new member, please help!!!

[Tom mccrea]

I have just bought a delighful 1988 zxr400 h1 from ebay which was described as 95% ready for mot. When it arrived at my house I discovered a few minor things so decided to join this forum.
1, Milky oil! I have been assured by the seller that it is a split in a tube and water has got into the system and its not the head gasket.
2, Electrics are like something that should be served with garlic bread and a nice bolognese sauce.
3, Bodywork, each panel was lucky enough to be held on by one fixing bolt/screw...except the petrol tank which uses gravity to stay in place.

On the bright side the swing arm seems to be ok.

Has anyone got ideas/suggestions re getting parts or advice??

tom

[Chadatious]

Milky on 2strokes was either head gasket or water pump seal, so could be something like that leaking, but its process of elimination try the easier to sort things first incase its one of them. electrics well....... if there as bad as you say i wouldnt know what to say. and the bolts i know theres kits on ebay but if not go to a kawasaki dealership and they should be able to get them

[cargo]

Yes

For new parts try Cradley

And for Advice try ZXRworld

Oh and if a water hose has split the water/coolant will be released to the world and not into the oil


head gasket
water pump

are likely culprits

[RedexRobB]

Hello and welcome to the forum!!

Where exactly is the milky oil?

If all the electrics work then insulation tapeis your friend

Ive written a guide on fairing bolts:

viewtopic.php?f=55&t=368&p=39591&hilit= ... lts#p39591

[Tom mccrea]

Thanks guys, going to give her an oil change tomorrow and try to find this mystery hose...

That will give me an idea of what's going on. The milky oil can be seen in the inspection window..does that make any sense?

[RedexRobB]

Long as the oil doesnt come out milky white then you should be ok. Its quite normal to get a bit of milky residue build up on the window and the oil filler cap too. A good run should clear it away. Only pipe i can imagine is letting any moisture in is the crank breather pipe which is just behind the block in top of the gearbox, it runs from there upto the airbox.

[Tom mccrea]

Thank you. I had a look at the oil filler cap and it looked healthy. Think this is definately going to be an interesting project...Looking forward to getting some life in it..:

[Neosophist]

Yep sounds like the sellers having you on a bit there.

The viewing window can get a milky appearance if the bikes been standing and condensation has been allowed to build up in the oil... best to dump the oil and put fresh in, if its' run semi-regularly you shouldn't have the problem!

Plenty of parts about on ebay / Cradleys are great (and 10 minutes from my house ) for new parts!

Fairing bolts you could either but a pro-bolt etc complete kit or try and find a breaker splitting a bike and buy the original old kawasaki ones off them.. if there all there!!

Might be worth stripping the crap tape etc off the loom and re-taping it.

I've done it before on bikes..

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/10mm-SPIRAL-WRAP- ... 483b006563

Used a couple of meters of the above spiral bind and electrical taped over that.. helps to give the loom a nice shape and hold all the wires in place for taping!

[Jamz]

After loads of short trips last Winter I found to my horror there was LOADS of frothy white crap in my oil.

I dropped the oil out for fresh stuff, then went for a long blast with plenty of slow traffic stuff to get the heat right up for as long as possible, and as it turned out all was fine and it was just condensation that had built up.

So you might get lucky with that, but otherwise it sounds like you've bought a shitter and it might be worthwhile trying to get your money back...

[Tom mccrea]

I agree jamz and with my luck it probably is a shiter, unfortunately It can from ebay and it came from Wales, I live in Northern Ireland...on he bright side its a project which will be well worth it in the end...

[cargo]

Good grief.......................

you only 5 minutes down the road from me............................HTF did I miss that

[Tom mccrea]

I think my dad knows you cargo? Big fat tom? from the bike training school?

When you next on the track?

[cargo]

Cant say the name is familiar but then I'm useless with names and faces.......................if I saw him in the street I'd prob know him.

Mind you there's plenty in this world that think they know me

[Tom mccrea]

ha!! he was an instructor with frank miller and has his own place now in Lisburn.