Info Manual

Too many problems may be felt within the clutch system of small commuter motorcycles if it is not given some time to be checked at least every 5 years depending on the mileage and the way the motorcycle is driven. Nowadays, friction plates are getting cheaper. but the process of inspecting this critical part of any motorcycle is not an easy task especially if it is a multi-plate, wet clutch system. Often times, clutch drag and slipping clutch is a very common problem we may encounter.

Photo shown came from a 10 year old 125cc motorcycle, it was never been inspected up until this writing. The friction plate provided the groove to where the rest during operation. Notice the four groove s only at one side of the clutch basket (the other side do not actually have it, since the motorcycle is being kept moving forward and the rotation is always clockwise).

This photo shows how the friction plates and the steel plates are netted together inside the outer clutch basket.

They are stack in a friction plate followed by steel plates alternately, and is covered by the inner plate with the clutch spring attached to it.

If you want to know how this system works.You can watch it here to be familiar with it.


The Outer clutch basket i think is in lieu for replacement, but up to this writing, with no enough resources to do so, i will re use it and instead will be modifying it to accept an additional steel plate and another friction plate to make it a FIVE (5) piece clutch system..

Note: The whole procedure of the modification will not be discussed, for the stock clutch basket is not intended for an additional friction plates. Replacing washers, taking the tight clearances of the whole basket must be considered and any miscalculation on anyone's part will be a disastrous one inside the engine. So this modification is not for the masses. 

The next photo will reveal that it is indeed too tight for an additional friction plates and steel plates on a stock hub or stock clutch basket.

The look of the STOCK with four plates attached.

The look of the MODDED stock basket with five plates installed.

Now I know many of you will ask?

What is the ADVANTAGE of having a stock four friction plate on a modded five friction plate installed?

Ans: I did try to test drive it to see if i can still shift to any gears, that because of the tight spaces between the friction plate and the steel plate, as i read from the internet, only a small gap is needed to release the tension on each and one of them to DISENGAGED the whole clutch system from driving the the drive shaft.

The torque of power transfer within the system improves. The motorcycle now pulls a lot of it during uphill climb that even on my third gear..

(By the way the stock sprocket of my motorcycle is 14/35 to where it was change to 16/34 prior to the modded clutch system and do not pull at third gear on uphill with four piece friction plates.)

I wanted to test it on a stock combination to feel the difference but up to this moment i am enjoying the current 16/34 (low speed sprocket ratio)..

Again, the POWER TRANSFER of the crankshaft to the drive shaft by the clutch was improved.

Lesson to be learned from here is that.

1. Often times when you are replacing the FRICTION plates on your motorcycle when it is time for the replacement, be sure to check the outer basket for groove. The groove makes the friction plate stick on it, thereby making it difficult to shift at times..no many times, because when the plate is stuck they do not disengaged with the steel plates.So better check it.

2. Do not grind the groove, friction plate must not have slack on that area. if the groove is too much..replace the whole clutch basket, inner and outer is a MUST.

This are some DC-CDI opened black boxes with its epoxy filled removed, and to understand and be familiar with each CDI being offered in the market, i may say some are almost identical and some are too complex to experiment with.

Here, a DC-cdi picture from whom an emailer sent to me and asking for some help. credit to you and thanks, I labeled this in order for others to understand which is which and what to look for.

Let us take a look inside the speedometer panel of a suzuki shogun 125cc, as shown on the left with speedometer pointer  and lcd remove. The main controller of this panel is a chip made by fujitsu with part number MB89943 which is an 8-bit cpu, controlling everything from the movement of the speedometer needle, lcd display. and counter. Data then are stored like odometer, speedometer reset, fuel gauge calibration on the a microwire bus eeprom with part number L46R.


 Shogun 125cc user espescially those 2006 model and below experiencing odometer stuck up to 99,999.9 and uncapable of resetting itself back to zero..unfortunately newer model already have its own data stored on the eeprom that resets the odometer after reaching the said value.


The only solution to this problem is to inject the new data stored on newer speedometer panel eeprom to IC5 (L46R) by using an eeprom programmer like IC prog with interface such as tait serial programmer and or JDM programmer.

