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CX500 Cafe Fighter Build

Discussion in 'Motorcycles' started by white91formula, Jul 25, 2012.

  1. Sep 16, 2012 at 5:46 PM
    #61
    white91formula

    white91formula [OP] Well-Known Member

    Joined:
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    Boston, MA
    Vehicle:
    05 6speed TRD OR
    Few updates...

    first is ITS REGISTERED!

    second is after cleaning out/rebuilding the starter it starts right up and has no issues with the little battery which is awesome.

    third is i found this tank at a swap meet last weekend and thought it made the bike. leaving it old and weathered as i think it goes with the bike

    IMG_20120913_184459_22ee38da1d8fb34185d63c7fed2e6734d11cf5fe.jpg
    IMG_20120913_184512_164a674abe81536572dc3bcd064c81e6230aac69.jpg

    i also made front blinker mounts finally and mounted them still need to wire them in.

    IMG_20120915_125523_1054d1868e0443356efd7e8f4945d234c945a4d8.jpgIMG_20120915_125532_2369026b2096443866424741339145de031c04aa.jpg

    still trying to sort out the reving issue as it just wants to fall on its face, and i am going to make a exhaust baffle to to. i found out the timing advance pulsers are dead on the stator which kind of blows, but if i pick up the ignitech unit they wont matter anyways. Looking into that as we speak.
     
  2. Sep 17, 2012 at 3:19 AM
    #62
    kingston73

    kingston73 Well-Known Member

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    Looks good, I like that tank. The ignitec is a great upgrade even if the stator is working, and it's easy to install.
     
  3. Sep 19, 2012 at 5:18 PM
    #63
    white91formula

    white91formula [OP] Well-Known Member

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    Ballistic has some explaining to do... went down to the garage today and found this :eek:

    IMG_20120919_180727_zpsb6bcc54c_f572cccb2da3a098cd5e0f8822c2cef4d3ee2071.jpg
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  4. Sep 19, 2012 at 5:19 PM
    #64
    white91formula

    white91formula [OP] Well-Known Member

    Joined:
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    622
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    Male
    Boston, MA
    Vehicle:
    05 6speed TRD OR
    [​IMG]
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    IMG_20120919_182344_zps0533fab3_303b85bcc76a96a4d9d66a578fe1ed2c54f99e87.jpg
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    From what i can tell the positive battery terminal broke inside the battery and just spins, cant undo the screw to remove the cable and ended up having to break it off... after doing some research seems like that is a issue with these batteries. Must have caused a internal short and melted down. Im just pumped it didn't catch fire and burn the garage/house down. I have left numerous messages with ballistic and needless to say I am less than pleased about this. On a positive note I got it out of the bike just as I planned with out having to remove the engine which is good! and I picked up my Ignitech from Cobram. All wiring is fine, no melted wires, no popped fuses I dont get it
     
  5. Sep 19, 2012 at 5:32 PM
    #65
    kingston73

    kingston73 Well-Known Member

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    Holy crap, that's crazy. Glad it didn't wreck anything else, and really lucky it didn't happen when you were on the road.
     
  6. Sep 20, 2012 at 5:58 AM
    #66
    Pugga

    Pugga Pasti-Dip Free 1983 - 2015... It was a good run

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    Massachusetts
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    F-250 Land Yacht Mod
    Yikes :eek: Note to self: don't buy Ballistic batteries! I was looking at the pictures and wondering if you had to pull the engine to get the battery out, that just would have been insult to injury! Glad you were able to get it out and that it didn't do any damage to the bike or your house!
     
  7. Sep 20, 2012 at 6:36 AM
    #67
    white91formula

    white91formula [OP] Well-Known Member

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    I went through the bike with a fine tooth comb last night and checked it out pretty good for other damage or something that could have shorted this out. I found absolutely nothing. No broken wires, no melted wires, no shorts, no power draws, no blown/popped fuses nothing.

    The battery isn't being hit with a lot of heat from anything, and I haven't even really ran this thing long enough yet to even get it warmed up fully anyways since I was waiting for my new ignition control unit to come in. I have only ridden it once to the end of the street and back which was MAYBE 1/4 mile combined.

    Luckily when I designed the pocket in the frame for it, I did it so I could get it in and out with out taking the engine out. Its tight, but I am sure glad I didn't have to strip this thing down to the frame to get it out. I would have really been pissed at that point. I am also happy it didn't catch fire and burn the bike down, or worse the garage and house!!

    Its day 3 now and I still have not heard back from Ballistic. I have left them 2 voice mails and 2 emails thus far, as well as contacting the place I bought it from. I have sent them all of the pictures that are on here for them to see.

