Craig

I think you missed the obvious: it was wet and the connector got shorted.

The spoiler came from Teo Lamers in the Netherlands, just checked their website and it's out of stock now, I must have had the last one. That's what I have been finding everywhere. Thanks!

Where did you get a hold of the piece? Oh, and I vote for the darker red. Looks very nice.

Thanks. It doesn't look like he has a shifter, but I emailed him to check anyway.

Zero speed. I was backing the back out of my garage and put my left foot down onto...air, and over it went.

Broke my shifter pedal today. I tried to weld it, but the spongy cast aluminum was beyond my meager TIG skills. MGCycle doesn't seem to list them. Anybody know a different source?

Very nice. Can you give details of that sending unit? It is much cleaner than the way I hacked up a GM unit.

The "V" in the beam is so that you can light up road sign to the right of the road. Clock the lamp so that the left part of the beam cutoff is horizontal. The right half of the beam will reach up and illuminate road signs (swaps side for UK countries). I have a similar feature on some european headlight I imported for my old M3. I think I will add these to my bike. Thanks for the heads up.

Why are those two things bad?

Yep.....those blade connectors arn't the best solution for that application. Bullet type are superior. Ciao Strangely enough about six inches upstream of the alternator connector there were two bullet connectors. The wiring was pretty crispy so I put in the weather pack above the bullets (I didn't have any matching bullets on hand) $$$!!! I have 20AMP housing on the weather pack, so it should hold up. I should probably pull the alternator cover to check the wiring on that end too Thanks for all the help!.

Well, I spliced in a new connector and everything seems right. System voltage is now 13.5 at 3000RPM and very stable above that. I would really like to know what caused that connector to smoke...any ideas?

All measurements passed. Excellent continuity from battery and ground to the VR connector, forward voltages on the VR diodes checked out at about 0.5V. I pulled the alternator connector and measured approx 0.8Ohms...but, I got a surprise. The pictures below show the alternator->VR connector. Something happened there. This was probably a very high impedance connection and may very well have looked like an open when the bike finally bit it... Cleaning the connectors is going to be a bear, they got very hot and are a bit deformed. Anyone know what that connector is, so I can splice in new ones? [N/M I found some weather pack connectors in my stash, I will try those...] VR Connector: Alternator side of the same connector:

Yeah, I put in on a slow charge/diagnostic charger and it seems fine, but I may be able to take it into town tomorrow to get checked. Thanks, I can run those in the morning...

Truly, I did check and no loose ends. Have about 1000 miles on the new battery.

My Ballabio died on Wednesday. I was heading home and it started fine, then after a few miles started to sputter and died. The instruments (I have VDO electrics fitted) froze and the LCDs blanked shortly before the failure. After I coasted to a stop and it sat for a few minutes. I turned the bike on and the instruments came up and indicated the battery voltage was at 10.9V. The starter would not engage (solenoid just clicked). I got it home on a flatbed and charged the battery. This is a 1 month old battery, so I doubt it is the problem. This was at the end of the day and I don't normally monitor voltage, so it could have been floating on the battery for a long time. This morning the bike started right up, but the system voltage stayed at 12.2 which is what the battery was showing prior to starting. Looks like the alternator or the VR is dead. Is there a way to test the reg?

Definitely a fried clutch. Some people that learned and spent lots of time on motorcycles with wet clutches (pretty much everything from Japan) like to slip clutches much more than they would in a car. Wet clutches can handle that. The MGs (and most BMWs and Ducatis) have a dry clutch which should be used like a car clutch: on or off with as little time as possible spent in between.

Battery would have nothing to do with it. You clearly have a fuel problem. That is the only way to make things hot on an air cooled engine. I am not sure how you measured the 13.1 AFR. If you are relying on what the ECU is mapped for, vice actually measureing it with a wide band O2 sensor, then you could have sticky injectors.

I had a similar issue on a K75 I used to own. The rotors ran true with plenty of thickness. I changed the pads to a very agressive compound and bedded them in and the problem went away. My hypothesis is that I inadvertantly heat treated and hardened a section of rotor which resulted in a different CF. This caused the pulsing. In any event, it went away with new pads, but only AFTER agressive bedding.

As a matter of interest, do you know what amount of oil you had in there when you did that? Was it up at max on the stick? KB Oil level was pretty high up on the stick, not absolute max, but above half of the range.

Just for comparison, I was easily able to generate a low pressure light on acceleration in first and second with my 04 Ballabio. Engine had about 9000 miles on it when I picked up a sloppage plate. When I pulled the sump I inspected very carefully and it was surgically clean. I put the sloppage plate on and never saw the low pressure light again. I think you have more than one problem here.

Yeah, the old Spark was VERY tired. I don;t think it had more than a few more starts on it, even topped off with a charger. At least it let me get home from work!

I was asked what gauges I used. The Tach and Speedo are VDO Viewline Gauges. The Tach say it is for 4-6-8 cyl, but can be convinced to work with 2 cylinders.

Just thought I would add a data point: my OEM Spark 500 finally died today. Bike was sold in Mid 2003.

I have had a few people ask. I could probably do a small run, but, frankly, my machining skills are good enough for me, but not production...

I machined an adapter to go from the metric male thread to the SAE female thread. It helps to have a lathe. What is the internal thread on that part? If it is the GM thread used by the sender I have, it would be a very nice fit.