The FrankenBrick Smart BMW build

[Diesel Dave]

Needs to light up with the vehicle lighting (and remain on).

Cyclists do ride at night....(I'm an ex Audav rider so used to riding between 200 and 1200 km events so sometimes that two consecutive nights on the road)

[cheesy]

Needs to light up with the vehicle lighting (and remain on).

Cyclists do ride at night....(I'm an ex Audav rider so used to riding between 200 and 1200 km events so sometimes that two consecutive nights on the road)

PBP 1991 myself

[touchwoodsden]

Needs to light up with the vehicle lighting (and remain on).

Cyclists do ride at night....(I'm an ex Audav rider so used to riding between 200 and 1200 km events so sometimes that two consecutive nights on the road)

Interesting. Do you have the section Dave?

[touchwoodsden]

Well, I went down to Norfolk today.
A days holiday to see Specialist Control Solutions, Simon and Matthew.
I was up at 4 AM.
Bath (wallowing my own dirt), shaved, breakfasted, parrots and cats fed, and on the road by 0445.
Satnav and AA route finder and Google Maps couldn’t decide on which route so I followed AA route finder.
Some hold-up on M6, around Birmingham even at the crack of tweet and also on the A14.
Took me 5 ½ hours to get there.
I did have an inspiration and bought four bottles of Coke and a bag full of sandwiches from Asda for buttons. Sandwiches from Asda are a quid and yet on the motorway they are almost 4 quid. Hence, I was eating on the hoof.
According to the satnav, the journey back was going to be much quicker which was some bizarre reason went via the M 62. As there were major delays, I went over the Snake pass on the way back which was quite pleasant.
Eventually arrived home shortly before 8:30 PM. A long day.
Anyway, what happened at SCS.
Well both Simon and Matthew could not have been more hospitable or helpful.
I won’t bore you with all the detail but the problem which led to me having to go down to Norfolk from the wilds of North Wales the computer could not see the ECU and it couldn’t do that, we couldn’t adjust all the settings.
There is a dongle which plugs into the laptop and the computer could see the dongle the computer couldn’t see the ECU.
I had previously returned the dongle for testing along with the leads and plugs and the ECU and the Injector Driver Module. Everything tested fine.
It was sent back to me and it still didn’t work for me.
Well, lo and behold, when I got down to Norfolk, it didn’t work there either! Result! At least we knew what the problem was.
After 10 minutes of ignition off, ignition on, crank, off, on, crank, et cetera et cetera. Twist the grip. Twist the grip. Ignition on, off et cetera et cetera. It was time to try a Fart.
It made a few hiccups.
Now we know that Joe Lamont from Kilmarnock had the same problem and for some reason the 1 and 3 injector leads were inverted. It seems that either the wiring schedule is incorrect or the innards of the Injector Driver Module are incorrect. So, a quick swap round of 1 and 2 injector connections saw us cooking on gas (or should that be “ Suckin’ Diesel”?). As the song goes, “what a beautiful noise?”.
Anyway, having sorted that problem Simon made all the necessary adjustments to the ECU in not much time at all and I even came away with a replacement and updated dongle. Absolutely fantastic.
If you are building a Smart engine bike, and you’re absolutely certain that you’ve connected everything correctly, don’t mess about, take it down, they will sort it, and you will come home with a really .

I got to do some wiring tidying and some other odd jobs and we have discovered that the alternator isn’t charging. I’m going to have a little play with that tomorrow.

I will post a video of the engine running, when I get a moment. I need to resolve the charging problem.

[Tetronator]

Hurray, it lives!

[BertTrack]

Congratulations!

[Eddy Wane]

So it was a goosed dongle after all. Excellent news.

[cheesy]

Yay!

[touchwoodsden]

Went for MOT today.
4 fail points. Steering head bearings loose (they are new and haven’t bedded in), leaky fork seal (me, knob head, should have replaced and while the forks are apart!), Rear number plate too small (all mine are slightly too small), and main beam and dipped beam are the wrong way round on the switch.

