Few questions about my BEC

[Bi22le]

Hi all I am now a BEC owner! collected this on Thursday and have driven it for about 3 hours so far due to weather!

http://www.pistonheads.co.uk/sales/1109152.htm

It is amazing, more fun, faster and and more useable than I thought it would be and I had high expectations! Not an ounce of regret in getting a BEC!

I have a few questions though.

RE: Digidash 2 LITE
1) My fuel gauge only goes to 90% when full up so I dont trust it on the lower levels incase it runs out. common problem? Any quick fixes. The tank looks like a factory MAC1 with built in sender.
2) Whats the expected oil pressure on a GSXR1000 K4 on tick over? The Oil warning comes on at about 6PSI. It has no oil leaks or cooling issues so Im happy just to lower the pressure warning on the DD2. if it springs a serious leak surly the PSi will be 1 or 2 PSI.
3) Gearing flickers between gears sometimes. Setting up the DD2 a bit better and getting the ratios correct may solve this. Does anyone else get this on thier DD2 with R1, GSXR or equivellent?

RE: drive chain.
1) There is an excessive nocking coming from the rear of the car when changing gear. Im thinking its due to some slack in the prop \ Diff coupling that nocks when the power is removed then reapplied. It does not do it when not changing gear. It is not the gear linkage as I have checked it. Diff oil is good. any ideas?

Oh and the steering wheel is about 10deg of centre and I cant find anywhere to remove that angle! any advice?

Sorry for the long post!!

Bi22le

[Furyblade_Lee]

Re: the knocking, they all do that! Somebody told me it was the backlash in the diff, and something to do with no flywheel effect, not sure if thats is true but driveline clonks are one of the symptoms of a BEC. Sometimes they do not do it, and mine generally only does it in 1st and 2nd gear. Don't worry about it,

[Sam_68]

(1) Common problem on all kit cars. You need to calibrate the sender (which with a conventional sender means draining the tank down then bending the float arm until it gives the correct reading when the tank is virtually empty). Don't worry too much about what it reads when full, though.
(2) Again applicable to all engines, not just BECs: by the time a standard 6 Psi warning light comes on the engine is fked already, if you're running at speed. Wire up a 25 Psi pressure switch, preferably wired up to a big, bright light in direct line of vision.
(3) Sorry, can't help you.

Chain Drive: ( - you don't have a chain drive on a Seven??)
(1) As Lee says, clonks tend to go with the territory on BEC transmissions, to some degree. If you've got a cush drive somewhere in the drive line, it can cause the CWP to 'bounce' between the limits of lash on the teeth of the gears. LSD's can also be noisy too. BUT such clonks and bangs can also be a symptom of problems (loose diff mounts, loose propshaft bolts, play in propshaft UJ's), all of which seem to be more prevalent on BECs (possibly because of the extra vibes from the rigidly mounted engines, or the aforementioned 'bounce' from cuch drives). You're a BEC owner now... you just have to get used to bits dropping off at random, I'm afraid.

Seriously, though... you need to do regular 'spanner checks' on this sort of car, to make sure everthing's tight, as things do work loose from time to time.

Steering wheel: You either need to disconnect the steering column at the UJ/rack and move it round by a tooth on the splines, and/or get someone conpetent to do the tracking. Ultimately, you won't get the steering wheel in perfect alignment unless you centre it then equalise the track rod lengths to the correct toe settings.

[gingerpaul]

For the fuel tank take a 5 litre can of fuel out with you and run it until it's empty. Keep an eye on the gauge and you'll know when it runs out. You should be able to get a reasonable estimate by knowing the fuel consumption and the size of the tank. As Sam has said, if you want it accurate then you need to bend the arm in the fuel tank so it uses its full range of movement. I wouldn't worry about it personally. On mine it reads 100% for the first 1/4 of a tank, then decreases linearly for the rest of the tank. It still has a little in reserve when you get to 0% though, more through luck than planning.

On the Digidash there are two levels of low oil pressure. Assuming it is using the sensor supplied by ETB it does both the pressure reading and has a low pressure warning switch in it. If you get OIL on the top display it means the oil pressure switch has caused the alarm. For me that's around 10 psi. Any engine should really be higher than that at idle and I would suspect yours should be a fair amount higher. The second oil alarm is one that you can alter in the set up screen or with a lap top. It triggers when the oil pressure drops below whatever threshold you have set it to. There is one of these for the fuel level too incidentally.

