£500 quid project Shitter

[unclesparks1]

Hello all, Ive only gone and bought myself an absolute dog of a 1991 Kawasaki ZXR400L1 off ebay for the pricely sum of £460. I wish i had read the full description first but i was tired and under pressure. You see, Ive been set the "project £500 shitter" challenge by a mate which is a maximum of £500 for a track day bike, i was surprised by the choices i had and very nearly ended up with a VFR750f but got outbid in the closing minutes then just as i was going out i saw the ZXR400 and took a punt. Didnt even have time to see if i had won it, just got home a few hours later and saw the congratulations email. and thats when i discovered the wreck i had bought. Im not to bad with the old spanner but the owner said it broke down recently and needs the carbs cleaned and a new clutch bearing. That apparently is it but im expecting much worse. Im after hints and help to get it up and running so that i can beat my closest mate on his 1991 CBR600. Sad i know but ive always wanted to do a track day but ive never had the money or time, however i do now so im after the lowdown as to what i have let myself in for. Ive got a feeling there are some giggles on the way, as well as a few scrapped knuckles and tears
Anyhow Im not new to the 400 bikes, i owned a beautiful UK spec NC30 a couple of years ago so know roughly what to expect performance wise. I didnt want a 1000cc gixer or blade as its just a little bit to much for a first track bike and the 600 are expensive due to all the club racers wanting them. As i live between Lydden Circuit in Kent and Brands Hatch ive got some good track days ahead. All im after is a reliable track bike with probably no more than a full race pipe,filter and carb set up mod. When i get it home i will list what its got, whats missing, good points and then the bad ones of which i reckon there may be a few. Still, getting your hand dirty is half the fun, im just hoping it will keep up with the others. Ive never done a track ay before but im certainly not a slow rider even though my road bike now is a big old Honda CB1300 after i junked the ZX7R which i hated. Ive even got a Yamaha Rd350YPVS 2 stroke in the garage which gets the occasional blast when i have time.
If anyone has any tips for converting a rough looking road bike into a track bike then let me know, im after track fairings and stuff so good companies and good parts are what im after. Will keep you posted.

[Scott221]

WD40 & Ebay. Sorted. You've got all the diagrams on the site and many threads that you can look over if you get stuck. Good luck!

Got any pics?

[RedexRobB]

Where bouts in kent are you sparks?

Never been to either brands or lydden but lydden looks like a mad little track, defo a track for 400's ive heard!

[zimm]

good luck ..

this what you're starting with ?




???????????

[masterofinsanity]

well don't forget any excess parts throw em our way for our zxrworld bike build.

[unclesparks1]

Thats the one, looks like i wasnt the only one watching it, by all accounts it had a few watchers but i was only one of two bidders, i fell for the new tyres,new battery, new chain, new other bits and pieces and choose to ignor the its broken down part. Still it will either be very easy to fix or abloody nightmare. Does anyone actually know this bike- any history?
Ive seen some rather smart looking green race fairings which might have to get purchased other than that its all questions at this point- what sort of speeds should i be expecting, im hoping for around the 130mph which should do just fine. I remember sitting on one of these years ago at the Whitbread Hop Farm Kent Motorcycle Show and loved it, it felt like a real bike. I lusted for years over one but went for the NC30 instead. Must drag out my old copies of greybike magazine and read up. Now that was a good mag for 400's. If you have never read or heard of them have a search on ebay theyre brilliant.

[Scott221]

what sort of speeds should i be expecting, im hoping for around the 130mph

Well, today, on private roads ofcourse I had around the 130 mark at 10000 rpm, I wasnt concetrating too much on the dials as I was going round a right hand corner at that time. The clocks over read though so it was probably more like 120 mark. Its not about the straights though, get this bike in the twisties and you'll never want to see a straight road again!!

[zimm]

a healthy stock zxr will do 135 ish .. depends how good you are at hiding from the wind..

they do feel like "proper bikes" after NC30's.. the one time i rode a '30 it felt like a toy, so compact and small, and im a shortarse so gawd only knows how 6 footer's fold themselves up onto them.

from the description on ebay, i'd say it needs a carb clean, new plugs and thats it .. ZXR clutches just are noisy as feck, so the "clutch bearings" the PO said it needed are probably not. least ways, ive not destroyed one in 10 years.

