Performance CDI success!

Success story.

Hurrah! Eventually there's been an breakthrough on the performance CDI front. After having the afore mentioned problems I've finally found a worker.

I noticed on EBay somebody selling an performance CDI unit specifically for an XTRS, excellent I thought. However the unit sold together with an adaptor from round to square plug sold for £50.00.

Fifty quid for a CDI? The average price for these CDI units is about £12.00. All the other units I tried previously didn't even total that. It was because they were so cheap I tried a few out. No way I fancied paying well over those odds. You can't blame them though. Supply and demand and all that and I sure as heck had my problems finding one that works. However, I'm smarter than that. I took a good look at the unit visually then took off to AliExpress.

The unit itself was yellow (which isn't a bad thing now is it?), that made it standout for finding one elsewhere. I found some. One thing I noticed was that on one of the components on the CDI's circuit board there was a coloured sticker or marker. Some were brown, red, blue, green etc. I figure this meant there was some slight kind of difference between the units. The one on the EBay model was a yellow sticker, I found one with a yellow sticker and with a square plug, no need for an adaptor. For about £15.00 and decided to take a gamble on it being identical. Well it worked, so whether it was identical or not I don't know? I would highly think so but, it works, which is all that matters.

Identified on the case as:

CG series 50 - 300cc
SW- CDI29

Just searching these details in an internet search engine I found a few more, again on AliExpress. Remember, to get the lowest price available it would be up to you to shop around on that site or elsewhere.

Video:
 

Changing the front wheel / belly pan

Belly pan.

I have not really done much more to the bike since last time. There really isn't anything much more to be done in all honesty now anyway.

I've carbon fibre wrapped the belly pan (a term that's used here for the part, if not elsewhere) for the bike which lines up with the side fairings and covers the underside of the engine.

It's been of for so long after the fitting of the exhaust and looking like an open engined style bike that I had forgotten what it looked like in it's completeness. Much better in my honest opinion.

Front wheel change.

After a while I had noticed there was a thorn in the front tire. A particularly nasty, long, sharp thorn that had some how managed to penetrate all the way through the rubber. The funny thing was there wasn't even really much of a slow puncture situation with the thorn in. Pulled out all the air rushed out in minutes, put back in and pumped up it would last for weeks at around the same pressure. Shades of cycling, obviously though it had to be changed.

The most straight forward thing to do here was to remove the front wheel and go get the tire on it swapped over for a new one without having the possibility of having to leave the bike overnight somewhere due to back log while it gets sorted out.

This left me with a dilemma. The front of the bike needs to rest down, so I will need another bare wheel at least to replace the one I took off, resting it down on a plank of wood on the garage floor so neither the floor or wheel is damaged.

I would even get a spare wheel out of it while we're at it and Ebay was the best source, looking for online breakers. It didn't have to be a new one for what I needed it for. A cheap one would suffice here. One with a tire, even a worn one would be a bonus as I wouldn't need to rest it on a plank of wood. I got lucky, VERY lucky. Not only did I get an A+ condition wheel, disc brake and bearings with a tire on it, the the tire was a brand new Michelin Pilot Sport, still with the rubber bobbles around the outer edges intact (the same tire I was likely about to replace with new, there isn't too much option amongst the decent brands at this size out there). So in essence I got the new tire I needed and all that was required was a straight swap of the wheels. I won't say how much I paid for the wheel & tire but it was just under half the price I would have paid to get just the new tire put on, which is a big bonus, and about the same price as the standard Chinese replacement tires (which got punchered here and I suspect was on from the showroom as the bike is not many months old).

It still seems best to have a new tire put on the wheel I took off anyway and in future I can just swap and change should anything similar happen or tread / bearing wears out etc.

I don't have tire changing equipment myself, however since these tires are not especially thick and therefore wouldn't be much of an hassle you could consider it a wise purchase for the future as a set tire irons would only set you back a few £s and a bead breaker about £25.00 - £35.00.