Installing High Intensity Discharge on a small motorcycle which utilizes the Half Wave charging system will surely have lots of problem when it comes to battery not being charge to the fullest when using HID. This kind of lighting system actually not common to users consume a lot of current from striking the bulb all the way up to where it stabilizes. Even the re-striking from momentarily turning off the HID SYSTEM consumes battery power.

How to compensate for the loss of charge when using HID system?...The answer, by converting the original half wave system into a full wave generator, by altering the winding of the generator inside the crankcase. Looking at the graph of each type below.



By analyzing each of the graph generated by such system, it is very obvious that the full wave 3P when rectified and filtered produces a clean stable dc, that is why many sportsbike and higher displacement machine uses this kind of system. But why do they not used this on smaller bikes like moped and scooters.

Probably because of COST and size of the system. that is why manufacturers, instead relied on the low cost smaller size half wave generator system for carbureted type small machines. We cannot denied the fact, low cost means limited function.

Fuel injected nowadays been incorporated to small bikes like Shogun FI, honda scoopy I, and almost but not all bikes in thailand uses FI uses the three phase system already, so fitting HID system is of no trouble.

But how about to carbureted type?

It can be done, again by changing and converting it to full wave system to generate a more stable dc that will charge the onboard battery and compensate the losses done by the HID system..

FURTHERMORE, never insist the half wave system is enough for hid installation. It is simply not enough even if upgrading to a larger battery capacity.

Disclaimer: I will not held responsible if something goes wrong upon using this conversion without enough knowledge of how the system works, and electrical / technical skills at hand.. BE ADVISED that this modification is not intended for beginner or first time doing it. 

Getting deeper.

Materials needed.

1. full wave rectifier / regulator (known as R / R too many) like this Full wave regulator 5 wire
2. soldering iron at least 50-100watts
3. high temp insulator tube  
4. OPTIONAL : New crankcase cover gasket (when returning the modified stator and placing the cover back to the engine) 
5. A digital or analog multimeter (tester too many)

This stator is from a Suzuki SKYWAVE 125cc, same with shogun FD125XRM and Shogun FL125. There are three wire soldered to its connector base, find the ground by using a mutimeter set to OHMS , connect the black probe to the stator body and red probe to any of the three soldered wires.

The one with the lowest reading of the three is the wire connected directly to ground, with the highest being the end of the winding that will be used later, the last winding will not be used since it is the lighting coil output and will be disregarded all through out the procedure.

Remove the soldered wire to the stator body to FLOAT all windings...(all windings must not touch the body of the stator, full wave will have its own ground via the BRIDGE rectifier of the FULL wave regulator.)

With the ground wire desoldered from its original position, insert the high temperature tube and solder the wire removed from the lighting coil..

FOR SHOGUN its the yellow wire with white strip.

For other brand..please follow your wiring diagram.


what we trying to do here is getting the two end of the stator winding and removing the GROUND from the stator body as shown on the illustration.


when done, first is first..check for continuity and resistance of the whole winding before returning back the cover to ensure everything done is OK!!

Getting ready to wire the regulator from the modified generator



It is very difficult to know if the purchased R/R is a half wave or full wave if check only by appearance although manufacturers uses color coded wire like the photo shown, perhaps by using a diode tester (multimeters) and check every wire, we might be able to distinguished them. As i had told you, there are 4 pin and 5pin full wave available out in the market. If in a way you find such like as shown then probability is they are the same.



By following the color of the wires

1. Green -- ground
2. Red    -- to battery positive line
3. Yellow -- to charging coil (any of the two winding out from the stator)
4. Pink --- to charging coil (interchangeable with yellow)
5. Black --- To after ignition key switch

To be sure and safe, for this test use appropriate FUSE  within the positive line going to the battery. its the last line of defense when it comes to possible wrong connection.

Disconnect all loads from the battery, if you have access to another way of supplying your CD ignition then do so..because we have to start the engine to perform TEST. with the help of the multimeter set to DC voltage. tap it to the battery that is connected to the regulator..

GREEN to black probe
RED to red probe

check voltage....you are reading the battery voltage, on the ignition key and take a look at value, after turning on the key engine OFF, the voltage must not be dropping and stay close to the initial reading.

kick the KICK starter, and stay it at idle, monitor the voltage. READING must now be moving up possible to 13 volts or 14 volts..(depends on the condition of the battery)..

