Topic: Emergency Condenser fix

[Beemer]

Hey guys, I just got done with a 48 hour, 1000 mile trip..no sleep, six damned rainstorms when the weather man said NO RAIN, of course.

Had a condenser on my 77 750 Super Sport pack it in and arced the crap out of one set of points.  I was down to stopping to file that set of points every 20 miles or less, because they were arcing LIKE spark plugs..maybe better!  After 300 miles of this stupidity, I remembered that in 1978 I had one go (again with no spare points/condensers in the "trunk") and I spliced the second set of points into the working condensor and got home. 

So after drying the bike out enough (and parking inside a car wash..not much use for a car wash when its raining like a monsoon) I cut the wire for the bad condenser off at the condensor itself, and spliced that wire into the wire coming out of the good condenser and WHAM, running on all four again.  While it wasn't running perfectly (both points were arcing slightly) it was running good enough to pull on all four cylinders, instead of putting along at 45mph on two cylinders and dogging out REALLY bad uphill. 

Made it 400 miles with that fix and it is still like that now, until my new Dyna comes in.  (my old dyna packed it in two weeks ago, and I was lucky I had the old backing plate and original points stuff in the trunk).

For those of you who ARE running an electronic ignition (dyna or other), you'd be smart to still carry your old, or a brand new in the bag points kit with backing plate ALREADY set up for the bike (and test run) just in case your supposedly invincible Dyna ignition does break, like mine did.

Also, if you're running points, at least, ALWAYS carry your leatherman, or other multi-tool.  If I hadn't had that file, I'd still be walking.

Dave

PS if I ever figure out how to post a pic here I'd show you the splice, but its pretty easy once you look at the ignition.

[troppo]

Thats a damned handy tip Beemer, have to try and remember that one.
Cheers mate
troppo

[Beemer]

Well, us "old farts" gotta stick together.  Seeing that I was stupid enough to take a bike that was fresh out of 28 year storage on a thousand mile trip with NO spares..  Let's just say that stupidity is the mother of inventiveness..  If you ever watched the american TV show McGyver, the guy can make a cruise missile out of a rubber band and a paper clip.

Hey, I was down in Adelaide at the (at the time) last australian grand prix that was held there while I was TDY to Woomera (yeah, dumb, stupid, young and didn't know it was the old brit nuke test site.  I dunno how many GI's and their families got Leukemia, but it was a LOT of them, especially young kids).

Adelaide is like 8 hours away from there.  The next year they were supposed to move the race up north to Sydney?  I also just missed getting an assignment at Reynolds Air Station, which I guess is literally on the beach on the coast near Sydney.  I think it was either 1989 or 88?  I was only there for a week, but it was a fun trip.  Golf rules in Australia are a riot.  Hit a roo, play it as it lies.  If the roo steals your ball, you hit from where you either caught him or last saw him.  (and of course, I hit a little joey and knocked him ass over teakettle with the ball..I have a rather wicked slice..left handed too, just for batting and golfing for some reason.

Trust me, it's much smarter to just keep an entire new in the bag points set with the backing plate in your underseat storage area (I have a pair of F2's, and the storage "trunk" will hold one easily)

Dave

[troppo]

Used to watch McGyver every week mate, make a nuclear bome with a handful of sand and a hot water bottle lol.
Only been in Adelaide about 7 years myself (grew up in cairns and miss it like hell), but have known about Woomera for a long time, its kinda aussie history. I`ve met a couple of old guys that were there in the day, one of them used to joke that his false teeth glowed in the dark because of it