Removal.

Since you may find it useful and most people just take their bike down to the mechanic without having much of a clue, I thought I would document the front wheel removal process as it is a blog about the bike after all and is where we have been leading up to above.

First of all the bike (or the front of) will need to be raised at least about 2 inches off the ground for the wheel to be able to drop out. If you don't have the specialised motorcycle tools for this, which I'm guessing you don't, like a ramp etc then you will have to use a car jack underneath the engine block / chassis (the block in this case) with a plank of wood sandwiched between to protect the block from the jack and also spread the load across the bottom. It is slightly odd shaped at the bottom and the wood did not go in quite flush / flat but it worked out ok in the end. It's probably best to remove the exhaust main pipe first, but I was able to work around it. Obviously you don't want to crush the pipe.

If you want to get the bike up straight 90 degrees then you will have to have someone else hold the bike upright while you lift it up with the jack. I however left it on it's side stand and jacked it up from the other side only enough to give me enough room to remove the wheel. Slowly jack the bike up so you don't cause it to suddenly topple over. Again, somebody else stood to the side in case it does would be great. But you could always position it against something heavy or near by a garage wall (protecting the paint work that side with an old towel / cloths just in case it does fall). It seems to stay on it's stand the one side just fine with the bike lifted slowly just a few inches.

When the wheel is off the ground enough you can begin by removing the brake caliper and tying it back out of the way with a tie wrap / zip tie or even an old piece of string, on it's hose.

Start by bending back the tabs over the bolts with a screw driver, these stop the bolts from working loose or someone purposely loosening them with a spanner and there are 2 of them on the metal clip should you cold work or break one off during removal. You may need to give the screw driver a gentle tap with a hammer or mallet to bend it back. If you somehow manage to break off both tabs doing this job you will need to order a new part. It will work just fine without the tabs but the protection of the screws not working loose will be gone and you would have to keep checking they were tight. So you would still be able to use the bike until a new part arrived anyway.

Using a spanner and a mallet (they're in nice and tight just like we would want them to be) tap round and loosen the bolts before switching to a ratchet (if you've got sense) for quicker removal of the bolts. You shouldn't strike a ratchet with a mallet because you could damage the mechanism!

Once you have removed the two bolts and the metal strip you can remove the caliper and tie it back. I've used an old cloth here to stop it from scratching against anything.

Now on the one end of the wheel is the spacer and at the other is the speedometer gear casing with the cable attached to it.

Now we can begin to remove the wheel. To remove the spindle remove the nut at the one end while locking the the spindle in place with a spanner at the other end. Again you may find a few taps on the spanner with a mallet helpful.

* Now on the one end of the wheel is the spacer and at the other is the speedometer gear casing with the cable attached to it. I removed the wheel with the cable still attached but think I may have stretched the cable removing the wheel and will order a new one just to make sure. When you take off the wheel I would do it very carefully or remove the cable from the gear housing first by unscrewing the screw on the side of the housing.

With the spindle nut removed we can tap out the spindle gently with a mallet and remove the wheel.

We use a mallet because it's softer than a hammer and won't damage the metal we are striking. If you don't have a mallet you can use a hammer with a piece of wood held in front of it, you hit the wood and it doesn't damage the metal underneath. This of course means you might need an extra pair of hands to help you.

It's a reverse of the procedure to put the wheel back on. There are 2 pins at the one side at the gear end, these go against the 2 pins inside the gear housing and drive the speedometer when the wheel turns around. They do NOT clip over the top of the pins inside the housing, I know it looks like they do but they don't, of course the spacer go's at the other end.

Some useful sites.

Here you will find some useful sites when it comes to ordering things for this bike in regard to spares and the performance parts etc:


 Chinese Motorcycle Parts Online.

 http://www.chinesemotorcyclepartsonline.co.uk/?gclid=COT61_-disMCFUWWtAodxDsAxg


All main spare parts stocked here for this bike, as well as a few performance parts like exhaust systems / back boxes etc. Service is very good, parts seem to arrive next day or the day after from ordering.



