Flyinfool

To help avoid the swirls, always wipe straight up and down only, use a micro fiber cloth and never use a dirty cloth. I use a cloth only for 1 cleaning and then it goes in the wash.

If no one fell for it they would not keep doing it. They are getting a good ROI.

All those great pics and none of the dreaded pond monster.

Not all bad memories for sure. Once home and safe in bed I can look back and chuckle at what some other travelers saw. Did I ever mention that I hate Chicago......... I hate Chicago more than Big Tom hates SNOW Actually I was wondering if my eternal wish had been granted and that all of the Chi regulars had been beamed to outer space. Kenosha had more traffic. Maybe they all knew my planned travel itinerary and had given up and gone home figuring they missed me this time. I never seen so few cars on the road. This was even less than at 3am. I'm so confused. Maybe they heard of my troubles and felt sorry for me. With the intermittent engine I was really worried about getting thru Chi and always wanting to be in the very right lane in case the engine shut down and I had to dive for the shoulder. Then there were the road destruction areas with nowhere to go.

If nothing else all of the time spent in the rest areas gave me a lot of time to eat ice cream. The Ice cream was for medicinal purposes, to help me cool down.......

That has always been a popular CL scam. I now always put a disclaimer in all of my CL adds as part of my contact info, "Scammers, I know your games so don't bother" Most must read it and move to the next add, I get very few scam responses since I started this, I used to get many for every add.

ANY dealer that can diagnose a toasted motor BEFORE it gets there (unless you mention something obvious like a rod sticking out the side of it) is one to never speak to again. There are a lot of small things that can make an oil leak and/or a no start. Especially after sitting 3 years.

If you are measuring a short to ground on both sides of the fuse and there is no smoke coming out of anything or the main fuse blown. Then their may be something wrong with your meter or how you are using it.

Thanks for all of the well wishes and advice. I left Dons at 8:am and got home at 10:15 pm to cover 425 miles, that made for a trip average of 29 mph. The good news is that there was a nice tail wind and I got 36 MPG pulling the trailer with the cruise set at GPS 75 for most of the trip home. When the bike was running it ran great. I will start a separate thread on what I go thru trying to diagnose and fix this the right way. I haven't revisited the schematics or the bike yet, but the number of things that had issues is leaning me to start by checking all of the grounds. I forgot to take a pic with the left faring apart in the rest area. It looked like a bomb went off in the bike, I had parts everywhere, But then my mind was more on getting home. Through all of this there was only 1 person that offered assistance and he was very helpful by having heavy enough cable and connectors to run new power direct to the starter to get it to crank. I was kind of surprised, even many bikers (riding many brands) stopped to look at my debris field but kept walking and never said a word. Maybe I gave a false impression that I looked like I knew what I was doing...... I haven't revisited the schematics or the bike yet, but the number of things that had issues is leaning me to start by checking all of the grounds.

Thanks Don and Eileen, you are wonderful hosts and I really appreciate all of the effort that must go into this event. I had a great time, met a lot of new friends. I have no idea how that might have happened.........

I have never hit the kill switch during any normal activity. I have accidentally hit it while doing other work on the bike like cleaning or pushing the bike around or other maintenance, and it then was the reason for the next no start. If the bike ever does not start that is the very first place I check for the problem, after all it is both the easiest, fastest and cheapest possible fix. I have to ask, do you grip the bar that close to the switch assy that you can accidentally hit it? Just from looking at its location and how I grip the bars, I can not see how I could ever accidentally hit it while riding.

It died one last time about 100 feet from home and would not start again. I separated the trailer and pushed each one the rest of the way home. For now I need my bed. I'll post more later.

Had to make one more stop. I am at the Lake Forest Oasis now. This is about 70 miles from home. Bike is running good once I can get it started. This stop was because it is getting cold, I am tired, it looks like rain ahead, I'm hungry, and i neede a gas stop anyhow. One more start and I am home free in abo ut an hour.

Progress The wiring now looks like what you might get if Rube Goldberg and McGuiver mated. But at least I am now at the last rest area in Indiana. So onc e i get a fill of gas, I have to pull the tank cover and go jumper crazy to jump the ignition and th en jump the solenoid to crank. Fingeres crossed that it starts AND this tank makes it home.

I guess that was not it. Now it at least cranks but no fire. Back to schematics.

I am sitting in a rest stop in the middle of Indiana. On the way to Dons I had a. Intrmtent issue with the engine cutting out. I thought it was the sidestand swit h so I jumpered that out and all was good for the run to Quaker Steak & Lube. It was also good for the first 100 miles heading home. I just tooke the dash apart and jumpered the tip o er relay and it now starts again. BUT I don't know if this fixed it or is just the i ter itant showing its uggly head again. Wish me luck. As soon as I finish my drink I am gonna try for home again. I'll post if a.d when i make it. Or it dies all together.

I sure hope your bike is looking better by now. Will we see you tomorrow?

Watch close, some of the high power flash lights require a special battery. The special battery and charger are all separate parts. The technology is real close, there are some advertizing LED headlights and driving lights. I dont know if the have the beam patterns correct yet. I have not seen LED driving or head lights that are DOT.

AND we need BOTH of you to show up at the WI MD.

It is usually the "drive belt".

I spent a lot of time looking for this one last year and came to the conclusion that Wallmart no longer carries it. There are others around but a much more $$$$$$

It is possible, to get a small spark when connecting the battery, especially if the battery has been out for a while. There are filter capacitors in the radio and other computers that will pull a momentary surge when being powered up. This surge lasts but a split second and then the power draw drops to nearly zero. There are some things like the clock and radio that pull a very small amount of power to maintain memory when the bike is off, but that should not be enough to make a visible spark. It does not matter if it is the pos or neg, which ever is connected last will make the spark.

On my old truck I did notice about a 2 mpg drop in gas mileage when I had all 400 watts of lights on compared to running in daylight with no lights on. You could even hear and see the engine rpm drop when you turn on the lights. It does take power to make power. Power comes from the gas tank. I can see about the same 1-2 mpg difference with the instant MPG readout when I turn on all of the lights on this truck. That is a 5-10% difference, that is enough to save about 1 gallon per 1,000 miles. It takes a lot of little things to add up to make a decent savings. That is why I turn off the daytime running lights, its just one more little thing to save on.

Looks like my partner has changed from a yes to a no on the calendar, so it will be just me. By this time tomorrow I should be in Ohio

You could always just park in the HD area and no one will notice one more drop.