Any one got an extra 4RO TCI box lying around?

[conyo]

I am looking for a TCI box for my 1981 XS1100. I thought about retro fitting it to the 2R0 but I am not that mechanically inclined.

The bike doesn't start, I opened up the TCI box and it had water damage and corrosion. I tried resoldering the connectors, nothing. Randy, doesn't work on the 4RO's. So I am screwed.

I've searched the forums for any aftermarket to no avail. Is there?

It sucks, I got a great bike, that doesn't start. I don't want to invest any money into it until I get it started.

Help...

Thanks.

[TopCatGr58]

Hey Conyo,

I've got one that I can "LOAN" you so that you can see what the bike will do, run, etc.! It's MY SPARE for my 81SH and so I can't let it go, but will be happy to let you borrow it for diagnostics and such.

The mechanics of the 2H7 conversion isn't that complicated really! Sorry that there isn't any aftermarket replacement that's easy to use, not to mention they aren't cheap!

If this sounds like something you want to TRY, them PM me and we'll talk. BTW, Randy might be able to check out the circuit board for basic non-conductivity and get all the connections working, but he just can't fix/program the EPROM IF it's bad, but has been stated, they are fairly strong units, so you might be able to get your old one back into working condition, and be able to continue fixing and riding and tuning with the LOANER 4RO TCI until you get yours back from Randy, or find a replacement on eBay, or do the mechanical bits conversion so that you can use the 2H7 units, as well as MAKE YOUR OWN out of car parts...see the tech tips!
T.C.

[conyo]

That would be awesome, if you can loan it to me, that would be incredible. If I put in your TCI and it still doesn't start, then I can eliminate that and see what else is wrong.

I'm PM you later.

I gotta be close.


Thanks.

[cokeman]

i sent you a PM. I have one for sale.

Darrell

[randy]

BTW, I never said I DON"T work on 4R0 boxes, there are just limitations to what I can do because some of the internal pats are unavailable. My frst XS, an 81SH had the 4R0, and I repaird that one from necessity. That was long before this forum was alive and I had no choice, couldn't find a spare so I dove in! I'm currently expecting 2 4R0 boxes from a bloke in Aussie Land!

[boyat68]

Randy:

Not to hijack this thread, but would love to know how you get the connector off of the circuit boards, I looked at the setup on mine and then your site, and it shows the connector off of the circuit board. I suppose that you de-soldered the pins on the board. One other thing, If the program is burned into a E-Prom or a EE-Prom, it can be copied by using an E-Prom burner's copy function to burn it to another E-Prom or EE-Prom. I use to do this with the BIOS on early PCs as they were prone to go south by an electrical surge. I would unplug the E-Prom and copy the program to a disk and then could burn as many copies as I wanted to to another like E-Prom. I do not know what the 4RO has to store the program in but suspect that it is a Prom one time use.

[Crazcnuk]

The fun part is, after you've burned the eprom to disk, you can make changes.....

[randy]

boyat68:

No hijack taken! That is in fact a very interesting idea, however, I have never been asble to identify exactly what that IC is, there is no manufacturer's data sheet available for it. Part No. is: Hitachi HA1420P. Oh, and it's soldered to the board. Let me know if you find anything. Then you can set up a side business re-programming advance curves for the members! I'll solder in a socket, then ship the TCI to you for programming!!! on second thought.....naaaah!

And, yes, I did unsolder the pins from those boards in the photos, but I only unsolder them when I have to get to the component side of the board, most of these boxes just need the solder fix.

[crazy steve]

I've searched the forums for any aftermarket to no avail. Is there?

Just out of curiousity, has anybody ever explored the possibility of using a aftermarket electronic ignition for a Harley in a XS? Yeah, I know, you'll say 'but those only have two cylinders' but there's 'single fire' versions that fire the cylinders individually and they can also be gotten for a dual-plug head set-up firing two coils. 'Electrically' the XS is a two cylinder bike with two coils firing two plugs each. You can get these ignitions with multiple/programmable curves and vacuum retard to boot. There would be some monkey-motion getting the pickup installed and maybe a custom rotor, but the principal is the same. Might need to get different coils too.

Not particularly cheap, but food for thought....

'78E original owner

[randy]

crazy steve,

Go for it! Others have done some interesting things retrofitting GM ignition components. If the HD unit uses inductive pickups, there is no reason why our oem pickups wouldn't work. If the HD is hall effect pickup, though, then you'll have some monkeying to do.

Let us know how you do.

[crazy steve]

Not me! LOL! My box is still good and I have enough on my plate already (3 project bikes and 3 project cars.... The XS is next in line after another bike I'm trying to finish).

I only brought this up because after hanging around here a while I see that many parts for these bikes are getting VERY hard to find and sooner or later the used parts supply is going to dry up or get over-priced. Electronic stuff is usually the worst of these to find 'suitable' replacements for too.

This certainly wouldn't be a 'bolt-on' deal, but there's more than a few types/brands of these and it might possibly also address another problem; you may be able to find compatible aftermarket tachs for these. I also think there would be a performance gain too, as these systems don't use ballast resistors (like my '78) so you would get a hotter spark.

Like I said, food for thought...

'78E original owner