Chinese Bike Spares.

http://www.chinesebikespares.com/


Again, a lot of spares available here for the bike under it's different guises and some special bits and pieces like gearing upgrade kits.


 China Parts.

 http://www.china-parts.co.uk/

You may find the odd part / universal part here. Although it seems to stock for most other brand of Chinese motorcycle. You might find something under one of the other guises for the bike.



Taipei Scooter Assassins.

http://www.exportstrength.com/

An oversees one here, the parts stocked are for the Kaisar & Skyjet names for the bike but, seem to be stocked for the KS125-23 XTR 125 ours of course is the KS125-24 XTRS 125. The body parts are the same but the engine as well as things like speedometers can be different. Which is where I likely had the problem with the CDI unit.

Haynes Manual.

Another useful thing to pick up would be the Haynes Manual on Chinese Motorcycles. The bike is covered but in more of a general sense with many of the other Chinese, Taiwanese and Korean branded bikes. Good if you really are a novice to the hands on approach but, really better when it comes to the CG 125 / 156fmi style engine and any problems there you might have. Haynes do a more in depth manual for the Chinese Supermotos but why they don't for this bike when they have many versions under different names also baffles me a little?

Exhaust part I. Removal & fitting (performance exhaust).

Right, time to fit our performance exhaust. I will add before we start, that I thought there was a blow from a small hole or crack in the bottom of the back box of the current exhaust (my reason for purchasing the new exhaust sooner than intended), only to find on removal that there was one but a purposely drilled or pressed one that was supposed to be there. That's how the original one is made, which is odd. Maybe it adds to a nicer sound, who knows? But if you find one it's actually meant to be there.


The new exhaust seems decent enough, as we know it's stainless steel, so it's not going to rot away like the standard exhausts do eventually. It's not much more than the standard ones either, so it will more than pay for itself between 12-24 months. Like I mentioned before, that actual performance element of it is yet to be seen by myself.

The Lextek performance exhaust kit is the one we are going to use here. There are other back boxes, short & carbon tip etc but you would have to buy the downpipe & gasket separately. This long type included in the kit was the one I preferred anyway.

 We need to remove the bottom half of the fairing to be able to get at where we need to work before we do anything. Just a screw at bottom either side and two attaching to the top fairing.

When removing the original exhaust system at the cylinder head the main down pipe is quite wide, which stops us from using our preferred ratchet on the one side of the two bolts (once more I couldn't get it in). You will have to make do with a (12 mm) spanner for that one along with tedious 2 inch turns to get it undone I'm afraid. The second bolt can be removed with our ratchet with extension attached after removing the plastic grate above it (fake radiator? It's an air cooled engine), shown in the pic (four screws each corner). For which you will need the same ratchet set up & 10mm socket. If all you have is a set of spanners, you'll need to take the side panels off fully to get at these bolts.

You will want to keep hold of these bolts as there are no new ones included in the new exhaust kit.

At the underside there's another bolt holding the mid section of the down pipe to the chassis, this of course will also need to be removed.

All that's left then is the bolt on the rear foot peg rest bolting the back box to the chassis and the exhaust system should just come away.

Included in the kit is a new gasket (a gold copper ring) which goes in first where the exhaust downpipe connects at the cylinder tead. It's always recommended that you change this at the same time and seeing as there's a new one in the kit you may as well. You can prise this out with a flat head screw driver but first...

I know it's not as quite a big deal as a head gasket for example but, if you wish to continue to use the one that's already in there then that's your decision, on your head be it! The gaskets do crush down under the torque of the bolts for a good fit to / around the actual connection and that ones been crushed to the last pipe.
HOWEVER!!! The first time around we are going to leave the 'original one in' as this is an initial test fitting and we won't crush down on our new one yet. With car back boxes I've come to realise that through experience, even if one is for a particular model, it doesn't always seem to line up exactly as we expect it would straight off the bat.

