Project Sharky's ZXR shed

Got hold of a motor months ago now which was feeling a little rough to turn over by hand, had poured about a cup of oil down each plug hole & it has sat ever since, had another look yesterday & was still the same so it was time to strip her down & have a look. zoom in on lower ring on 2nd piston, the ring is warped & not compressing around the piston fully. Cylinder block looks fine though. The cylinder block & head were full of rust, so much so that I immediately cleaned it out before getting a pic of how bad it was.




The water pump was really rusty, the impeller & shaft will need replacing & the thermostat seal crumbled off, the radiator is rubbish & the hose mounts are near gone.Spent the rest of the day cleaning the motor parts which look ok & making gaskets, all the while thinking about honing bores, & $200 oem or $50 Chinese rings. With a mate wanting me to do up another zxr for him, everything was inoxed up & bagged for a later date- the whole motor-

 

Not hard at all to change, I couldnt pry out the seal & thought the shaft maybe bent also so I took the lot out but it was only the seal in the end. Remove the clutch basket




thats the selector shaft im pointing at, the cog above is the oil pump shaft, remove the oil cog off the shaft & the selector shaft pulls straight out.

 

The shark boat I work on was hired for the filming of the Aquaman movie recently, so I been away staying onboard for a month, this was sitting in the backyard when I got home last week. I asked my girlfriend where the bike was from she just shrugged & said "I thought you put it there, its been there for 3 weeks", I checked back through all my missed calls/texts etc & found that my Virago loving mate had bought it for $600 & wants it done up like mine but black or blue. So I gave him a ring to find out about the bike & what he wanted done, "nothing major for now" he said, "just polish the frame, swingarm, outside rims, rear sets, exhaust pipe,the bit where the key goes & anything aluminium", as his rattling off his list im feeling the carb slides welded together thinking here we go again.

 

Finally got a few supplies to move forward, new Lite Tek seals + new float needles & seats for the carbs, & a new ultrasonic cleaner. I was having that much fun,I had them cleaned & rebuilt before realising I had picked up the wrong set of carbs, I had accidently grabbed the "A" model carbs from another project, so I ended up doing both sets. Replaced the JIS screws & fuel bowl screws with stainless allen heads, even polished the brass & butterflies with cotton buds.  Onto another topic, CLEANING OXIDIZED/STAINED ENGINE CASES. After much scrubbing & getting nowhere over the years I have really hit the information highway looking for something that might work even half as good as @kiffsta wet blaster, an acid by the name of Hydrofluoric kept coming up, its in products like mag wheel cleaner etc & its pretty nasty stuff in concentrated form, also known as the flesh eating acid. Bought this for a try. The first method I tried on a carb failed miserably, I followed directions & mixed 3 parts water to 1 part Alum-bright, then dropped in an old single split carb, the mix frothed & bubbled & after 30 seconds pulled it up & looked good,60 seconds looked better, then the phone rang & 3 minutes later I was lookin at a dark greyish/black carb, whoops no more soaking. The next method would be brushed on & it worked a charm. Now it was time to try it on a piece of the split motor, what better piece than the sump. The sump was as clean as I could get it before I began. before & after of the side done before & after, cleaned piece then quickly polished. Looks like a new sink, very happy with how it come up for a rushed through trial in fading light, heres the method I used-- straight Alum bright brushed on sparingly for a couple of minutes then rinsed off in water, do this twice maybe more if theres stubborn patches, then I put it in the ultrasonic cleaner with detergent & degreaser on a hot 60deg + temp,dry off & then toothbrush on some alumimium polish & wipe off with paper towell, quick hit with carb or brake cleaner & wipe off with paper towell.

 

Had the first real good look over this bike today, now that the carbs are done & the tanks de-rusted I can try and start this thing for the first time in 5-6 years soon. The story with the bike is--the bike had electrical problems that were supposedly fixed, but there were bits hanging off that they did not know where it should go & they also couldnt install the fairing,so the bike just sat there until they lost interest. After looking today it all sounds legit, theres a new RR plug & the only hanging bit that needed to go somewhere was the sidestand switch. Connected up a battery to check the electrics & found everything "fixed" and working after putting a main fuse in where the fuse should be, replaced both brake light & 2 indicator bulbs, re-wired both front indicators with new bullet connectors & connected the rear brake light switch, a couple of the dash lights needed a wiggle also to work. Gave the bike a wash down then blew out every electrical connection with the airhose & cleaned with circuit cleaner. Things noticed so far that need replacing other than plugs, fluids etc- coolant overflow bottle(done), battery box(done), return excellerator cable, chain, front sprocket (prob rear too),brake pads,side fairing plugs & various bolts & screws. Tried the Alum bright on the rear footpegs aswell, does nothing to the steel though.