SLOWLY REV the engine while monitoring the voltage reading of the tester.....

as you are revving the engine..voltage must stay close to 15 volts not over 16 volts (overcharging threshold of lead acid battery)..

if all test performed are ok with regulator not to temperature....PUT a load on the battery such as your HID installed...then start the SAME TEST again...

at first when you turn on the High intensity discharge system..at IDLE the voltage must not be dropping and will stay close to 12-13 volts..

if it is, then the system is already working..By looking at the graph above..FULL wave due to the better DC filtering, at idle or low rpm still charging the battery unlike the HALF wave where in the dc is fluctuating.

Full wave also has a better shunting than half wave to the configuration of the rectifying diodes.


NOW u can enjoy your HID system, just make sure you are responsible enough to stoop down the beam for others. happy motoring.



NOTE: since the lighting coil is disconnected and no longer used, all that was connected before will be redirected to the battery being battery operated.

UPDATED

For the full schematic diagram of the regulator on this article, you can visit this link

FULL WAVE REGULATOR SCHEMATIC

VIDEO of this conversion. (many thanks to Thiago Ken Fuzita)

Shogun FD125xrm, FL125 carburetor are not so difficult to tune for optimal mixture and for maximum performance. Newbies or those who is just beginning to ride a motorcycle of course tend to drop by at any shop they spotted just to make their bike tune in for no particular reason for a carbureted bike without altering intake and exhaust system definitely will not give any problems unless they are ridden hard, usage of poor quality gasoline, using fuel additives, and or riding in a dust prone areas to where the airbox or intake system will accumulate dust particles that will clog the paper air filter of the box.

Fine tuning of the carburetor is sometimes not nescessary if you are just changing air filter, but when it is time for carburetor maintenance, some of the problems may be noticeable as follows below

High power leds from 1 watt up to 5o watts of power needs a constant current driver in order to gain a respectful efficiency, than just using those big bulky white coated limiting resistors, that not just only robs the total power of your leds, but produces poor efficiency that kills the potential of your LEDS.

A 1 watt high power leds in my opinion needs at least a 350mah constant current driver to produce its total luminance, whereas a 3 watts needs 700mah, a 5 watts needs a 1A driving current and so on and so forth.


In the picture above, is a 3 watts X 3 watts high power leds made by SEOUL semicon model P4 i ordered online. It been driven at a selectable switch in a 350mah and 700mah constant current configuration, using a switching mode type circuit. Commonly known circuit that can be used are, NCP3063 by ON semiconductor
LM3404 by national , the cheaper MC34063 by motorola...etc etc.

sample circuit as shown here:

Troubleshooting wiring of any scooter or under bone type of motorcycles is easier if we have a handy schematic of the bike. When adding accessories, we need to determine what color of the wire is the right path of tapping anything to avoid electrical problems, such as blown fuse, wire heating up, etc.

Shown is the full wiring diagram of FL125 brand motorcycle by suzuki.

This is my digital tachometer i made a long time ago on my suzuki shogun 125cc and still in active up to date. The tachometer incorporates a programmable shift lights, the red line can be programmed depends on where to shift at a certified RPM...watch the video to see it in action.

Suzuki Ph is introducing a new model soon and will be called SHOGUN AXELO. This model was been released all over asia-pacific such as indonesia, vietnam, malaysia and thailand, and long overdue to enter the market.

Equipped with a 125cc engine alike its predecessor, the shogun tulisan, This variant will have the first FUEL INJECTED underbone commuter bike that will be released by suzuki ph.

Many enthusiast and motorcycle rider ride their bike, using electric starter to start the engine undoubtly knowing the battery gone flat, charging system might have gone down but no visual indicator that the system indeed is not charging or have problems...so in the first place why not build one to visualize you anything bout  battery voltage on board the bike.

Using pic microcontroller and little components, you can create one like as shown.

 Ever wonder how a gear position sensor of small bikes look like, photo shown is where it is located. This sensor from a Suzuki Shogun 125cc is located near the front sprocket, the transmission shift of this bike is 1 down 3 up with neutral in the middle of 1st gear and 2nd gear.

