After having
some trouble with my fuel pump and determining that it was the wiring harness at fault, I got to try out CA Cycleworks' fuel flange wiring harness. Many thanks to Chris for making this happen.
First off, all the parts involved:
The kit from CA Cycleworks arrived, with the plug/wiring harness, two hose clamps, the Superseal connector shell and some push-nuts. I had to buy a pair of snap-ring pliers, the el-cheapo Harbor-Freight ones will do. The plug is turned from aluminum, with a rubber insert to clamp down on the wires. The rubber insert looks similar to ones I've seen in Amphenol MS-PT (mil-spec) connectors, and is held in with a snap ring. The wires on the outside are covered using braid, and come with AMP Superseal pins crimped on. The Superseal shell and face-plate are also provided. You need to match up the order of the pins with the existing one on the bike (pretty easy, wires are color-coded.) The outside length of the cable assembly is longer than stock by several inches. I think this is a good thing, the stock assembly gets stretched badly when the tank is in the upright position.
First step: disconnect the hose going to the filter outlet (I had to destroy the stock fuel clamp) and remove the plastic cover, after disconnecting all the connectors. Remove the snap ring.
The plug should now slide out of the flange. Here are the original plug (left) and the CA Cycleworks plug (right):
I slid the new plug back in place, and used a pair of wide-jaw vise grips to compress the o-ring in place. The snap ring then holds the plug in place:
Note that in this picture, the "jaws" of the snap ring are positioned incorrectly, they need to be turned inwards to avoid interfering with the plastic cover. Here's a shot from behind:
Replace the plastic cover, and use the push-nuts to hold it in place. I used sockets to push the nuts down, instead of spending $53 at McMaster for an insertion tool.
Not all the posts could be done quite right. One of the posts was surrounded by plastic, so the supplied push nut wouldn't quite sit right. It holds the plastic down, but just barely:
Another one was impossible using the supplied push nuts. Fortunately, I had one of the originals handy, so I re-used it:
I don't think it should be a problem to have three out of the four push nuts holding down the plastic assembly, I guess time will tell. Next, re-assemble the fuel outlet hose to the filter. You can use the hose clamps that came with the kit to do this, since the stock ones have to be destroyed to get them off. I thought I could replace the fuel filter at this point so I bought a Duralast FF3424DL from Autozone. Unfortunately, I found
one reference that claimed it was not compatible with FI engines, so I left the original in place.
I took the assembly out to the storage shed where my bike is and installed the flange. There were some minor issues with the quick-disconnects leaking gas, I think it was because they were cold. I fixed them up, but she wouldn't start - dead battery. Looks like the Shorai's are not invincible after all! Granted, it was about 18F at the time. I brought the battery back home and charged her up overnight using a WiFi access point power supply and a ballast resistor (~200 mA charge rate.) This morning, the bike coughed and sputtered, but eventually came to life. Here's a shot of Bella happily recharging her batteries:
Suggested changes in case Chris is listening: I'd add a strain relief of some type (like
this one) where the cable assembly leaves the plug, just to be safe. A right angle version would be useful to keep the cable from hitting the high-temperature parts of the engine right below the fuel flange. If possible, please include smaller OD push-nuts so that they all make complete contact.
All said and done, if I could do it, anyone can. A solution at last to the fuel flange issue! Once again, thanks to Chris at CA Cycleworks for putting in the time and effort to design the replacement plug.
Now all I need is some warmer weather...