    From the Oogling I have done there seemed to be a problem with some people having the positive battery terminal breaking off internally and not being able to remove the screw to get the cable off. This is exactly what this one is doing and I had to break off the cable. My guess is when it broke inside it internally shorted itself out and melted down. You can clearly see that it melted from the inside out. Ballistic made good on the cases I found so I am sure they will with this also, just kind of frustrating since I haven't heard back from them yet.

    I will keep you all updated.
     
  8. Sep 25, 2012 at 4:25 PM
    #68
    white91formula

    white91formula [OP] Well-Known Member

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    Boston, MA
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    05 6speed TRD OR
    Got some more stuff done today while I hope a new battery is in the mail...

    got the ignitech installed. sucks i had made mounts for the stock CDI, but I made it work... kinda ha and not a fan of the messy wiring now... ill have to do something about that.

    IMG_20120925_172640_e4ed99e461a9e060ae9e4a78b6370d99a48eb127.jpg

    decided to make a baffle for the exhaust too... yes i know i could have gotten one cheap but i had the stuff to do it and if it doesnt work o well...

    cut a section and trim and hammer to fit back inside of itself...

    IMG_20120925_174531_03d3d6a11e863b0d5fb6771692fb8afdaf37a552.jpg
    IMG_20120925_174543_ee43b71e23c0968d870a5732d18dcad2df82e9f9.jpg

    section and hammer down to fit smaller OD tubing.

    IMG_20120925_175350_8c367e98f3ab6bd09433d5447166b277854c96c6.jpg

    cut some triangles and hammer down ... voila a baffle

    IMG_20120925_181310_4a8cef137bd7377aa5430b7ed302197f41e8d331.jpg
    IMG_20120925_182724_e6254fb6c188a7ec172cc8c31bb46c139b1f77a0.jpg
    IMG_20120925_181319_c9a322922c82729eb2956ddf203a6c90afd4b1de.jpg

    we will see how it sounds....
     
  9. Oct 3, 2012 at 5:20 AM
    #69
    white91formula

    white91formula [OP] Well-Known Member

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    Got a call back from Ballistic finally after about 8 voice mails and just as many emails and a few weeks. I actually got the call from the president of the company. He assured me that a new battery was on its way, should be here tomorrow sometime. Guess we will see then if the ignitech fixed the running issue and if my baffle works.

    Hopefully this doesnt happen again with the battery. They said they were seeing about a 4% failure of the batteries and most of them which were stripped/broken posts and melted batteries were caused by people over torquing the bolts on the terminals. I asked him if they had a spec so I didnt break the new one and he just aid 5-6 lbs... i asked him ft-lbs or in-lbs and he had no idea... From some googling I was seeing quite a few failures on these so IDK how accurate his 4% really was.
     
  10. Oct 3, 2012 at 6:10 AM
    #70
    kingston73

    kingston73 Well-Known Member

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    09 SR5 4.0L 4x4
    I feel like a 4% fail rate is pretty high, especially for something as critical as a battery! I think you just convinced me to never buy from them...
     
  11. Oct 3, 2012 at 1:22 PM
    #71
    dbkid05tacoma

    dbkid05tacoma Well-Known Member

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    Brooks
    Phoenix, Arizona
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    05 long travel 4.0L
    Total chaos long travel, fox 2.5 coil overs, glassworks unlimited fenders front and rear, DMZ fab motor mounts, Bilstien 5100s in the rear, k&n cold air intake, 33/12.5r17 red letter grabbers
    look up anti gravity batteries or the new shoria batteries. both are extremely light and the shoria is suppose to last like 10 years or something like that.
     
  12. Oct 5, 2012 at 8:32 AM
    #72
    white91formula

    white91formula [OP] Well-Known Member

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    Got the new battery last night and rode the bike to work today... found a few things out.

    First is I need to replace the ignition switch and connector on the wiring harness. THe previous owner did not believe in fuses and the connectors are all melted. This causes it to intermittently lose power and the bike to shut down. Looks like a winter project will be to do wiring on the bike!

    I have the replacement battery from ballistic and this one does not seem to be as powerful as the last one ... not sure why I am going to be calling them later on hopefully I will get through. The last one cranked the bike over no problem at all, this one really struggles.

    I dont think the bike is overcharging the battery. I tore apart the old melted one to try and figure out what happened. The positive terminal is connected to the cells with a thin piece of copper and it broke, got tangled up with the 4 small ground wires that go to each cell for the load balancing and shorted out the battery.

