Sagem | Moto-Abruzzo

16/07/202017/07/2020

Access at last ….. update

Aprilia Caponord ETV1000 Rally-Raid ECU ELM327 Bluetooth OBD-II and TuneECU Further to the last post about accessing the Caponord ECU, I have added a couple of new pages under the ‘Aprilia Caponord Rally-Raid / ECU’ drop-down in the menu. A further page will be written shortly I hope. Apologies if they seem to ramble somewhat, but a terrible week, a stint in hospital and some rather strong pain meds have left me a little tired and woolly-headed. But I needed to get this stuff down before I forgot it all again!

I guess I also need to say that although I’m 100% for innovation, curiosity and experimentation ….. if you do decide to experiment with your own ECU and ultimately turn it into a rather decorative door-stop, please do not come running in this direction! The info I provide is not verified and could quite easily have typos – make sure you are 100% confident about what you are doing and that you thoroughly understand the consequences if you get in too deep. If you are unsure about something then feel free to drop me a line …. I’ll happily try to assist.

11/06/201703/05/2019

Magnecor KV85 HT leads – Review

The modified HAAS coils have been on now for just over six months and 12,000 miles and everything is ticking along just fine. Even so, the Capo needs a few treats every now and again, so I thought a nice new set of HT leads might complement the new(ish!) coils. Besides, the old OEM HT leads have been on the bike for 14 years!

So a couple of weeks ago I placed an order with Race Spec Performance (UK) for a set of Magnecor KV85 (Part No: 2530) HT leads. These are made on an order-by-order basis and this means a bit of a wait if lots of orders are flooding in as the riding season gets underway. They make it very clear that the wait could be three to four weeks. I wasn’t in a rush, the wait would be fine. So I was pleasantly surprised when they rocked up on the doorstep in just over two weeks – excellent stuff!

Now these leads are designed to fit on the OEM Sagem/JCI coils but also fitted my modified HAAS coils with no issues at all. Well maybe one ……. the rubber boot is such a damn good fit it doesn’t allow the air out as the lead is pushed into place – so the trapped air just builds up pressure as the volume decreases. Then when you let go it oh-so gently pushes the lead back off again! The trick is to get it seated properly then slide something blunt up under the boot until hearing a ‘psstttt’ as the trapped air escapes …… NOW the lead is on securely!

Overall the caps are shorter than the OEM angled ones and even with 8.5mm diameter cables the fit and bend of the supple cables is perfect in all four mounting locations. Overall length is fine allowing cables to be routed comfortably without trying to lose excess cable or bend cables in an unreasonably tight radius. And of course, now the engine looks way more powerful with these bright red babies in place!

Would I buy them again? Yes. I’ll definitely pop a set on the other Raid, with one proviso – I’ll skip the international shipping as it’s a bit steep (£16 versus £4.99 shipped within the UK). Otherwise at £50.99 I’m happy enough given the quality of the product, excellent fit and 10 year limited warranty. So lets start clocking up the mileage and how well they last!

30/10/201628/04/2019

Murphy’s law working as well as ever!

Aprilia Caponord ETV1000 Rally-Raid and RST Futura Sagem or JCI Ignition coils Yes I put my hand up …… it was all my own fault! I just had to go and mention the Sagem coils in the last post. A real tweak on the nose of Murphy’s Law if ever there was one!

The other day I had to pop along to the shops and being a lovely warm sunny day it was definitely a job for the Capo, besides I had the Innovv K1 camera system fitted and this would be an ideal time to try it out. The first sign that something was amiss with the Capo was a slight hesitation, a stumble just off idle. That and a slight misfire occasionally – more a sensation through the seat than anything else.

arc Once back in the barn I had a look at the Innovv DV recorder – No stored video, nothing! What the hell? Then the penny dropped ….. The Innovv worked fine with the engine off, but fire it up and it had a complete meltdown and either turned off or froze. It looks like some serious interference at work. With the seats off, I realised there was a faint intermittent ‘tick, tick, tick’ to be heard over the exhausts from the battery/coil area but I couldn’t see anything. So I waited until dusk and tried again – bingo! – A nice intermittent flash of HT from a rear coil to the subframe. That’ll most certainly mess things up quite nicely.

With one Sagem definitely now duff I decided to retire both remaining ones. After all, 111,000 miles isn’t too shabby! To keep all coils the same I thought I’d order three TechAutos – two as replacements to match the two already installed and one as a spare, just in case. So back indoors, fire up Flea-Bay and almost fall off my chair when I see what TechAutos are up to! Here’s a screenshot of their latest pricing for 3x coils. Hmmm……

techauto-1

…… So I fired off an email asking about availability and real-world prices – and after four days, never heard back from them. I decided that with outstanding customers service such as that, I would go elsewhere and buy Renault V6 coils! In fact for the last realistic price I recall seeing for three TechAutos coils I can buy six Renault coils. Now the old girl will get a nice new full set of coils and HT leads plus a new set of Iridium plugs ….. hopefully that’ll keep her happy for a few thousand miles!

17/05/201117/05/2011

Bug in TuneECU 1.9.3 regarding Sagem ECU

A new version of TuneECU has been released that may well be relevant to Caponord/Futura owners. If you have recently downloaded version 1.9.3 ……. remove it as it has a bug with regards to communication to/from the ECU. A new version 1.9.4 has been released (Monday 16/05/2011) that fixes this issue, although this is untested at the time of writing.