X-Pect Backroad Development

[China Rider 27]

Improving the routing of the taillights was on my “to do” list and yesterday I corrected that issue by routing it through the battery tray. It is tight but workable.

After removing the battery box disconnect the wires being sure to remember where they go or draw a diagram or mark them.



Drill two 3/8-inch holes in the back of the battery box tray. Gently work the wiring harness back and out and pull it over the top. Route the wires coming from the taillights through the holes in the battery box.



Reconnect the wires and I like to seal the entry with silicone. You will need to work it all around to fit together well.


free image sharing

This ones for you Boatguy! That other object in that box is the main fuse panel and it uses blade type fuses with two spares and a couple of extra slots nice! The other device is a signal flasher.

[thedakotakid]

Originally Posted by China Rider 27

Trivia: What inexpensive Chinese motorcycle comes from the factory tapped with a swing arm ZERT? If you know the answer post it up!

My Shineray has a zerk on the swingarm... too bad the threads are boogered up and it never stays tight or accepts grease

[China Rider 27]

Originally Posted by thedakotakid

My Shineray has a zerk on the swingarm... too bad the threads are boogered up and it never stays tight or accepts grease

Ah a winner! But there appears to be more than one China Bike factory tapped for a zerk! The mystery continues. As far as your grease zerk goes maybe you can chase the threads or tap it to the next larger size and then there is always JB Weld.

[China Rider 27]

The valves were tight as it came from the factory, I could not get a .05 mm feeler gauge under the intake or the exhaust and could feel little movement in the train. After some attempts pushing down on the rocker, I managed to force it under the exhaust. The engine timing as it came from the factory was later determined to have been just past the compression stroke TDC. A good thing for a boat ride as the valves were closed during the trip.







A pix showing some black residue on upper head.



The manual specifies clearance as 0.03 mm for the intake and 0.05 mm for the exhaust valve. That is a very tight spec and later it was apparently revised by Lifan to .06 mm intake and exhaust per a post reference below. The team does not see the need to run tight specs on a CG motor. By comparison, I have the HAWK set to intake .07 mm and exhaust .08 mm and I notice no excessive valve train noise.

http://www.chinariders.net/showpost....38&postcount=1

Breaking in a new motor I like the valve specs on the loose side. I set both intake and exhaust to .07 mm with a slight drag and an .08 mm feeler gauge will likely also clear. They are quite a pain at times to set, and I always have to do it multiple times. Every time I rotated the motor on this one to check it the lash would tighten up. This new valve train really needs to break in to do better adjustment. A salute to start up, I dribbled some Rotella 10-40W over the moving parts.



Spark Plug genuine NGK DR8EA, no wonder Boatguy has been on a roll!





I have said this before, but for real, this is the beginning of it going back together.

[Boatguy]

That little thing is the main fuse panel. Amazing. I’m glad you dug that up in this process. I’m sure I have some things blown there.

I was thinking. You should train a few people and provide this as a service. I wonder what it might cost? I sure would’ve been interested in buying this service.

I know you should know everything yourself. But I’m a boat guy. I know boats inside and out like you know this motorcycle inside and out. That’s my area. I understand engines, wiring, and all of that, but you have looked ahead many steps in the chess game to see what problems might happen in the future. That’s a whole different level. That’s much better than fixing something when it breaks. Which is the route I’m on with motorcycles.

[China Rider 27]

I have worked on a few boat motors and you can have it! Motorcycles are easy in comparison.

A China bike is inexpensive, I think it was Megadan said "for a reason" and if you want it dependable and reliable you are going to have to make it so. I just want to head off problems if I can and get the bike in the best mechanical shape possible because when I get it broken in I am going to ride it hard! I will say the X-pect from what I have seen has a pretty good out of box record of dependability or I would have never bought it, but it is still an inexpensive China bike and not free of issues.

[China Rider 27]

There have been several cases of wiring shorts in the steering neck area related to movement of the steering column. The Plastic Conduit cover on the wiring loom ends right at the neck. Several X-Pect owners have had shorts in the wiring as a result of wires rubbing in this area. In at least one case wires extended out past the conduit rubbed on the headlight/instrument mounting bracket until they caused a short. For overall reliability, let alone Backroad reliability, a review of the wiring routing in the headstock area needs to be completed and any rubbing areas corrected with protective conduit or consider re-routing. This is a time to look at all the cable and wiring routing to see if there are potential issues or if cables need to be re-routed to avoid problems or increase efficiency.





Pix of front brake line routing causing wiring to contact bracket. Not a simple fix, requires the brake line to be disconnected and then brakes bled, but it is best done during Backroad rebuild when you can change out the fluid too.



ELECTRICAL Connectors

There are two standard (non EFI) connector types, a multi pin and single bullet connectors. The multi pin use a hook through a slot to lock it in and some are very tight requiring using a flat tip screw driver to push down the locking notch and through the slot while also wiggling the connector. DO NOT pull on the wires whatever you do, just the connector. If you pull on the wires you risk disconnecting the wire or damaging it and you will have no connection. Better to leave it be than damage it! The bullet connectors are also very tight and I used two needle nose pliers to grab each connector at the back (not the wires) to pull them apart. The EFI connectors look different than the Multi pin and also have a seal around the wire where it goes in the back of the connector and they are located mostly next to EFI components. If in doubt, I would leave it alone.

Although it has a pin type release fastener the instrument cluster connector is sealed where it enters the unit. There are two multi pin-connectors in the wires just before the unit and it can be disconnected there if it needs removal. No need to mess with the connector at the unit.

Most of the standard connectors are located behind the headlamp under the instrument cluster.

[TominMO]

I nominate this thread for Thread of the Decade.

[China Rider 27]

Ha Hah! But only in the running for X-Pect owners.