Tighten the bolts as tight as possible, even now we don't want no play / wobble to test. This time the pipe is thinner and we can get our socket on both sides.

Again we have to secure the down pipe to the chassis underside point using the same bolt as before.

Don't forget to slide the connecting jubilee clip over the down pipe, we're not going to secure this now, just inter lock the pipe & back box securley but, it's there just in case we forget later on.
Put the connecting bracket on the back box & slide it onto the downpipe then secure it to the foot peg rest.

Now checking alignment just as predicted it doesn't line up exactly as wanted!! It's a bit too close to the swing arm, up against it in fact. The swing arm needs to move up and down freely.
So we need some spacers on the footpeg rest connecting bolt, to space it slightly away from the swing arm.

If I had access to a lathe I could have turned a spacer to an exact size from steel, brass or even nylon. Can you get to use a lathe? It might be a good idea. As it is you'll have to use a collection of good old washers as a spacer here. Or the method I used.

There was no washers of a great amount in my possession, however I did have some nuts and bolts the same size thread but longer. Using these and the few washers that I had, I devised a way of spacing the back box away from the swingarm by using a series of nuts. *I'll edit a picture of this in later. Remember, the swing arm needs to move up and down freely.

Once this has been done the thing to do is disassemble, put the new gasket in and reassemble again. Done.

When tightening the jubilee clip on the exhaust the screw is quite long and again comes close to the swing arm, I would arrange it so it doesn't impede it.

A closer look at the spacer method I used:

 Nut 1 locks right to tighten / close the strap. Nut 2 is tightened left towards the bracket. With each turn towards it the gap between the back box & swing arm is widened. Finish up by locking it in place by a nut on the opposite side (3). Each nut is joined by a washer.

The gap:

There's now a wide enough gap between the back box and the swing arm.

Fuel Filter, yes or no?

Another basic thing to do is to install a fuel filter on the main fuel line / hose into the carburetor.

They are not fitted as standard and they remove all the little nasties from the fuel which will find it's way into your carburetor & engine and build up and accumulate over time.

I fitted an inline fuel filter to the fuel hose but have since noticed a problem with the running of the engine. Fuel is getting to the carb for it to be able start, however it's cutting out indicating that it is disrupting the regular flow of the fuel since being fitted. It looks as though another hose will have to be bought and fitted without a filter once again to resume normal function. And the fitting of an fuel filter isn't perhaps a good idea with this bike.

If you do wish to try fitting an inline fuel filter you can follow the following:

Wait until the tank is pretty much empty other wise you will have to drain it out before hand.

The fuel line itself is the hose indicated in the below picture. The other hoses, one is a breather and the other a vacuum hose.

With a flash of inspiration I used a g-clamp to clamp the hose shut near the tank and make sure that no fuel could flow out. The hose obviously then needs to be cut in half.

Check the flow direction / correct orientation of the filter, which should be labelled with an arrow.

You will need to make sure that the hose is securely attached to the filter ends. The wire clips availabe don't seem to be that tight, so I would recommend using a micro tie wrap / zip tie pulled tight with pliers. You could even double up if you wish to.

However, as mentioned before, It didn't seem to be such a good idea with this bike. Fuel flow disruption seems to be too much of a problem.
There are some round looking ones (filters), also plastic available from the online spares site for the bike but they are pretty much the same thing, just a different shape.

The problems experienced are definitely a direct result of adding the filter to the hose. It's likely that the pump is strong enough on this bike to supply fuel to the carb at a steady rate as it was but not through the filter when also added to the mix. Maybe the filter used here added more resistance than others available? I'm not sure but, the answer for me here is to revert back to a straight through hose to get things running as they were again. I don't think I will try with another filter.

CDI woes

Yet again the new CDI seemed to be a let down for some reason? It must be a difference with the XTR being the likey model reference with the Kaisars & Skyjets and the XTRS is obviously different in this regard.