 After removing the two screws that hold the sensor on the engine, upon pulling out, you will notice the contact with 4 big circle and 1 small which is the neutral, it works actually by contacting it with ground.
 This is how it looks like after the sensor is remove, notice the single PIN which rotates in accordance with the selected gear and will contact with the dot on the sensor. it can be remove to adjust the tension of the spring to make it stiffer and allow it to contact more with the switch, if u have problems of intermittent like i do this is where the problem exist and not with-in your panel indicators.

Motorcycle alarm is one of the very important gadgets when it comes to securing your bike from all sort of crooks. It is already BER months and they are on the loose again. Alarm comes from a variety from simple up to those wireless sophisticated GSM based units. Sometimes they incorporate GPS tracking system just to monitor where the bike was after being bikenapped by those crooks, but not all can afford this kind of bike security. Motorcycle can be stolen anywhere, when parked, and or moving. The only last line of defense is having at least an immobilizer that is timed when a hidden button is switched on after the bike get stolen.

OVERVIEW

What i have in mind is to make a circuit that when the motorcycle is park, inside the compartment is a hidden switch to activate the alarm system that when the bike is move or tilted from its position, a TILT switch will then  activate the circuit and timer will start counting on the desired pre adjusted time before any audible or visual indication commence. I been thinking  also of fitting a way of contacting any of your android based phone but this will mean a microcontroller and an additional low tech phone as well and will only make the system more complex for starters. But for now i wanted to make it simple and yet enough to immobilize any attempt of bikenap.

Another scenario of stoling the bike is when you are moving then suddenly a gun  pointed at you and to be spared is just  give the bike where they just drive it, then the bike is way gone. So why not put an IMMOBILIZER circuit that when this happens, a simple push on a switch will timed the circuit and shall deactivate the ignition entirely up until they cannot start the bike ignition. In this way, they might just leave the bike nearby and allow you also to buy time to call for help..

These are those simple measure i have in mind and this article will cover how to make one and install it within your motorcycle.

PROPOSED CIRCUIT

555 timer IC is the best for this kind of application, Cheap but so powerful when it comes to timing circuit. There are lot of design  all over the internet, and almost have the same configuration. In order to pick the pre adjusted time such as 10 sec , 25 sec or all the way up to 3 minutes delay, it is best to use a DIP switch rather than a trimmer.

Digital speedometer like those found in a suzuki shogun 125 and raider 150 wherein there is no cable attached to front end of the bike uses the so called, GEAR TOOTH magnetic sensor, as shown in the picture.













This is bolted in the area where the front sprocket shaft is as shown below

As the gear spins or turns, each spline or tooth in it will be detected by the magnet as it passes and a corresponding electrical pulse is sent out. The faster the gear spins the faster the electrical pulses the sensor sends and thus a speed reading is made.

Follow up post about axelo 125 FI, unfortunately, suzuki ph will be introducing this commuter bike soon. Suzuki Shooter 115 FI, a 115cc underbone motorcycle equipped with fuel injected ignition, and will be first by suzuki to be introduced in the philippines. With the body i think derive from axelo 125, the engine is entirely different design fron their predecessor, smash titan 115cc.

Its been quite a while, we suzuki owners are waiting for them to come up with something more elegant and sporty looking cub, in line with the shogun series, now comes the new Suzuki Shogun Axelo 125cc revealed in indonesia last januray 5. Compared to the late model, Shogun Tulisan, (we called this shogun by this name because of the curve of the body kits) the Axelo has more look that will make an impact on the motorcycle market. The engine is still a 125cc single overhead cam, air cooled, which was derived from its successor, with an engine balancer to minimize vibration. A new cast wheel design, new front cowling, and overall aerodynamics, in this we are eager to see this on the road travelling here in the philippines very soon.

Specification:
1-cylinder, 4 stroke, SOHC
Piston Diameter: 53.5 mm
Stroke: 55.2 mm
Capacity: 124 cc
Power max: 9.6 PS@8.000 rpm
(standard and S), 10 PS@8.500 rpm (R)

Torque max: 10 Nm@6.000 rpm
(standard and S), 9.9 Nm@6.000 rpm (R)

CDI from DENSO to mitsubushi equipped with anti knock at 9800 rpm
Valve angle of 24 degrees (in) and 26 degrees (ex), compression ratio 9,6:1, TPS, PAIR control valve and the engine balancer to minimize vibration of the engine, making its performance more excellent.