[masterofinsanity]

top speed claimed by kwak is 137mph for these little beasties in totally std form.

[unclesparks]

Well the previous owner has got in touch so its being collected tomorrow afternoon, It will be stripped down and most non track day parts flogged on, on here first of course then its down to getting it started. Watch this space. p.s were all ZXR imports?

[zimm]

zxr400L was an official uk bike, differences are clocks and CDI

if you remove the speedo it'll restrict it to 10,000 rpm in all gears
if you leave the speedo on, it'll restrict it to 180kph
you want a uk CDI or an MMax box, with either fitted it wont matter what what clocks are fitted, or even if they are present.
uk cdi has extra 400rpm too, 14,900rpm compared to 14,500rpm, so is the best way forward.

[unclesparks]

Well its home, Good points are
1 Its home
2 it starts and runs
3 the brakes seem ok and it has braided hoses
4 good tyres chain and sprocket
5 full tank of petrol
6 still taxed and MOT's
7 Quill race exhaust (very loud)
8 bigger than my old NC30
9 previous owner said it was good for 130mph with a little more to go.
10 i dont think there is a ten- oh yes it had a key and V5

bad points
1 its a right heap
2 engine sounds as rough as a badgers butt
3 possible fluid leak , what and where not sure probably all
4 white stuff in oil level spy glass hoping not head gasket
5 tappets - has some and very loud
6 body work totalled
7 will need full strip down to see what the engine wear is like
8 compression test in the morning i think
9 its not been loved in a long time, i thinks its virginity has grown back
10 Its going to be a money pit
11 the 36k is miles and not km

[unclesparks]

Right i need race fairings and seat unit, and some advive on tappets. If its not tappets what else could be making the tappaty noise at the top of the engine near the back especially on tick over

[zimm]

read chapter 4 of the pdf'd manual on this site .. clearances are easy enough to do, but set them at the loose end of the tolerance range if its primarily a track bike, or they'll close up as the valves expand with the heat and you'll lose compression/scorch the Ex valve seats

they can wear the followers/tappetts if oil changes have been neglected, so best to whip the cams out and check them all as the "shagged bit" can be an butt to spot with the cams in place

could just be pinholes in the headers.. they look rotten enough ..

or (long shot) a knacked HT lead shorting to the cam cover.. loud ticking noise combined with a stumbling missfiring idle, clears up above 2k..
ive had it happen on 2 zxr's in the past ..

oil mist/sludge in the sight glass can just be from infrequent use/short journeys .. for some reason (rubbish crank breathing arrangement ?) zxr's are really bad for this .. a damn good thrash, get it all hot then take the oil filler off and let out all the steam works well enough to clear it .. if its headgaket it'll dump all the water (while still luke warm) within 1 minute of being held over 10k under load .. oil dribbling down the front of the block is the drain holes from the spark plug wells 90% of the time, and not the head-gasket.

where was the bike located ? i "think" i know it .. and if im right it had a replacement engine, but that was nearly 2 years ago, which makes it meaningless..

good luck with it though ..

[unclesparks]

I got it from a guy from Watford but worked in North West London, he had only owned it a few weeks. It looked rough and sounded rough so not sure if he got it off ebay. The Quill exhaust pipe looks interesting to me, its a right weld up bodge by the looks and sounds bloody loud. I chucked some expensive petrol additive in it last night for the carbs and thats made it tick over much better. Will have a good look today and assess the damage!!!
Overall its not to bad other than knocking it off the paddock stand and breaking the left riders foot rest in half, glad i did it to this and not my road bike. Tappets i believe are the main area of attention, the engine looks quite clean for 17 years worth of abuse and oil looks nice and black so that will get a change very soon along with plugs and filters. Im very tempted to get a fast air flow K&N filter and get the bike dyno's to the exhaust. Anyone know roughly how much this would cost?????