Changed to 15wt fork oil 135mm from top of leg and put a 10mm spacer on top of the springs and it rides a beauty now. Very pleased with how it rides.
Seeing as how I couldn't sell the 1993 model for what I wanted, I have decided to do a full rebuild on it. I brought some bits and the frame into my place from the storage shed and started on disassembling ready for cleaning and painting. I liked how the other one rode so plan to put a bit extra effort into this one as it may be a keeper.
hey Murdo I have a good runner here if you need parts , Its next in line to be stripped, mine is a 1999 Cheers Chris
Might grab the carbies off you if I can't get mine running nicely. Have got some new float needles on order so hoping that sorts the problem out. @Murdo will be good to see you work your magic on the little ZZR, can't wait to see what it ends up like.
Thanks Chris. I am still going through boxes I had left from the first one, so not really sure yet on what I will need. You would be my first place to call anyway. Thanks Kirk. Still deciding on whether to go with the original colour or go modern with a Ninja green. Spent most of today cleaning, cleaning, cleaning and took the frame bits to the sandblasters.
Time for update. Stripped the rear link to check and regrease. The rear link had some wear in only the shock mount. You can see daylight through between the bush and sleeve. New bush and seals on way. Both the speedo and tacho had lost their needles, so pulled apart to clean, lubricate and replace the needles. Closest things I found was the spray tube from a wd-40 can, so cut to length and glued on. Note how faded the temp needle looks now. Thermostat was stuffed (its wide open), so new one coming. Also put in a new temp gauge sender as difficult to get at when assembled to bike. This is the instrument surround panel. Some 'Numpty" in a wreckers somewhere has written on the side you see, why couldn't they put it on the back???????? Lots of rubbing with thinners soaked rag to get that off. On to the biggest job, repair and paint the fairings. Why do people put bloody bog and fiberglass onto ABS plastic? Most of it came off with fingernail, some needed a flat screwdriver to lift off. None of the 'repairs' done were any good and now have it plastic welded back together properly (and no bog). Rather than spend hours sanding all the little bits I glass bead blasted the paint off. At 50 psi it was enough to remove the paint without damage to the plastic.
Today was a cold, wet and miserable day so I stayed in and spent the day screwing my freshly painted bits together. Last two weeks have been pretty constant rounds of cleaning, straightening, fixing, blasting and painting. Have them all ready to start. Not bad for a days effort, all greased and torqued up. Start on the electrics tomorrow, then the engine next week.
Can I suggest perhaps breaking the sentences a little differently when it comes to inserting images, that first line is a doozy, I thought WHOOPS someone is oversharing
More updates. Had not intended to split the cases but when I found this on the oil pick up strainer I decided it a wise move to have a look. It appears to be old gasket material that has been chewed through the gears. Plenty in the bottom of the case too. After a really good clean of all the oil galleries, replaced the bearing on the output shaft (probably had an over tightened chain at some time) as it was a bit 'growly', new seals on shaft, etc. The crank and balancer shaft bearings all measured up within specs with only one tiny mark on crank middle bearing that was not a problem. Cleaned it all again and re assembled using Loctite grey maxx sealer. All torqued up ready for the sidecases and some paint. I have been unable so far to find any oversize piston/ring kits for a reasonable price. I had some bookmarked when I restored the orange bike, but when my computor crashed I lost a lot of info and cannot find any. I will use the best of the three barrels I have with the best pistons and just some new rings.
Measured up all the barrels I have today and none of them are any good. 1 has had water sitting in it (pitted), 2nd has had rings fluttering and rippled the bore and last one is just worn out. I have dipped into the savings and ordered 2mm oversize Wiseco piston kits, so will have a few more cc's as well (about 265cc) to give it some more 'ponies'.
Some pic of the barrels to show what is wrong with them and why they will not be used as is without machining. These ones had been left in a box and had got wet. The water has pitted the bores which would caused the engine to use oil and may cause the rings to 'jump' over the craters and possibly break. These are rippled from the rings being too loose in the pistons. Note also the mark in the left bore from where the piston had been left sitting for a long time. These have done a lot of Kms and are worn beyond the limit acceptable for rings to have the correct tension to seal correctly, not to mention the piston would 'slap' around in the bore as well. Note also water marks in right bore, but not yet pitted. This is the 'lip' left by the wear of the rings at the top of the bore, about 0.25mm deep. This, if left there and new piston and rings fitted would maybe cause the top ring to break as it hit the ledge each time it came to the top of the bore. This is the other side where it has had a bit of moisture sitting on top of the piston. It would clean off ok, but is still worn. This is the head from the worn engine. You can see where the burnt oil has turned to carbon and is coating the valves and combustion chamber. The head from the other engine shows it was running much cleaner (ie not burning oil).