[China Rider 27]

Something the Team has seen on all the China Bikes they have worked on is the restriction of the bubble weld in the Exhaust Header Pipe and therefore we could not rest the tear down until we investigated that issue and sure enough it does have a bubble weld in the header pipe that is slightly restrictive. The opening at the bubble weld measures 24.47 mm roughly across. The Head port exit diameter is 26.73 mm so roughly 2 mm restriction. I used a Dremel tool with a carbide cutter to cut the bubble weld back to pipe diameter with a slant toward the head exit opening with a final I.D of 27.7mm.

SAFETY: If you choose to do something like this be very careful and use protective eye and mouth protection. You can see those small sharp shards, very small, that will stick to fingers etc and you would not want to breath them in or get them in your eyes. I usually get one or two in my fingers and have to use a tweezer.





The header pipe O.D. at the head is 39.47 mm and the tail section where it enters the muffler joint is O.D. 31.9mm and I.D. 29.63. The Muffler joint is I.D. 37.38mm and there is a graphite gasket.



The muffler exit I.D. is 19.32mm so maybe this exercise has no final end improvement? But the team is of the mind to increase efficiency at every opportunity.


Exhaust header gasket was constructed of rolled metal with graphite coating shown in comparison to new header gasket which measures 39.97mm and is a spare gasket I had for the HAWK. The X Pect header pipe to muffler is a couple of mm smaller than the 230cc CG motor in O.D. and I.D. but the Header pipe is thicker where it joins the head to make up for that and it therefore fits the same gasket as the 230cc CG motor.



A picture of the exhaust port. Looks like there is some airflow to be gained there with some Head porting.

[Boatguy]

Excellent!!! And those metal shavings always end up in my living area, then my foot. Ugh. Good advice!

[China Rider 27]

As the CR27 Team was re-assembling the bike, it seemed like somebody was missing from the team and, oh yaa, that would be you guys, those following this thread! I mean you have been here from the beginning of this bike rebuild, you saw the tear down, so it did not seem right not to show you at least part of the rebuild and it is relevant to Backroad Development. The team got the front end back together and setup to good standards. I lubed the throttle and clutch cables per recommended lubricant on the HAWKS Resource thread, took apart the levers and lubricated with grease the center pins and contact points, and adjusted the throttle and clutch.

A strong electrical system is pretty important on this EFI bike so I removed the negative grounding cable and bolt from the engine and put anti seize (with copper for conduction) on the threads, sanded the wiring connector engine mounting location to remove the paint, and put some dielectric grease under the cable wire connector, bolt head, and engine attachment point which should prevent any corrosion and make disassembly easier should it ever be necessary.



A picture of the left side seal where the lip meets the spacer. The team packed the space inside the seal and between the seal and bearing with waterproof grease. Greasing the lip and the spacer prior to assembly ensures that seal lip is lubricated for long life. One of the teams pet peeves, a dry seal! On the speedometer drive gear right side, the rotating parts of the drive were lubricated and again waterproof grease gobbed in the space around and against the bearing and drive gear. The axle is lightly coated with grease to prevent rust. Ready for more than a few stream crossings do believe.





The Team wanted to make sure the wiring contact issues at the headstock were resolved so we spent some money and time obtaining ½ inch and ¾ inch plastic wiring conduit and added it where the stock conduit ends with a good taping. We then used zip ties to construct a support system top to bottom and side to side to keep the wiring loom off the head light bracket. We also re-routed the clutch cable from outside the loom to an inside location and disconnected the front brake line to reposition it from over the loom to a place under the loom.



HEADS UP! If you take apart the front brake line, be prepared to replace the copper washers that seal the line. We took this one apart, re-routed it and then re-filled it with fresh synthetic DOT 3 brake fluid, got it working good then realized the washers leaked at the master cylinder. Copper washers are used because they compress and after I had tightened it a couple of times it would not compress and seal. Sometimes you can get away with taking it off and replacing it and it will reseal but Murphy’s law rules, what can go wrong will, and it did today, so be ready. I happen to have a pack I got off amazon I was using for another purpose so I drained it and put new washers on. The team has done so much work on these China Bikes the garage is like a parts warehouse!



TRIVIA: What is the obvious and new addition to the bike from the picture?

[david3921]

Fork boots?

[China Rider 27]

Some guys are quicker than others!

[China Rider 27]

Working steadily on the improvement, I went it alone this weekend as I gave the CR27 crew the weekend off. Last thing I said to them yesterday was “stay out of jail”, and last I heard was them chanting “CG strong, ride hard” as down the street they went. Good with motorcycles but they are as my dad used to say “bridge building crew rough.”


Today I went after the rust on that gas tank and decided to post in case someone wanted to see how I did not necessarily how you should do it. I was going to use some rust converter called “Extend” made by loctite that turns rust black and then you can paint over it. I reasoned I could get it to flow into those crevices maybe better but after some thought I decided to use naval jelly and it worked well. Took three times to get it to my liking. The extend might be a good idea if you are not going to take it apart.


I didn’t want to take the gas sending unit out, I thought, “I will just hit it with the extend,” but there really is no good way to do the job without doing so, and you have to really get a look at it all to see the nature of the damage, so I sucked it up and did what needed to be done. The mounting bolts are square headed and held by a bracket but they move around. One of them was rusted solid. The good thing was the sealing surface for the rubber gasket was not damaged. The rust looks to have taken up where there was no or little paint sprayed. You can see in the final product we are down to bare metal in places. There is also a patch of surface rust on the inside of the tank down at the bottom on one side but that is for another day and time. Tomorrow, primer goes on.

Nature of the problem




Wire brushed






Naval Jelly at work





Drying for paint




Tomorrow