New project...non-zxr

[ross46]

Just a thought, would it be better to have all the valve clearances equal? Balancing the carbs is to get equal air fuel mix into the cylinders but you can have one cylinder with all the valves on the tight side but within tolerance and another cylinder with them all on the loose side, would it be better to have all of them the same and if so would it be better in the middle of the tolerance or tight or loose? Just food for thought

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the vacuum is caused by the piston moving downwards, having the valves tighter will increase the available time for the vacuum to form, but wont chance the amount of vacuum (all other factors assumed to be equal), yes it would be ideal if all the valves were exactly the same, and towards the tight end...but thats not possible as commercial shims are in 0.05mm increments - 0.01mm would be better if anyone knows of a place?

but as ive had the inlets refaced the valve stems are now higher than before, so its gonna take a few goes to even get them close to being correct, im having to go down 3 shim sizes on some...

[ross46]

I need to get my bike dynoed soon, so I might buy some shims and hone them down to the correct sizes to make them all equal and get a dyno afterwards to see the results, if people want to donate a shim for scientific inquiry then they are welcome!

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feel the orange!


after 3 sets of valve clearance measurements, they are all done

the valve refacing has meant that the valves sit slight higher than before, about 0.1mm, so they were all very tight, the exhaust valves are all ~0.265mm which is bang on the middle of the adjustment range, the inlets vary from ~0.13 - 0.17mm which is within tollerance, and ive tried to make sure that i dont have for instance, 3 inlets for #1 cylinder all at 0.127mm, and the 3 inlets for #3 cylinder all 0.178mm...they are spread around.

ive had to "trim" material from the sides of my feeler gauges to get them into the small space of the middle cam-bucket gap, i need to find some thin-width ones really, but these will do for now, because f*** it i dont care cams are on correctly, everything is torqued down properly and the timing and valve clearances are good...need a few o-rings that i forgot to previously buy, and a few more orange bolts wouldnt go amiss either

if they arive, i have a set of carbs to do a quick fettle with tonight, and then i can chuck the clutch components at this engine, then it just needs oil, coolant and it can be started for the first time in ~9 months...and this time it should work properly (valve timing was way off last time, and the exup valve was seized open)...not bad for a first attempt, and not bad considering i had never seen a clutch plate before doing any of this work - thats how "green" i was

[ross46]

Well done for getting stuck in then! I had never seen any 4 stroke engine when I did my head gasket on my zxr, it is fun learning though, few bits needed on my bike but I need money to do so

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i have an engine in a frame now...not long before this bad-boy fires up!






i need to move the engine as its getting cramped in here...

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cleaned the side stand lever of all the accumulated crap that was caked on it, gave it a quick wire brushing - it will be sent for powdercoating along with the swingarm linkages as soon as i can get the bearings pressed out of them, hoping to have it running within first 2 weeks of september...its long overdue now.


rested the fuel tank and airbox on (see post 1 for how it came to me...) to see what it looks like, check for clearance, places to put things...not much room under and infront of the tank so ill leave that empty, i might be able to squeeze some bits nearer to the tank, the fueling runs odd on this bike, fuel tap is either on or off, there is a thermister in the tank that detects when you are getting low, when it detects you are low it sends a signal to the CDi which cuts the signal to the fuel pump so you can feel the bike not fuelling properly, when that happens you flip an electrical switch from on -> res and the fuel pump kicks back in. as i am going to be adding a fuel gauge to the bike i dont need this "feature", i need to look into if its possible to remove the thermister part using a voltage divider - the CDi is looking for a ~10.2V signal, i dont wanna fry it by hooking it up to a 12V live signal...i cant see that it would do all that much damage, but ill get hold of another CDi before i start to mess with bits.

ive also got the radiator and oil cooler on to see how they fit...all mounting points present and functional, all except the screw points for the radiator cover, one is broken, one is fine, the other 2 are fine but have screw threads broken of inside them. as the aly is likely to be fairly brittle considering its age im tempted to get some new lugs welded on that will be stronger than the originals (also need to get some fitted to the oil cooler), im going to get 2 custom radiator and oil cooler covers made by my mate at the water jet company he works at, it will have FZR 1000 in two lines on the water cooler bit, and EXUP over the oil cooler.

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bike is starting to look like a ...

[Vaughn]

Nice build, I enjoyed reading that. Can't wait till she's fired up for the first time

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me too, ill drop the powdercoater a txt this afternoon, see if the bits will be ready for tomorrow, ill give the powdercoating a few days to properly cure (i know it can chip within the first few days, after that it tends to dent) and probably replace the bearings middle of next week, then i need to jack the front of the bike up, replace the swingarm components, get the rear tyre on and i will have a rolling chassis (only taken 10-11 months so far ).

im at the btcc next sunday so i might try to fire the bike up after i come back...fingers crossed, and ill see if i can get an assistant to do the video honers at some point i need to check out the exup servo, it turns fine by hand and sounds ok, but as i bought it with a suspected seized exup valve i need to see if its stripped the exup servo cog teeth or not...i might get some more of the loom fitted this week and test that.

oh and i stupidly sold the seat not realising i will need it for the initial rebuild...so im on the hunt for a new seat, and an airbox...

[ross46]

I'll come give you a hand and do the videoing if you want? Just tell me when as long as its not the same weekend as bmf!

[Vaughn]

I bet when you took the bike on you didn't realise how much would be involved, I know how you feel I bought an aprilia rs125 off a little chav and that's been the same, everything you can imagine has been botched, looks good on the outside but when you scratch away the dirt there's loads of things wrong with it, it even had a rounded off rear wheel nut with no thread lol, I rode around on that for nearly a month before finding out, not to mention the fork seals had gone and there was no oil left in them lol.

Made me laugh when you said you were plugging away at the wheel spindle I think it was with a rubber hammer for 2 days, great feeling when it all goes back together and is just as good as when it rolled out the factory though.
Satisfaction of a job well done.

It should be a law that every man has a motorbike to tinker with, forget all this licence crap if your male your allowed a bike as long as you maintain it yourself

Anyway enough of that good luck with the build keep them pictures flooding in

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swingarm linkages are powdercoated, press out old bearings, press new ones in, and ive got me a rolling chassis!

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ill be fitting these to the front forks as a temporary measure before taking the plunge with £600 worth of full modern radial R1 front end...
http://www.reactivesuspension.com/forks ... l#picstart

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swingarm on - moves SO SMOOTH now, need axle stands and a few bits then i can jack the rear up, put the swingarm linkage and rear shock on,rear tyre sprockets and chain...and ive got myself a rolling chassis