What Have You Done To Your Tdm Today?

[fixitsan]

Took my MK1 for an MOT today thinking I had done all that was needed. 

With my new tyres, new brake pads front and back, new carb rebuild kit, new fuel lines, new fork seals, new battery new stator, rebuilt wiring loom and a new horn and a replacement cam chain my bargain eBay find was looking promising.

I took it for a test ride yesterday and thought i needed bit more adjustment on the fuel mixture as it still bogged down under 2.5k rpm. No props I thought, do it after MOT.

It passed no probs but the tester said he had to jump start it. So I checked the regulator rectifier when I got home, on the way back to mine it ran like an absolute bag of nails.It would not rev cleanly at all.  I went to unplug the male rectifier connector from the wiring loom connector to find that the female connector block was missing. Previous bodger had just crimped on  female spade connectors directly to the stator wires and wedged them on to the rectifier male plug. Then cunningly wrapped them in magical black insulation tape and pushed them up behind the frame. As if that would stop them fusing together into a melted black mess.

Now Im not sure if running probs were due to no battery power or I have a fuel blockage, bad filter or have to take carbs off again. Had to order a new 4 way connector block as I just didn't have one anywhere.

 

Still, She passed her MOT, hooray.......

 

 

Good that it passed. I remember the day my mk1 bargain passed and on the way home the welded-on front sprocket came off, 400 yards from my house, and it was uphill all the way !

 

Sounds like you've got it sussed I would say. There probably shouldn't be any reverse flow from the battery back to the stator though, unless the rect/reg has fried a diode, if the battery isn't charging then it might have been because of the wiring problem you just found, and as the battery volts drop the ignition system suffers.

 

I would start with giving it a good charge and then run it, and check the battery volts as you rev it. If you've untangled the fried black tape and the wires no longer touch each other then it might have been all it needed.