Time to start on the head. Removed all valves and cleaned on wire wheel. The seat are not too bad and should clean up nicely. First I had to make a new spiggot for the seat grinder. I made this back in about 1976 and has done many valves since. Because it was made then, the collard end is 1/4" (not 6mm but 6.4mm) and it took a bit of searching to find some 1/4" bar. This then had to be trimmed down to 5mm, the same as the valve stems. And polished to a smooth surface so as not to score the valve guides. New one here with old ones and tool holder. The cutting stones screw onto the thread and then turned with a drill. Doesn't need a lot of speed or pressure, just a little WD-40 for lube. One on right done, left to do. The seats were in pretty good shape and only needed a light touch to bring them up to specs.
The ports had a few little casting 'dags' on them and stepps where they were cut by the machine fitting the valve seats. I got my Dremel tool out and with a rounded end cutter smoothed the lumps and bumps. This is not 'porting' (as you would do to enlarge the ports for a power increase) but just cleaning and smoothing the ports without changing the shape or size. The ports in this head seem to me to be of a good design, and I don't want to mess with the smooth running or low rev torque by enlarging the ports and slowing the gas speed into the cylinders. The exhaust ports were badly carboned up and I used the same cutter to clean off the grunge. You can see on the left how much carbon (burnt oil) was in the port behind the valve restricting the exhaust flow compared to the cleaned one on the right. I fitted up the intake rubbers to make sure that they matched the intakes, and checked the exhaust the same. All good. Using fine sanding drums I cleaned up the ports to smooth any marks left by the cutter. Final step was to run a tap through the sparkplug hole to clean any burrs and carbon out. Next will be to grind the faces of the valves and lap them into the seats using grinding paste, then to take into the laundry tub for a meticulus scrubbing with strong soap (I use CT-18) and very hot water to get all the minute bits of grinding out, then blow off with airline before reassembly.
With the valve seats ground, I needed to do the valve faces. I used to take them with a split sleeve to a friend at Repco machine shop, but he is not there anymore and the new blokes are not interested in helping me. So I set about making my own using my lathe and battery drill. I set a mounted stone in the chuck and made a holder for a drill accessory chuck to hold the valve. Some experiment with an old valve got the angle right and spinning the lathe backwards and drill forwards got a nice finish the the valve face. When I had all the valves done, the next step was to check the height of the seat contact on the valve face. I put a small dob of bearing blue on (also known as machinist blue) and fitted each valve and rotated on the seat. This must be done to check that the seating area of the valve face is not too close to the edge or the seat too wide. If this is so, it can be rectified by recutting the seat inner or outer until the correct seat is made. This was spot on in the middle. Exhaust also looking good. Note that the exhaust valve seat (on right) is wider than intake. This is to help with the heat transfer of the red hot valve to the head and to stop the seat burning. My lapping tool I bought many years ago (cost me a whole $1) was too big for the tiny bike valves, so I used a piece of 3/16" (4.8mm) fuel hose pushed over the stem of the valve from the camshaft side. With some fine grinding paste applied to the seat and twisted between hands to rotate the valve and 'lap' the seat and valve face together. This gives a grey line around where the surfaces touch and finely mates the faces together. Now for a good wash and assembly.
After a really good wash, and then again to be really clean it was time to reassemble the valves. All clean and layed out on nice clean rag. Don't forget to clean all the tools you will be using before use so that no dirt is transported onto the nice clean head. First I made a little tool from some 10mm bar drilled and de-burred on one end to fit the valve stem seals. A good hand push is all that's required to fit them. All the components of the valve. From left, the collets which grip the valve stem, spring retainer, inner and outer springs, steel washers which stop the springs from 'eating' into the alloy head (most essential not to forget them) and the stem seal. Using the spring compressor tool to hold the valve spring retainer down while fitting the collets (most fiddly job on engine) When cleaning off the rocker faces with a fine flap wheel I discovered a couple that the hard facing was chipping off. Lucky I had a couple spare. All bits fitted and rockers oiled and a bit of cam paste applied to the faces to protect for those first few seconds before the oil gets to them. Wrapped in rag to keep clean until my pistons arrive.
Wet sanded all the panels with 800 grit and got the stickers on. Cleaned off and two coats of two pack clear. Looking sweet.