banner's beast...

Here's a chance to show off your zxr400, so get them digital cameras out and show us some piccies.Rebuilding your bike or modding it then let everyone in on it.

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banner001
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banner's beast...

Post by banner001 »

Gonna start posting updates in here as i seem to be doing loads to the bike at the moment.

Pics to follow.
UK ZXR400 L3 (1993) - Fully restored and on the roads, my green beast!
JPN ZXR250 A2 (1990) - Revs to 19,200rpm... 'nuff said :smt003
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banner001
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Re: banner's beast...

Post by banner001 »

These have been done over the past 6 months, so bare with us.

Ive changed the front and rear sprockets for renthal's, much nicer than what was on there, new chain as the other was well rusted.
Image

Also it needed new rubber, given that the BT-010's that were on they were manufactured "0203"...over 9 years ago, so i swapped them for some spanking new Pirelli Diablo Rosso II's front and rear. Also replaced bearings front and rear, didnt know if they needed doing, but it cant hurt.
From this:-
Image

To this:-
Image
and
Image

Decided to whip off the luggage handles as its unlikely ill ever strap anything to the bike, and a saving of 313g...

Didnt like the rear hugger with its 2 massive holes in it, it kept flinging road crap all over the rear shock, as i will change the rear shock at some point i wanted something solid so i repaired (milliput) a knackered AP hugger, sand down and a respray+laquer later i got a semi-gloss black rear hugger, might spray it kawasaki green, but i would rather get everything done at the same time, pannels, tyres etc...
Image

My downpipes are beyond rusted, plus 5+holes in them really didnt make the bike sound/smell nice (get a face full of hydrocarbons whenever the bike is stationary)...so ive swapped it for something from sandybikespares, not ridden the bike with the new pipes yet, but as the bike was only making 56bhp before it cant have made it worse!
From this:-
Image
Image

To this:-
Image
Last edited by banner001 on Fri Jun 22, 2012 11:43 pm, edited 1 time in total.
UK ZXR400 L3 (1993) - Fully restored and on the roads, my green beast!
JPN ZXR250 A2 (1990) - Revs to 19,200rpm... 'nuff said :smt003
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banner001
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Re: banner's beast...

Post by banner001 »

Then disaster...snapped a tooth of the 19T 2nd gear cog, so engine out...
Image
Image

Also my forks were both leaking oil...so the brakes were also completely knackered from all the oil (been going on for ~5 months...yes i know its dangerous...) so it was time to strip and rebuild the calipers.
Both calipers were like this:-
Image
Image

Pistons weren't much better
Image

Cleaned them up nice:-
Image

Rebuilt with red rubber grease and silicone grease:-
Image

And re-assembled the calipers (also swapped the rusted bleed nipples for new stainless steel ones):-
Image
Image

The same cant be said about the rear caliper, caliper pins locked in solid, ceramic piston top crumbled when i touched it, and all pistons are seized fast, cant even remove them with my mole grips...
Image
UK ZXR400 L3 (1993) - Fully restored and on the roads, my green beast!
JPN ZXR250 A2 (1990) - Revs to 19,200rpm... 'nuff said :smt003
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banner001
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Re: banner's beast...

Post by banner001 »

When taking the engine out i noticed i had an M-spec CDI
Image

Also, as i was rebuilding the brakes i decided to fit HEL 2-line 'race' braided lines to the front (rear to follow later), along with a bleedable double banjo bolt for the master cylinder, and i also stripped and cleaned the master cylinder and rebuilt the internals with new parts.
Image

The front brake disks were coated in a mixture of brake dust, possibly brake fluid, and lots of fork oil to make a manky paste, cleaned that all off and gave the wheel rim a good wash down (the paint is flaking really bad, and as the paint is "bumpy" dirt sits in it really well so thats why it still looks bad).
Image

Having got the engine back in the frame i have synched the carbs - originally at ~1500rpm #1 was at 12cmHg, #2 9cmHg, #3 less than 8cmHg (meter starts at 8 and needle was not moving), #4 11cmHg, all are back up to ~12cmHg at tickover, carbs synched to within 1cmHg of each other (thanks to Rob for the workshop info). Have no detectable vacuum leaks around the carb rubbers, also dont seem to have any leaks from the headers or from the can...so thats good!

To do - get forks rebuilt (i.e. not leaking oil everywhere), get forks back in clamps, fit nose plastics, indicators, mirrors and hoover tubes, fit front wheel back, fit and bleed front brakes, fit new GSXR1000 rear brake and bleed that.

Bike currently looks like this...hopefully its all change tomorrow:-
Image
Last edited by banner001 on Fri Jun 22, 2012 11:46 pm, edited 1 time in total.
UK ZXR400 L3 (1993) - Fully restored and on the roads, my green beast!
JPN ZXR250 A2 (1990) - Revs to 19,200rpm... 'nuff said :smt003
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CaNsA
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Re: banner's beast...

Post by CaNsA »

Fair bit of work going into this mate, I must admit i am quite impressed :D
banner001 wrote:Rebuilt with red rubber grease and silicone grease
Rubber swells with with silicone grease.......
Not good.....
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banner001
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Re: banner's beast...