The forks are out already, steering head bearings tightened,, and I’ll pick some seals up in the morning if I can’t get any tonight.
I have the key to my mates bike shop I going to pop down there in a moment to see if he has any on the off chance. They are an odd size (typical BMW), 41.4mm but I figured what is 0.4 mm between friends if he has 41mm ones.
I just want to get it finished and have a little blast.
It will be back together and tested by midday tomorrow.
Now, the burning question. What does it go like?
It goes like stink and pulls like a train in all gears.
There is a lot of torque reaction when you blip the throttle but that’s to be expected with an in-line engine.
There is some vibration but nothing spectacular.
I will take some videos at some stage. The jury is out on the half fairing

[gilburton]

Not bad after a major rebuild. Next time take the oil out of the forks and it won't leak

[touchwoodsden]

Not bad after a major rebuild. Next time take the oil out of the forks and it won't leak

I have done that before. I have found spare pair of legs so am fitting those to night
If they leak I am not much worse off

[touchwoodsden]

Sorted. Fingers Xd that the replacements dont leak. They didnt when they were taken off.
Off for retest 1st thing

[touchwoodsden]

Not normally, that would be done by the liquidator.
I have MoT and I have tax.
I think the takeover needs speeding up a little. I’m going to have to make a cover for the alternator and water pump drive belt and for the alternator itself to keep the weather off it.
There is one minor glitch which I need to sort that is the cylinder head cam box breather is dripping oil. My fault, because the breather point downwards and hence oil can drip out whereas needs to point slightly upwards so that it breaths but any oil drips down the tube and back into the cam box.
Paying down today, so good days were doing the work and their is a forecast of a few hours sun tomorrow so I might have a little ride out.
Seems strange pulling into the fuel station today and filling it up with diesel.
I might make Hamm next weekend yet.
The grand plan was to get the Thursday night boat from Hull but I haven’t even checked it is Thursday night boat!
We shall see.

[Tetronator]

If you can show up on the hook of holland port on Friday by 06:30 AM I can treat you to a nice ride trough the Netherlands to Hamm.

https://www.dieselbikeforum.com/view ... 983#p23983

[touchwoodsden]

Thanks for the offer. That would have been brilliant but the ferry to the Hook is from Harwich which 5.5hrs ride from me. Hull is a boring 2.5hrs.
kind regards.

[Tetronator]

Seems to me that the Hull ferry also ends up in Rotterdam tough... Am I missing something?

[touchwoodsden]

DOH. How far from Rotterdam is Hook? It says 40 mins on the directions thingamabub but 5 mins as the crow flies which cant be done cos of the water in between the two!
Will see how shakedown ride goes today.

[touchwoodsden]

Hull to RD arrives RD 0815 Fri morning
Return departs Sunday eve at 2030
Cheapest I can get is £297. Does anyone have a code?

[Diesel Dave]

Alex just choose a spot on route where we can meet up, we have to pass Rotterdam anyway...

[touchwoodsden]

https://www.dieselbikeforum.com/view ... =31&t=3216

[touchwoodsden]

DSC05014

Piccy on its way to have ECU sorted.

I did 1st rideout today.

I did 50 miles.
25 each way and a cup of tea in the middle.
The engine breather which comes out of the rocker box blowing oil mist which would normally be taken into the air filter.
I think I’m going to have to try to make some kind of container to take the filter to allow the oil to drain back into the cam box.
I’m not certain that I filled it with water correctly (perhaps there is a technique to filling the smart engine which used to be on its side but is now upright) because it was bubbling when I got back.
Not stinking hot, but the water was bubbling.
I’m going to have a little play with the breather first and then have a look at the cooling.
I may end up having to fit an electric water pump.
Other than that, it goes like stink, pulls like a train, and feels as though it needs another 2 gears, and I have the German high ratio gearbox and final drive gears also!

[mark_in_manchester]

Enjoying catching up on your thread now I'm back from holidays.

Ural bevel drive cover gaskets play a similar role in regulating backlash - but on those, you can shim the pinion in an out as well. 'In' for less play, 'out' for more; the shims are placed between the pinion gear and the large double-row bearing which locates it in the case, which itself screws up hard against a shoulder in a 'known' and fixed position. A shame that to get the largest (3.2:1) pinion into the case, one has to file away quite a lot of that shoulder - that caused me a lot of messing to make new shims substantial enough to handle an end-load while located on a rather precarious footing!

[Tetronator]

I sure hope you're riding it to Hamm and not pulling it there on a trailer.

The best shakedown run and you'll have the world's leading experts on diesel motorcycles to help you at your destination.

[klondikekid]

I had to, and maybe you need to, put a bleeder valve in your cooling system, I put mine on top of my thermostat housing, wich is the highest point of my cooling system to burp the trapped air out, I got the brass two piece valve from a auto parts store, lots of new cars use them.