The model which looked more like a standard CDI unit than the others & was plastic as opposed to the usual anodised aluminium was a KCHUNG D406. The unit did not work with the bike. In fact it was very small compared to the original, because of this I deemed the unit to be an AC device.
Having deemed the XTRS to be DC I removed the D406 just in case it got smoked!

The XTR is obviously based on AC & the XTRS is based on DC technology. Seeing as this is a model used on the variants of the Lexmoto but it doesn't work here on the XTRS, that seems logical.

So, I'll pass for now on the CDI front. I'll have to frequent a few forums & phone around, there has to be a solution somewhere. Even if it has been down to the engine being FMI156-2 (cam). It's running on an original CDI they have come up with and has been on the market since 2011, so there should be something around by now somewhere.

This blog has been written to share with other users of the bike so my pit falls won't be yours obviously, if you don't own one of the bikes your obviously just nosey, which is fine.

So, we've deemed it's firing on an 'DC' system as:
AC Kchung D406 &
AC NEW Racing CDI both don't work.

Also:
The DC Casoli Moto CDI doesn't work with the bike.

A few bits & pieces also arrived. The 115 size jet and some fuel filters, to give me something else to do. The fuel filters being quite important, actually I'll cover that bit next.

Rear indicators

I know I said I was willing to leave the rear indicators until one of the bulbs went before changing them (which is sensible to fair), with a free Saturday afternoon & the sake of just only £2.49 for a pair of longer type l.e.d jobs, I'm not that tight. So to heck with it may as well get them done.

It's not as straight forward as when changing out the front indicators which just involved plugging in the correct wires in the bullet type connectors & securing them to the fairing with the supplied nut. There was a bit more work involved than I was hoping.

This time around your going to need a bit of basic electrical knowledge.
After unscrewing the indicators you will need to physically cut them off the wires!

Now although it's your basic two wire +- polarity situation, this is the case with my new indicators; with the basic black - and red + wires on the indicators it's not the case with the wires coming off the bike. I think there was a green and even an orange somewhere. And they were completely different colours on the other side. Now of course one's still positive & the other negative, you will just have to find which out by setting the indicators off on the bike and touching the wires to test. You will have to also cut any bullet connectors off the new indicators as they're useless, unless you want to put some female ones on the bikes wires, if you have some to hand? Although I doubt you do. It's pretty low voltage so you don't need to worry about hurting yourself or toasting that unruly Alsatian (or whatever) you have around you.

Once you've got which two wires need to be connected you need to twist them together and solder them. Before you do this make sure you pull the bikes wires out of the hole and attach the indicator fixing nut & thread it back through again otherwise you will have to undo it all and start over.

I'm using a soldering gun here just because it heats up quickly but you can use a basic iron.

Basic wire joining. Now for those that really don't know their arse from their elbow, both separate wires need to be covered so they don't short, you can't just cover it up as it is with tape. I'm using basic insulating electrical tape.

Now, it would've been nice to have some of those heatshrink sleeves to shrink over the top with a heat gun and then it looks all nice etc but I didn't have any.
Anyway not a big deal, I just used more electrical tape and did it the old fashioned way now, straight over the top and pulled it back through to under the seat. This depends on the length of the wires on your new indicators, your join may be outside if they've got short wires.

I personally like to add two tiny cable ties to the ends of the tape just to make sure the tape never unravels overtime (the glue on the tape can go funny in the heat and can come un-done) and I really don't have to worry about it again. Cut the ends off the ties of course and organize the cable nicely. And everything should be ready to go once you've fixed the indicators on by tightening the nuts, not too much pressure or you will crack the plastic.

& that's that, a bit of work but no more changing indicator bulbs again for the sake of pocket change. I have not had to change the flasher relay for one designed specifically to make L.E.D indicators flash here, they work fine both front and back. Some L.E.D indicators stay on, lighted solid & don't flash with some motorcycles, if this is the case you will need to buy a separate relay to make them flash.