Another Honda CH125 Question

I had to remove the front hood and the retractable headlight with the
motor attached to do some repairs on the plastic covers. I followed
the instructions on the manual to remove the headlight. (Pulling the
fuse with it open.)

After I put it all back together, the headlight would not retract. I
pulled it again and took apart the motor assembly. The motor is good
and there is a cam wheel gear with contacts that mate with "brushes"
under this cam, but I must have the sequence all screwed up. The
retractable headlight doesnt retract anymore.

Does anyone know how to start from ground zero to make this work
again??

I have an external 12 volt power supply that I have used to simulate
the power to this assembly and following the instructions in the
manual doesnt seem to make any difference. The little relay clicks but
for some reason I cant get it to function because of what I think is
assembly of the motor is out of sync with the power due to the proper
setting of this cam gear.

john

 

Take it to a dealer or someone who knows what they're doing. Sorry, but
as ever, if you don't know what you're doing, don't do it.

 

I do not own a 1984 Honda CH125 Elite motorscooter, but I used to fix
my Uncle Sam's weapons of mass destruction, and I would suspect the
limit switch (item 24 on the HEADLIGHT parts diagram) of not making
contact at the correct time, especially if the switch has THREE wires
going into it, indicating that it just might make contact as the
headlight reaches the full open position and then shut off the motor
and perhaps it makes contact again when the headlight is fully
retracted to shut the motor off at that very critical time.

You don't want the motor to keep running when the headlight is
retracted.

Story time.

I was working in the electric shop at Edwards AFB and I was alone on
standby. The crew chief of a C-130 Hercules calls me up and tells me
that he can't get the oil cooler door to close fully on one engine,
after installing a new electric actuator.

So, I go out to the ramp and check out the operation of the actuator
motor and, sure enough, the motor shuts off with the oil cooler door
still open half an inch. Sarge tells me he wants me to open up the
actuator and adjust the closing limit switch inside.

So, I tell the sergeant that he should remove the actuator and bring it
to the shop, where I can adjust the limit switch on the bench with a
vernier caliper.

Sarge tells me that I am a lowly Airman Second Class and that *he* is a
Technical Sergeant and that I must obey his order to adjust the swith
in situ...

So, I adjust the limit switch by guesswork and Sarge, up in the
cockpit, operates the
oil cooler switch. The aluminum oil cooler door closes, but the motor
continues to run as it tries to suck the fragile oil cooler door into
the engine nacelle.

I yell, "Shut it off, Sarge, shut it off!" But Sarge doesn't hear me
and the oil cooler door is mangled.

The next day, the offending actuator appeared in the electric shop, on
my bench, to
have the limit switches properly adjusted. My shop chief, a Master
Sergeant, wanted to know why I had tried to adjust the limit switches
with the actuator installed in the aircraft...

"Orders, Sarge. Orders..."

 

Lovely )

 

The malfunctioning oil cooler door actuator mystified every aircraft
electrician who ever was called out to troubleshoot it because we were
thinking inside our own little
specialty box or wires and relays and connectors.

The actuator on that one engine would never malfunction in flight. It
would only malfunction doing ground operations, as the crew chief would
taxi the aircraft out to the run up area at the end of the runway.

It wasn't necessary to use all four engines to taxi out to the run up
area, so the crew chief would use the inboard engines to taxi out,
start up the other two engines for run up, shut down the inboards and
taxi back on the outboards.

Engine operating times were equalized.

I was aboard the aircraft, adjusting voltage regulators to parallel
generators. When I was done, I sat in the crewchief's in-flight seat
and watched the complex manipulations as the crew chief in the pilot's
seat shut down the inboards preparatory to taxiing back to the parking
ramp.

The crew chief told the assistant crewchief, "Tell the kid that #2 and
#3 alternators just dropped off line."

No kidding. The engines weren't running, the generators weren't
turning.

The crewchief looked at me in the rear view mirror to see how I was
reacting to his practical joke. I was giving him the finger.

I didn't mess with the crew chief again, after he showed me the .32
caliber semi-automatic pistol he carried in his boot. That was when I
decided he just might be a little crazy for carrying a pistol around
during peacetime operations over US territory.

But that generator paralleling run up was when I first became aware of
the mysterious oil cooler actuator glitch. All the technicians in the
shop failed to figure that one out.

It turned out that a pneumatic duct clamp was loose and the hot air was
blowing on the oil cooler door actuator. This would overheat the
electric overload device inside the
actuator, and the motor only malfunctioned on the ground because it
wasn't being cooled by low temperature air at high altitudes where the
Herky Bird would normally fly.

Jet engine mechanics discovered the loose duct during an engine change.

 

B-12 schreef:

I was just a drafted sergeant, he was an officer and ordered me to
sign for approval of the engine of a F104G, but I told him -although
I could not detect any damage on the first stators and rotor vanes-,
that I smelled a dead bird in the engine.

Altough he was my superior, only I was allowed to sign.
There was no way he could force me to do it.

Military ranks did not count in technical matters. Only the pilot
of that plane could override a decision of a technician.
No pilot ever did.

Guess why.

They published a story about the smart sergeant who prevented
a jet crash in the houses at the end of the runway. Still have
the picture they took of me sitting next to the engine.
The story was exaggerated of course. But the engine was
a mess inside.

Rob.

 

The "Widowmaker"? Right?

 

Yes.
But I remember a feast held because that year we did not
loose a pilot. So it was possible after all.
The feast must have been mid 1967, because end 1967 I
was allowed to service an engine all by myself.
Wow: My first engine.....

It came back in pieces.

Turned out not to be my fault.
Pilot was on a low level mission. But did too low a level.

Rob.