Clutch micro-switch …… daylight robbery at its best!

Aprilia Caponord ETV1000 Rally-Raid clutch switch AP8113998 Burgess V4NSJust found out that the the Capo didn’t want to start in gear with the clutch pulled in …. so suspected a bad clutch switch. In the end it wasn’t, but I’d pulled the old one and did some homework anyway. The switch is a Saia Burgess V4NCS with an actuator kit on top (QA4). Now a direct replacement seems hard to find, however the V4NS as sold by RS-Components is almost the same and comes with 500mm wires already attached, it even has the same 2.5N operating force.

So for a miserly sum of £7.80 (plus VAT & shipping) a new switch can be clipped into the existing actuator shell and spliced into the old loom – simply cut off the yellow wire (not needed) and Aprilia Caponord ETV1000 Rally-Raid Burgess clutch switch actuator QA4sheath/splice the other two. A darn sight less than the £70 plus that I’ve seen on the web for an Aprilia item! The only down-side appears to be that the cables exit from the side not the rear ….. no biggie really.

On the other hand if your switch has a bad actuator, then just buy that alone for a whopping £3.24 (plus VAT and shipping). In fact I’m sure that a bit more digging would throw up these items for considerably less …… I just got bored!

Coils, cruise, camera – action!

Aprilia Caponord ETV1000 Rally-Raid Renault V6 HASS ignition coil - 413745171After waiting a week for the delivery from carparts4less, the Capo is happily running on four coils again! 😀 I bought the Renault V6 coil (413745171) made by HAAS. While plug’n play at the LT connector, it does need some excess plastic removing and the HT end requires a modification. I’ve seen this coil modified in a couple of ways – one simple and one requiring a bit of soldering skill. I chose the latter because I think it gives a more positive connection. New page here.

Aprilia Caponord ETV1000 Rally-Raid INNOVV K1 rear HD camera 1920x1080With the bike buttoned up, I ran the INNOVV K1 cameras again – no sign of RF issues anymore, so that’s a step in the right direction. It was about 6pm and dark inside as well as outside the barn as I stood tweeking the throttle and glancing at the INNOVV DV recorder while it captured the rear K1 camera. I watched the vapour from the exhausts to the left and right of the camera as it swirled in the red glow of the tail light. Then it all went blank and the INNOVV rebooted again – WTF!!! 👿 

However …… in that moment I saw something that was a revelation. A real game changer as they say. The fact is, I started to suffer an intermittent fault a few months ago and as any engineer knows, you’ll go bald fast if you waste time chasing an intermittent fault – wait for it to come to you. I think of these sorts of faults a little like the TV serial killers on any number of cop shows – they always want to get caught. At some point an intermittent fault will give itself away, that one clue that unlocks the puzzle. In this case, when the INNOVV rebooted, I saw a momentary flicker of the red glow from the tail light out of the corner of my eye. If I hadn’t been doing this in the dark I would never have spotted it!

This fault goes back quite a while, back to a hot summer, a long day on French motorways and a cruise control that would occasionally stop working. Sometimes it would engage for the whole 1½-2hr ride, the next it would drop out after a few minutes or maybe after a ½hr – it was completely random. However …… I did find that by turning the headlights off, the cruise could be re-engaged and would work just fine! At that point I was suspecting a fault with the headlight loom, the 6-way connector is known to burn if the Aprilia Caponord ETV1000 Rally-Raid light switchEarth (Ground) connection is bad. Unfortunately all tests and checks came up with nothing. So I sat back and waited for the fault to give me the one clue I needed to bring the bugger to justice!

In that momentary tail light flicker, all the parts came crashing together. It was the light switch all along! You see the switch isn’t just one switch but two-in-one. One for the headlight and one for the sidelight …… and this is the circuit that the MCCruise control AND the INNOV are powered from! The switch was stripped, the hard dirt-filled goo that had once been grease that was stopping the springs working was cleaned out and the contacts treated to a splash of contact cleaner and fresh lubricant. Now it looks better, works smoother and above all, delivers a constant voltage to where it’s required. 😀 Aprilia Caponord ETV1000 Rally-Raid Innovv K1 camera screenshot

And afterwards? Well a couple of days eating up the miles and clocking up the hours have been rewarding (and fun!) to say the least. Both cruise and cameras have worked perfectly and the Capo is pulling like a little train again thanks to its refreshed ignition!

Oil pressure switch

Aprilia Caponord ETV1000 Rally-Raid AP0956169 Oil Pressure SwitchOver the past few months I’ve noticed the oil pressure LED getting dimmer after the initial dashboard power-on-self-test has finished. Then a couple of weeks ago, no oil light at all. If I pulled the electrical connector off the switch and shorted it to the crankcase, the lamp worked fine, so the oil pressure switch was u/s, fubar, stuffed ……….

I bought a new one from Ultimate Parts in the UK that came in a plain zip bag, not an Aprilia one and isn’t the same as the original – requiring a 24mm socket instead of the Aprilia Caponord ETV1000 Rally-Raid 0.3-0.6bar M10x1 thread oil pressure switchoriginal 21mm. As such I have a sneaking feeling this is an aftermarket part and not genuine – but sold at a genuine price! Either way, both new and old are marked as 0.3-0.6bar (4.35-8.7psi).

Swapping it out on the Rally-Raid was a simple 5 minute job – remove the aluminium sump plate, disconnect the electrical connector and use a deep 21mm socket on a short extension to clear the sump guard frame and unscrew the old unit. You’ll lose a couple of tea-spoons of oil but that’s all. Simply swap to the 24mm socket to fit the new one, reattach the connector and refit the sump plate – job done. The job’s made all the easier if you do it on the side-stand rather that the main stand as the switch is mounted on the right hand side of the engine!

Wot’s that switch then eh?

Aprilia Caponord ETV1000 Rally-Raid - 'Service Mode' switchA couple of keen-eyed readers have asked about the switch behind the riders saddle. Well, no mystery really ……. I got fed up with removing the saddles then rummaging around next to the battery to find both halves of the service connector – bloody inconvenient is what it is.

So I dropped a small waterproof switch into the bodywork behind the saddle. Now I just remove the rear saddle, flick the switch and I can reset the ‘service’ indicator and check out any error codes quickly and easily, no fuss, no scuffed knuckles.