Rolls' old bike lives again!!!

I bought Rolls' well fettled 1200 & did a flawless trip down to Tassie and back from Newcastle. Some great weekend rides and some spirited blasts all without a hiccup.  
The day of the pink slip test, she decided not to start and has not run since. 
I am now very well acquainted with the electrical system of a Bandit, having metered every connection and component on the bike. I couldn't fault anything. 
The one thing that I couldn't test was the black box. I bought a second hand one off ebay, without success.  
I have been laying in wait of a bargain running bike, so that I could swap parts until my bike ran again.  
Today I picked up a lovely bike for $900. The stupid NSW law states that it cannot be registered again, because some plastic bits got broken.  
I swapped out the black box and Vroom!!!
I am over the moon. 
It has been six months, so now I need a blue slip. No big deal.  
A bonus of the donor bike is a pair of brand new Metzler hoops, new chain and sprockets and a sexy Ohlins rear shock. 
So now I have three Bandits. 
I will have to decide what to do with one.

Bosco15 wrote:
The stupid NSW law states that it cannot be registered again, because some plastic bits got broken.  

There are some great donor bikes (and cars) to be found in NSW. 

I've seen plenty of NSW "Statutory Write offs" used for donor parts to repair "Repairable Write off" vehicles that had much worse damage than the donor


Great result and the added bonus of a new shock, tyres and heaps of other spares

 great news

Great outcome Bosco, after a lot of perseverance. Well done.

Yeah!!! I'm stoked that the old girl is breathing fire once more. 
Now I just need another good ecu so that I can sell of the donor as a track bike. 
Anyone got a known good ecu for sale?

That's good news Mark, we must organise another ride, it's getting into a good time of year.

I want to do Thunderbolts, Oxley, Port Macquarie then back again the next day.

Re-Cycled wrote:That's good news Mark, we must organise another ride, it's getting into a good time of year.

I want to do Thunderbolts, Oxley, Port Macquarie then back again the next day.

Sounds like a great plan, Pete. 
I'm busting for a decent ride. 

Congrats to you Bosco!!

That must have been a slow painfull journey, but now the light at the end of the tunnel is here.

mtbeerwah wrote:Congrats to you Bosco!!

That must have been a slow painfull journey, but now the light at the end of the tunnel is here.

It has been difficult, seeing my bike sitting naked and dormant.  
I have been tempted to trailer her to a mechanic, but resisted the urge as I knew that the bill would be steep. 
I was tempted to sell her, but knew that I would get bugger all for a non running bike.  
I was tempted to admit defeat, but persevered.  
The moral. Have a little faith.  
I'm not a religious person, but I do remember The Lords Prayer from primary school.  
"Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us an ecu, for ever and ever, amen. "  

Well, that will teach me to take The Lords Prayer and try to make a joke. 
I'm not a believer, but I'm starting to wonder.  
The bike was running a treat. It took me a week of cleaning and reassembly, to get the bike back to complete.  
Saturday morning I bolted the main fuse carrier and associated connecrors to the LHS frame, under the side cover. Attached the aftermarket goodies to the battery. (Heated grips, spotlights and headlight relay)
Tried to start the bike and got the same symptoms as before the new ecu. 
Cranking and no spark.  
I think I have blown my new ecu. 
Swapped it back to the donor bike, to try it and found that the carb on number 4 had leaked fuel into the pot and gave me hydraulic lock. 
The joys of bikes.

ohhhh god!!!!

Hi Bosco,

This topic has been very interesting regarding ECU issues.

I don't think there is/was anything mysterious regarding ECU/ignition switch compatibility except that both needed to be from the same/similar model.

So is all of the rumour of compatibility simply folklore.

I understand on later bikes, including Australian VStrom (not applicable on US models apparently) that the ignition key has an active element which performs an immobiliser function and must be matched to the ECU

Maybe this is also folklore!

As we discovered there are a number of un-documented features, remember the 100 ohm resistor in the ignition switch. I wonder what function it serves or maybe it goes to an unused terminal inside the ECU.

Answers to these questions must exist within the technical documentation produced by Suzuki (and probably other brands as well) but are not documented in the service manuals.

Anyway, great outcome, your patience has paid off 

Hey Dave, 
The ecu on the oiler is a straight swap out with similar year bikes as they don't have a microchip key. 
I think that the 1250 has a chip in the key and so the ecu may be matched to it. 

The 100 ohm resistor in the ignition is to stop hot wiring of the bike.  
If the ignition wires are shorted together,  without the resistor, the ecu recognises a low resistance and will not give a spark signal. 

The bike ran fine when I installed the new ecu, but gave up the ghost again when I bolted all the ancillaries back together.  
T least now I know that I have a working ecu. I just have to trace the problem with the ancillaries.

No chip in my 2010 Bandit key Bosco - got a spare cut by Class Locksmiths for $3.50. It's the one I use for all my riding. 

This is a really interesting topic with many, largely un-substantiated claims regarding smart keys, immobilisers etc. (including mine!)

Seems like a whole heap of equine excrement to me

Yep, if Suzuki weren't bothered to put two coats of paint on the Bandit, they certainly weren't fussed to install smart keys.  

I bought half a dozen of these of fleabay for about $10 a couple of years ago, got them cut at the local shoe repair counter, works just fine in my K7 1250.