For the gear number to be correct the correct ratios need to be set, including the final drive ratio. The speed sensor should also be using shielded cable. You might find that you need to shield the cable counting the engine revs too. On mine it is just on the end of the coil but it might well be different for you with a bike engine. It might even be an output from the ECU.

Are you using the clutch when changing up? That'd cause a bit of a clonk. It'll be to do with slack it the drive train somewhere. Keep in mind that any noise back there will be much louder than a normal car as there is probably only a thin sheet of fibreglass or aluminium between you and everything under there, not inches of sound deadening.

To get the steering wheel in the right place it's just a case of messing about with the tracking. Take a 1/4 of a turn out of one side and put a 1/4 of a turn on the other side and go round the block. You'll sort it with 15 minutes of trial and improvement. Don't forget to tighten the lock nuts after each change.

[robcollingridge]

I have a few questions though.

RE: Digidash 2 LITE
1) My fuel gauge only goes to 90% when full up so I dont trust it on the lower levels incase it runs out. common problem? Any quick fixes. The tank looks like a factory MAC1 with built in sender.

The proper ETB sender should be used really as it is easy to calibrate.

2) Whats the expected oil pressure on a GSXR1000 K4 on tick over? The Oil warning comes on at about 6PSI. It has no oil leaks or cooling issues so Im happy just to lower the pressure warning on the DD2. if it springs a serious leak surly the PSi will be 1 or 2 PSI.

Someone else has covered this but you can reprogram the DD2 to control when the warning comes on and at what revs. If the pressure switch has activated, then I think you have another propblem.

3) Gearing flickers between gears sometimes. Setting up the DD2 a bit better and getting the ratios correct may solve this. Does anyone else get this on thier DD2 with R1, GSXR or equivellent?

I get this a lot with DD2 and R1. Not sure why as its calculated by revs but the feed from the revs is a bit suspect. Sometime records 24,000rpm as the maximum value. I think its the shielding.

1) There is an excessive nocking coming from the rear of the car when changing gear. Im thinking its due to some slack in the prop \ Diff coupling that nocks when the power is removed then reapplied. It does not do it when not changing gear. It is not the gear linkage as I have checked it. Diff oil is good. any ideas?

Also get this. It's slack in the diff + TRT in the prop. Normal from what I've seen in R1 BECs.

Oh and the steering wheel is about 10deg of centre and I cant find anywhere to remove that angle! any advice?

The best place to do this is where the column goes into the rack as you have finer teeth and more control on the wheel position.

Rob
http://www.robcollingridge.com/FuryR1/

[Bi22le]

thanks for the replies that is some good round advice.
ill try the render thing when i get time and just keep filling it up till then. I an a bit worried about the oil psi. Mine sometimes goes down to 6psi but is normally about 8psi. Is this bad? I an glad to here thats other peoples diff knocks aswell. I will check it im the near future. I need to spanner check too because i noticed my rear wheel was loose! How can i find the hearing of a gsxr1000 k4. Sorry about the typeing. Its from a nokia phone!

[robcollingridge]

Lowest I ever see at tick over in a 2003 R1 is 11psi, when oil is hot. Typically it's around 60psi above 7000rpm.

[gingerpaul]

What spec oil are you running? What spec should it be?

[robcollingridge]

I was using a Raceline 10w40 oil but it's frigging expensive. I now use Maxima Maxum4 10w40, which I get from Andy Bates at AB Performance. He uses it in his race cars and its proven + it's a little bit cheaper.

I change it every year (<2500 miles) and including top ups (the R1 engine can use a fair bit on track days) it comes in at around £40 a year. I also change the filter as they are only £6 a go.

Rob

[dean100yz]

My '98 Blade engined MAC1 would sit at around 8psi sometimes a little higher or lower. Depends what you have it ticking over at too.

When mines at 1300-1350 rpm its 8-12psi at 1000-1100 it'll go to 6 at times and have the light come on.

Welcome to the club and good to see another MAC1 owner!

[mikeveal]

The clonk is probably slack in the transmission. As said above, they all do it, generally worse if you have an in line reverse. Put the bike box in neutral and spin the prop with your hand, you should be able to feel the slack.

Doesn't just happen when you're changing gears either - try coming on and off the throttle quickly, you should be able to make it happen then too.