FIRE !!

[knockdolian]

Well for those of you that have had your bike/trike bust in to flames will appreciate what a fun morning I had on Monday. Ignition on, road out the workshop and WOOOOF up she went. Manager to put it out but the distributor vinyl cover and the wiring harness all toast. Been thinking about a rewrite for some time as all black wires is never a good idea. Makes fault finding very difficult . Anyone got a vinyl cover spair ?? Could have been a lot worse so just counting my blessings. My stupid fault. I cut a 2” hole in the center of the tank thinking the middle strip was just a joining fillet. It’s double skin and the tanks vent between the fillets. There wasn’t enough fuel to leak out until I braked and a bit of fuel must have gone over the distributor. Should get a new loome made over the weekend.

[BossHossMan]

Wow that had the makings of a major disaster. Amazing that you were to get the fire out so quickly with no more damage to your machine and no harm to you or your home. Good luck getting back on the road soon. Do you plan on wiring it yourself or would you buy a ready made harness?

[hogv8]

I know a guy that did the same thing . He was going to install a switch or a guage or something and he drilled thru the center of the tanks as you did except his tanks were low on gas . However he never noticed anything until at a gas station he filled the tanKS and smelled gas and found the problem before he fired it up avoiding a potential fire .

[knockdolian]

Wow that had the makings of a major disaster. Amazing that you were to get the fire out so quickly with no more damage to your machine and no harm to you or your home. Good luck getting back on the road soon. Do you plan on wiring it yourself or would you buy a ready made harness?

I’ll make the harness myself. I know that may sound like a bad ides given the stupid mistake I made. However I don’t think not realising that the tiny gap between the plates was a vent was so stupid. It’s probably only about .010”. I have wired many bikes, trikes and a couple of cars from scratch. The wiring when I got it was a real rats nest. I have a 4 day weekend this week so looking forward to it. I’ve sealed the tank with a special sealant used to repair Helecopter fuel tanks as I didn’t want to damage the custom paint. My only concern is the moulded plug on the distributor has melted a bit but should be ok. I’ll add some pictures over the weekend.

[Paul H]

I'm guessing your seat doesn't cover the dist???
The cover you're asking about, does it have
a draw string at the bottom??? If so I may have
one. I'll look soon.

Paul H

[knockdolian]

I'm guessing your seat doesn't cover the dist???
The cover you're asking about, does it have
a draw string at the bottom??? If so I may have
one. I'll look soon.

Paul H

Yes mate, that’s the one

[Paul H]

Sorry, I thought I had one. I knew right where
it was BUT It's not there. So I guess you're
out of luck as far as me having one.

Paul H

[knockdolian]

Sorry, I thought I had one. I knew right where
it was BUT It's not there. So I guess you're
out of luck as far as me having one.

Paul H

Thanks anyway.

[rocketsteve]

Sorry to read this Paul, at least we don't have the complication of ECM's and the like.

If that was the Wing - you'd probably be looking at more lengthy and tricky re-wiring job.

This is one of many things I love about the BH; it's such a great bike to work on

[knockdolian]

Sorry to read this Paul, at least we don't have the complication of ECM's and the like.

If that was the Wing - you'd probably be looking at more lengthy and tricky re-wiring job.

This is one of many things I love about the BH; it's such a great bike to work on

Agreed. Every day is a school day. Before the BH I had no experience with America kit. The Edlebrock carb is nothing like I’d ever seen before and that HEI distributor wow !!.
To make things even more complicated they have their own BSP thread. Their own wire sizes ( AWG) their own gallon and their own Queens English. Now let’s wait for the fall out !!!

[The Mindless Philosopher]

Good googly-moogly! I'm glad you managed to put the fire out and all's well! If you don't already have one, is there a good spot for mounting a small fire extinguisher on your trike?

[knockdolian]

Good googly-moogly! I'm glad you managed to put the fire out and all's well! If you don't already have one, is there a good spot for mounting a small fire extinguisher on your trike?

Yes, I’ll be looking at doing that. Get a nice chrome one. As I said lesson learned if you drill holes in a fuel tank it will leak!! Some of the damage

[The Mindless Philosopher]

Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! I'm glad it's an easy (though frustrating) fix!

[knockdolian]

I sarted with the starting and ignition circuits and in spite of the fact most of the damage was around the distributor I fired up fis go. Alls well.

Anyone need a used slightly chard harness !!!

[rocketsteve]

Great news, she's a good old girl!

[BossHossMan]

That's amazing. Good show!

[Zepman]

Great to hear it was caught in time, it's an easy mistake to make as gas tank venting is usually piped.

[knockdolian]

Great to hear it was caught in time, it's an easy mistake to make as gas tank venting is usually piped.

Thanks, as stated I’m not the first. Hope I’m the last which is why I posted it. Still, every cloud etc, new harness all colour coded and more circuits individually prorated by fuse. Two fuse boxes, one permanent live, one ignition live. All good.

[knockdolian]

Hi all, well after asking if anyone had a vinyl cover for the distributor with no joy and emailing BH direct with no answer. I’m guessing their not interested in people who can’t afford a new bike/ trike. Anyway moan over. I have sent the cover to someone who is willing to make one. Unfortunately mine is too damaged to get the measurements from. I can’t get to my Trike for a week now to measure the distributor. Can someone who has a vinyl cover PLEASE measure it for me. Diameter and depth. Thanks

[Lmbrier]

re...2-13-19 1257pm Hogv8..... that was me but i didn't catch it. she caught on fire with a just filled tank in a wal-mart parking lot and burned to the ground. i still have the carcass and i now have a 2000 sb. i love the 2000 b/c the other was a '95 clutch bike. Lincoln.