical override.
ReplyDeleteThat's not the problem, Gordo. The Audiovox CCS-100 has a vacuum servo, the KLR-650 (like most one-lung motorcycles) doesn't make much vacuum, and the KLR-650, like most motorcycles, has a positive mechanical throttle return (dual-cable system), meaning that it's fairly easy to override the vacuum servo by manually closing the throttle.
ReplyDeleteIn addition, if I can solve the mechanical issues, I will hook it up to the brake light circuit and the clutch safety switch circuits to kick it out of cruise mode.
The problem, and what's stumping me right now, is that there just isn't any room. This one-lunger has the cable go straight to the carb, rather than to a rod below the carbs like multi-lung setups. The gas tank is 2 inches above where the throttle cables hook up. All I can think of at the moment is somehow rig a pully and run the servo cable along the central tube pulling over the pully.
Only time I've ever seen this done on a motorcycle is with a multi-lung motorcycle. With the rod below the carbs, it's pretty easy to figure a way to hook up. And under the hood of a car, we're talking downright luxury space-wise compared to the cramped confines under the gas tank of a KLR-650. That gas tank is *HUGE*, and takes up pretty much every inch of space not used by other stuff. I decided to see if I could make it work because a) I already had the cruise control sitting in a box in my garage, and b) somebody did it to their Suzuki DR-650 one-lunger, and can't let the Suzuki guys do something us Kawasaki guys can't do :-). But the Suzuki's carb is laid out different from the Kawasaki's carb...
I'll figure it out. I'll just have to make a few trips to the hardware store first :-}.
-BT
Should we be worried that we haven't heard from Tux since Saturday? Did he get the cruise control mounted and have it malfunction? Will someone have to make a bad joke that goes "What's black and white and red all over? A penguin with a stuck cruise control on his motorcycle."?
ReplyDeleteDave
P.S. Road rash HURTS!
Good luck. And don't forget your helmet, dude.
ReplyDeleteHey, my comment above was on Sunday :-).
ReplyDeleteI finally got all the mechanicals mounted, using the offset lever and running the cruise control cable behind the throttle-on cable. Now I'm programming the beasty and doing the electrical wiring hookup. This damned thing has a *lot* of wires (electronic cruise control, remember?), of which the ones I need to make sure get hooked right are the tach, the power (of course!), and the safety switches (to the brake light and clutch safety switches, via either a relay or a circuit I haven't designed yet).
Hey, there's a reason why I'm not a professional mechanic... I'm *slow*.
BTW, I do *NOT* recommend doing this to a KLR-650 that's ever going to see any off-road use. The only place to hang the servo is off the left charcoal canister bracket, basically making it part of the fender (i.e., covered with mud, dirt, and water). While I'm going to add duct tape and plastic bag weather protection to the thing before I wrap up the project, that would not be sufficient if you were, say, going to forde a river with the thing and the water got up that high. Which is possible on a KLR -- the air intake is under the seat so basically you can go through water that's up to the seat before the bike drowns (not that I *suggest* doing so, of course, just that the bike is capable of doing so, assuming your airbox gasket on the air filter cover is still good, and some maniacs have actually taken the bike into water that deep and lived to talk about it).
_BT
Yeah, the bike is still in pieces in my garage, and I'm trying to get some more info on the DIP switch settings. But it may all be moot. I just got EMAIL from someone who tried adding CCS-100 to a KLR-650, who said that at high RPM's the KLR just doesn't suck enough. Suck enough vacuum, that is, for the servo to hold the throttle open enough to maintain speed past around 50mph or so. But I may have a work-around for that -- a longer crank arm to give the servo more leverage. But that'll require fabricating a crankarm and re-routing the cable from the servo. May re-locate the servo too at that time.
ReplyDeleteOr it may be that the guy simply didn't use a vaccuum canister w/check valve, thus got the average of the vacuum, rather than the maximum (which occurs during the 1/4th of the time that the engine is sucking rather than blowing or compressing or expanding). I'll try it without the crank arm, and if it doesn't work... (shrug).
-BT
I just went and looked at a KLR carburetor. Yours is a lot older and may be different, but if you're trying to do this to a constant velocity (or as the British more accurately say, "constant depression" 'cuz they constantly depress you) carb, you may be siphoning off too much vacuum for the carb to work.
ReplyDeleteRemember, engine vacuum opens the slide, not you.
If the cable actually pulls the slide open, never mind.
This is interesting. Keep us posted.
Oops. Bad link. Try again.
ReplyDeleteStill didn't work. Oh well, you've got one to look at anyway. :)
ReplyDeleteAll KLR's have the same 1984-vintage carburetor, which, BTW, is the same carburetor that was used on the older non-injected Harley 883 Sportster. And yes, it's a CV carburetor. But the Suzuki DR-650 has a CV carburetor too, and a guy got it to work on his DR-650, so I'm assuming that I can make it work on the KLR. If not, well, no big deal... it's just time, after all :-).
ReplyDelete-BT
Based on many years as a master mechanic I don't think a vaccuum canister will work for you Tux.
ReplyDeleteBut, it's a pretty simple thing for you to make a simple vacuum pump that would run off of the chain, or by resting against a tire. Remember peddle bike light generators? Simple, effective.
Also, if you drilled a quarter inch hole in the exhaust tube and put a tube in there with the end at an angle it would most likely create enough vacuum to run the servo. Use a vaccuum canister with it of course.
ReplyDeleteThat is how I kept my race car engines in a partial vacuum. Can you picture what I'm saying?
Alternatively, you could put a hose over the exhaust outlet and run the engine backwards.
ReplyDeleteThere is a great write up on this web site about installing the Audiovox CS100 on motorcycles
ReplyDeletewww.rvbprecision.com