Ever wonder whats inside an OEM DC-CDI of kawasaki,
I got time to open up one just for all of my readers, with my step by step on how i did it without messing up the circuitry of the igniter. At first before i opened up this little black box. The Unit is covered with rubber epoxy and sometimes hardened epoxy to  avoid malfunction from moist and vibration of the motorcycle.

i tried not to mess up with the casing, unfortunately it didnt work for me, the plastic case is too brittle. slowly i chipped the casing with a diagonal cutter starting from the top cover. After hours doing the case thing. ,








The rubber epoxy will be exposed and time to strip it away so that the components of the board will be visible like this.
I used bamboo stick, (do not use hard pointed objects on clearing this epoxy, we do not know where the components are and might get damage by it)..so better yet use stick. ( i did not use any solvent to strip this...i need the entire board intact and the semiconductors un damage...

I was inspired to make and test a programmable cdi on my bench to see how it works realtime. By creating a simulator that will produce both a pulse and the speed of the output, to vary the spark at a certain RPM, we can determine if the cdi under test do have a LIMIT.

(thanks to sir thierry of france with this, he inspired me more to fully understand everything.)

Photo shown is a homemade DC-CDI,  got it from a site, more on that later.

Technical Specifications Engine Engine type Bore x Stroke Displacement Valves Compression ratio Max Power Max Torque Fuel system Transmission Final drive Clutch Ignition type Starting system Lubrication Intake system Spark plug Battery Gear ratios Air cooled, 4-stroke, SOHC, single cylinder 53.5 x 55.2 mm 124 cc 4 valves per cylinder 9.5:1 10.0 ps @ 8.500 rpm 0.98 kg-m @ 5.500 rpm MIKUNI VM 18 - 264 4-speed rotary Chain Suzuki DC-CDI (DIGITAL) Kick & electric starter NGK C6HSA/ ND U20FS-U 12 V (3,5 Ah)/10 HR7,0 L 1st 2nd 3rd 4th Dimensions Frame type Rake Overall length Overall width Overall height Wheelbase Seat height Ground clearance Weight Fuel capacity Suspension (front) Suspension (rear) Tyre (front) Tyre (rear) Brake (front) Brake (rear) Underbone - 1905 mm 715 mm 1075 mm 1220 mm 770 mm 135 mm 108 kg 4.3 litres Telescopic, coil spring, oil damped Swingarm type, coil spring, gas/oil damped 70/90-17 M/C 38P 80/90-17 M/C 44P Hydraulic disc 290 mm Hydraulic disc 220 mm Of all the shogun variant, this model impresses me by its color  combination, and with specs indicated above, i for sure will give suzuki philippines a better upper hand on its 125cc commuter bike if they will introduced it this year. Compared to its predessesor the Shogun PRO..(philippine brand) Shogun SP (indonesian brand), Best 125 (thailand brand), the night rider version not only with its look, that was changed, even the engine efficiency was totally upgraded, with a new crank balancer to minimize engine vibration, POWER and TORQUE was uplifted... maximum horsepower at 10,0 Ps/8.000 rpm and maximum torque at 0,98 Kg.m . 6.000 rpm, this data alone gave NR the upperhand on all 125cc commuter bike being offered on all asian countries.

Sliding clutch, delay of power, fuel consumption up. This are some of the reason the CLUTCH system of your shogun must be inspected, and in need of repairs.



This photo shows the internals of the right side crankcase cover of a manual transmission shogun. The release plate cover of the clutch spring has been removed to expose the 4 clutch spring, In order to remove the plate, you'll be needing the close wrench #10, two of them actually in order to counter the rotation of the clutch system when dismantling the release plate.



                                                                          

This is a closer view of the clutch spring, An OEM parts is fitted here, but there are other alternatives out in the market that differs in stiffness like KITTI racing clutch spring, as shown kitti


Making the clutch spring more stiff means extra performance on clutch grip thus improving torque and power but with the expense the life of your lining.



Other motorcycle enthusiast actually trying to replace 2 of the 4 spring with stiff ones to improve clutch grip with less effort on pressing the clutch lever, What they didnt know, it deformes the release plate and have an un even wear on the lining...Its better to replace 4 rather than two.