Post by banner001 »

are you sure?

its used in industry because it doesn't swell rubber? i use it on my guns, window seals, we use it at work...i'm 99% sure that it wont swell rubber, there is no solvent in there and siloxane's are about as inert as you can get.

plus i know mark white, the bike/race technician/mechanic from performance mag's and he says ill be fine :D

cheers for the encouragement, i have a presentation today that i needed to work on, ill snap a few more pics tonight.
UK ZXR400 L3 (1993) - Fully restored and on the roads, my green beast!
JPN ZXR250 A2 (1990) - Revs to 19,200rpm... 'nuff said :smt003
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banner001
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Re: banner's beast...

Post by banner001 »

also the silicone grease is more to coat the piston rather than smeared on the seals, obviously a bit will get on the seals, but still im pretty sure it doesnt swell rubber...
UK ZXR400 L3 (1993) - Fully restored and on the roads, my green beast!
JPN ZXR250 A2 (1990) - Revs to 19,200rpm... 'nuff said :smt003
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banner001
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Re: banner's beast...

Post by banner001 »

bike is up and running, think it might now be a bit lean, will have to look into that soon.

Major problem is lack of bite with the brakes, ive bled, and reverse bled the fronts but they are still spongey, they brake the bike, but for a fully rebuilt system its not right. gonna take it to my ex-racer mechanic, see what he thinks. i wonder if its the master cylinder, but it has new internals...
Last edited by banner001 on Mon Jun 25, 2012 4:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.
UK ZXR400 L3 (1993) - Fully restored and on the roads, my green beast!
JPN ZXR250 A2 (1990) - Revs to 19,200rpm... 'nuff said :smt003
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CaNsA
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Re: banner's beast...

Post by CaNsA »

Did you bleed the brake while the bike was on the paddock stand?
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banner001
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Re: banner's beast...

Post by banner001 »

first i bled it on the paddock stand, then i bled it on sidestand, then reverse bled it on side stand...

i noticed that if i repeatedly pump the brake whilst moving the bike forwards and backwards so that it "bumps" along then squeeze the rubber line that links the reservoir to the master cylinder i get a few bubbles or air bubbling up into the reservoir. so i am wondering if i have a seal problem in the master cylinder...maybe it is knackered and wont seal properly...although it looked fine when i rebuilt it.

one more thing i have no air coming through when i bleed the brakes, although when i do bleed the calipers i lose a bit of pressure in the brake lever. i.e. i tied the brake lever back over night and it was tighter in the morning, then i bled the front brakes, no air from them, but the lever was back to being mushier...any suggestions?

If it is air i can try again to remove any small air bubbles, i cant see any fluid leaks from anywhere so i dont think its a sealing problem, everything it torqued up to spec.
UK ZXR400 L3 (1993) - Fully restored and on the roads, my green beast!
JPN ZXR250 A2 (1990) - Revs to 19,200rpm... 'nuff said :smt003
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banner001
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Re: banner's beast...

Post by banner001 »

Fitted a GSXR 1000 K1 rear brake caliper, looks a lot easier to work with, only 1 pin to hold in brake pads, the pin is on a 6mm allen screw so no more drifting out pins... see:-
viewtopic.php?f=121&t=13834

looks well nice, a lot better than the corroded lump that is going on ebay next free listing week :D if not its going down the (s)crap yard :D

bled in a few minutes and is rock solid...just like the front should/will-eventually be...
UK ZXR400 L3 (1993) - Fully restored and on the roads, my green beast!
JPN ZXR250 A2 (1990) - Revs to 19,200rpm... 'nuff said :smt003
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Re: banner's beast...

Post by tobomoto »

is the cdi a standard item? its what ive got on mine- i thought all uk bikes had them!
anything is possible with enough time and money. and an open mind...
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banner001
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Re: banner's beast...

Post by banner001 »

tobomoto wrote:is the cdi a standard item? its what ive got on mine- i thought all uk bikes had them!
Uk CDI for L models should have a big "L" on it IIRC, L is 14500rpm, M is 1480rpm...i thought the M-CDI was non-standard...could be wrong though.

Also i stripped out the forks - not a difficult job as it turns out, rubbed down a few imperfections in the chrome and polished them back up, this is the 2nd leg
Image
UK ZXR400 L3 (1993) - Fully restored and on the roads, my green beast!
JPN ZXR250 A2 (1990) - Revs to 19,200rpm... 'nuff said :smt003
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Re: banner's beast...

Post by 666damned »

good informative installments 'banneman'........coming along nicely..
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banner001
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Re: banner's beast...

Post by banner001 »

cheers, next thing is to give it a wash and post a pic of it all completed.

next things will be slightly cosmetic, need to repaint rear caliper, rear caliper bracket, torsion bar and when properly bled, front calipers. was gonna go for black fronts and gold rears, might take a few photos and see, might re-paint fronts gold to match rear, or rear black to match the black fronts. i just liked the idea of black calipers with white 'TOKICO' writing, could also go for gold and black...will see.
UK ZXR400 L3 (1993) - Fully restored and on the roads, my green beast!
JPN ZXR250 A2 (1990) - Revs to 19,200rpm... 'nuff said :smt003
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