[touchwoodsden]

I have asked on the Smartz forum if there is a bleed anywhere on the cylinder head, which apart from the radiator is the highest part of the system. I may end up having to drill one, the prospect of which is actually frightening in itself because knowing where to drill is not going to be particularly easy.
There are a couple of core plugs which would be prime candidates but they are not accessible.
Drilling and tapping and inserting a drain into the casting is no problem provided I know where to drill!


On a different note, I set the final drive up with the correct backlash and after doing 50 miles it was hot. More than warm but not really hot.

Is this normal with hypoid gears or should it be stone cold? I set it with the correct backlash but don’t know whether it settled down a bit.

I need to put another shim in the final drive wheel bearing and I would kill two birds with one stone but the wheel bearing issue was only an advisory on the MOT so it could wait.

I don’t want to do hundreds of miles and trashing the (expensive) gears for the sake of a couple of hours but then again, don’t want to take the whole thing apart if some amount of heat is normal.

[touchwoodsden]

I had to, and maybe you need to, put a bleeder valve in your cooling system, I put mine on top of my thermostat housing, wich is the highest point of my cooling system to burp the trapped air out, I got the brass two piece valve from a auto parts store, lots of new cars use them.

The highest point in the smart when its lying down at5 45 deg as in the car is the temperature sensor which clips in.

[touchwoodsden]

My first (hopefully the last) breakdown last night.
There were a few puffs of smoke and the engine knocked a bit no more than a few seconds and a few more puffs of smoke and I quickly shut the engine off.
It wouldn’t start. It sounded mechanically fine but the smoke was worrying.
I was about 5 miles from home all downhill so I freewheeled 2 miles called a mate of mine to go and get my trailer. He arrived within about 30 seconds (without trailer) because he was about a quarter of a mile away from where I was stopped!
His car had not got a towbar and his wife had the car with towbar. Whilst he was trying to contact her, I thought I will have a look on the off chance that a fuse has blown.
There are only 2 fuses serve the ECU. One permanently live and the other switched live.
I need to find out what the recommended fuses should be because I had only used five amp. It had not blown through a short circuit, it had blown through overheating.
Replace the fuse. Job sorted.
We drop the bike off and went to Wetherspoon’s.
Celebration in order.

[Diesel Dave]

At least it happened close to home....

[touchwoodsden]

I emailed Simon at Specialist Control Systems today. I must admit, both he and Matthew could not be more helpful. They usually email me back within minutes.
He said he’s not surprised that the fuse blew as the switch live should be 15 not 5 amp and the permanently live should be 10 not 5 amp.
I’m going to fit a turbo oil separator in the cam box breather and if you look at this one from Tolsen on the Smartz forum it is really neat. http://www.smartz.co.uk/showthread.php? ... post265953
He has been really helpful and I have to thank him a lot for is helping general with the car parts.
Meanwhile, I have fitted a piece of copper tube in the end of the breather pipe and stuck that into the air filter (Heath Robinson but actually looks okay.).
It will use a little oil in the interim but it’s better than having it blowing all over the back of the bike. I did about 10 miles today with the oil breather modification and it works really well.
The only other thing which I was concerned about was the overheating issue but that appears to be because I didn’t bleed it properly.
I did about 15 miles today and there were just a few drips out of the overflow. The system was completely full. I have zip tied a clear plastic bottle to act as a rudimentary catch tank/expansion tank and then I can see how much water is being blown out if any.
I may end up fitting an expansion tank but at the moment, the header tank of the radiator is doing the same job. Early classic minis (same radiator) didn’t have an expansion tank. They seem to be a modern thing.
Finally, the classic mini radiator fan switch is, for some bizarre reason, in the bottom tank of the radiator not the top which is where you would have expected it to be. I haven’t yet heard the phone come on but then again I haven’t spent a lot of time in traffic. I think therefore, that in the short term, I am going to fit and override switch to be safe rather than sorry.
I’m still pleased with the way it goes, like a train!
I filled it almost to the top with diesel the other day and I’ve done 70 miles and it still filled almost to the top with diesel so my guess the moment is that it’s doing about 120 miles to the gallon but that’s just my guess. I am as you appreciate, being optimistic although I didn’t build it for fantastic fuel consumption, I built it because I could.
The noise from the exhaust with just the turbo is absolutely fantastic.
I’m hoping still to get to Hamm on Thursday night ferry from Hull provided I can get final shakedown done tomorrow and get a ticket.
If its OK after 50miles tomorrow, then it's as ready as it can ever be I guess.

[Tetronator]

Great news! Be sure to let us know.