    First things I noticed (being a Mech Engineer) is that they have ROUND battery terminals molded into a plastic top. If you tighten them to much they twist and break off the connections... If they simply used square terminals that would get rid of all of their problems with terminals "stripping". I noticed a bunch of people saying that their batteries seemed to go dead while sitting on the shelf... I am wondering if the terminals broke lose when you were undoing them and caused it to go dead, heat from the battery operating would cause this to happen easier too... again the square terminals would resolve a lot of their issues.
     
  13. Oct 11, 2012 at 8:14 AM
    #73
    white91formula

    white91formula [OP] Well-Known Member

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    Been riding it, no idea how many miles i have put on it since there is no ODO but probably around 50ish miles so far

    seems to run good, needs jetting tweaked still.

    Only issue so far is i have to rotate the right side handle bar control assembly up as the starter button hits the tank when it is at full lock to the right :eek:
     
  14. Oct 12, 2012 at 10:29 AM
    #74
    white91formula

    white91formula [OP] Well-Known Member

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    Some pictures from yesterday.

    IMG_20121011_175251_zpsa363b348_64b1b71a870c195fb15054ccd8e37b2e908937a6.jpg
    IMG_20121011_175244_zpsf0b0866c_2752c65a4d125a2ed72b611812bd2a9b1f15339b.jpg
    IMG_20121011_175239_zps864d9b92_6ca524bcdb29e4f1264512fde910037325b55f0e.jpg
    IMG_20121011_175154_zpsd1cd2bd1_7315cb9480a57dfdde0c8878be5ef3aa6a50632e.jpg
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    IMG_20121011_175154_6652803935ef1f46b1f6e96149b5c398896f7406.jpg
     
  15. May 13, 2013 at 10:22 AM
    #75
    white91formula

    white91formula [OP] Well-Known Member

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    Digging this up from the dead. Was able to get it out and on the road this spring, but it needed a few things so it came apart again.

    More to come, but a few teaser pics

    IMG_20130512_160408_zps5a102985_b7d0a144176c62e52b9b724a1b499f70a2de9e41.jpg
    IMG_20130512_160420_zpsf0ae464a_59b24623c0c90d32a5809e24bd66d56a8435a48c.jpg
    IMG_20130512_160923_zps0902d7b7_f26e681478d6df5da3817cc6088b3c001301d2ff.jpg
     
  16. May 13, 2013 at 11:48 AM
    #76
    JLink

    JLink Well-Known Member

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    Lifted, Locked, Armored. Ready To Wheel.
    This was a fun read. Sweet little bike you have there. Lots of nice work. :thumbsup:
     
  17. May 13, 2013 at 12:31 PM
    #77
    A_Ninja_Racer

    A_Ninja_Racer Well-Known Member

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    Yeah I can't wait to see what's next on this.
     
  18. May 13, 2013 at 12:40 PM
    #78
    BAMFTACO

    BAMFTACO Another day another beer

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    Kings bruh
    Looking good op I like that tank defenitly fits the bike
     
  19. May 13, 2013 at 1:01 PM
    #79
    ntilehman

    ntilehman Well-Known Member

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    Rock Sliders Front Light Bar +1.5" Front Arms with Ext. Kings
    Looks great. Cool idea for the bike. Get a sound clip with that wicked looking baffle when it's running again.
     
  20. May 22, 2013 at 4:35 PM
    #80
    white91formula

    white91formula [OP] Well-Known Member

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    Been busy with work so progress has been slow. Got a few hours tonight out in the garage tonight so i took advantage of it

    here is how she looked after about 30 minutes

    IMG_20130518_105723_zps108350bb_2e6d960941fb29022fef05c9e73e9e16221915ce.jpg

    started drilling out the spot welds on the headlight ears (yes i know i could have slid the sleeves off) and will be making new mounts for the new headlight, more to come on that

    IMG_20130518_111210_zps32221e8e_21d6728a4bf1732c7f956d944ea4ba2036b711ba.jpg

    started cutting and go a little carried away. rough cut on everything and will smooth everything out next

    IMG_20130522_185307_zps144025f1_e17ef30b7ea7657734124c5cfe80a53ee7343029.jpg
    IMG_20130522_185435_zps013b6aa3_1af91ae766ca00cc8d096e496e9ac9e7d2922f9a.jpg

    Guess you can guess whats next

    IMG_20130522_185455_zpsc58fb5f2_17107e4a9ddc2933f8eedb2f5a5d7ec2a5a26152.jpg

    hopefully I will get some time in the garage this weekend.
     

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