 

So I started the bike up a week later, that was 2 months ago now - unfortunately the video link posted elsewhere other than here.I was that keen to fire it up I didn't even notice the carby boots were all loose until I took the carbs back off, & that inoxy oily smoke coming off the rusty headers was not needed, the nuts were all loose, the throttle wasnt working properly either both cables were broken & installed wrong in the switchblock, Motor-wise everything looks ok with some valve clearances getting a little tight. So I started the make-over from the rear of the bike then said stuff it & pulled the lot apart, there was a lot of polishing & parts to look over. Some random pics

 

Spent the last few days re-assembling the bike, the motor went in first then I worked from the back of the bike forwards, was good to have all the bits like caliper pieces back together & forks sealed up etc with the added bonus of extra floor space as I went.

 

Havnt really done a great deal lately, I found & fixed an annoying indicator globe that worked when it wanted to, i thought it was a bad switch at first, then thought it was the housing for the globe itself but ended up being a badly joined & un-insulated wire on the loom that had rusted. Spent a whole day fitting the fairings, no wonder the previous owners couldnt get them on, had to get out the spare tail light mount, front fairing stay & lower rad mount to match the bent pieces & fashion them into shape again, every mount hole was out. Also soldered a voltmeter straight to the ignition. Got most of the missing nuts/bolts matched but I still need OEM front mudguard bolts, 2 side fairing plugs & the lower fairing cowl to join the side fairings. I still have to polish the rear sets etc, sync the carbs & paint the fairing blue or black at the owners choosing(i would stay blue) & make him a seat cowl like mine,but the owner wont be back until new years eve, thats 2 months away,so im already in need of another zxr to pull apart , hows yours going @Linkin any interest down there, Sydneys not that far from Tweed Heads really.

 

Wow, its been near 5 months since the last posting here, I better finish off this chapter. The bike got a new Gpr 300 front tyre & was registered mid January, a couple of days before the owner came to pick it up & re-fresh my bank account, he has done over 2000klms in 6 weeks, the only problem so far was a sprung rad hose an hour from home, I had to do the trip twice before getting all the tools needed to do the job of course, & the flasher relay stopped working on one side (of course)the day I took it down for rego. He will need an R6 rear shock conversion as he has popped the seals on his & he is on the heavier side of the scales. He also wants a led headlight upgrade, & the paint job has been put on hold because that would mean no riding.These were the last pics I took a day before the new front tyre & rego.

 

Got this bike off @kiffsta way back in January, brang it home, gave it a start up & done a compression test, all measured around 160 psi, it has sat idle ever since, it's only use has been as a mannequin to make rear seat cowls. The bike has all the usual problems- cracked/scratched fairings,paint chipping off frame, scratched mirrors & indicators, electrical gremlins,no tank hoses,warpy front rotors, worn out chain,sprockets & pads, various missing bolts,no inner fairing piece,worn grips,bald tyres & a leaky petcock,which drained all the fuel without me noticing & rusted out the tank. The carby spring needed more tension to return the throttle. I even dropped the bike off the paddock stand adding more scratches, a bent lever & a small tank dent to the list. So in August I finally made a start & dedicated every spare hour i could for the next 3 months to the project.---The motor was dropped out first for a look over & clean up. Valve clearances were all tight, with a dozen just within spec & the others just on. The motor was surprisingly good, bit of gouging out of the rocker from the cam chain, the chain itself feels good & the tensioner must of been replaced recently it looks new, not a mark on it. The clutch plates look new & measure up accordingly & the steel plates have no burn. The gearbox is smooth & bearings are good. The inlet ports & valve stems have that newish look & the exhausts were not as sooty as usual, the rocker cover gasket is even still stuck to the sides of the head with the factory glue the gauge is reading 59000 so I'm not sure if its had a motor swap at some stage. I measured shim sizes then reassembled until I find & sort through my lost shim bag, bit of permanent marker on the cover gouge just to see if there is any touch still from the cam chain. Got some Threebond & a few assorted bristled brushes & scrubbed the motor, I left it to soak overnight & then got the compressor & gave it a hot soapy hose off, then gave the covers a touch up. The next couple months was all about cleaning,polishing,painting,re-greasing,replacing & re-assembling depending on the weather or what the postman would deliver. Fairings were next on the list, a soldering iron & some flat ABS strap is my preferred method of attack. The most challenging part was fashioning 3 new mount tabs that had broken off & were missing & getting them to line up with the inner fairing piece. The fairings looking a little ordinary,but nice & straight & smooth ready for some high build. The tank was next, before I started I made sure the tank had no pinholes & the breather hose wasn't holed out. The el cheapo ding puller got 95% of the ding out, but not before breaking 10 times in the process, the rest of the ding was sanded right back,primed,filled then high built, then the tank was sealed with a KBS kit. I wanted to keep the black silver/chrome colour scheme thing happening,but didn't just want to paint it black, I ended up seeing a car at the mall & waited for the owners to arrive, then got the colour code from under the bonnet, Ford tuxedo black metallic pearl -code UH, set up a mini paint room & then got all my supplies. Also got a sheet of mirrored chrome decals made up,I asked if they could squeeze as many small decals on the sheet as possible, they did
Had to try out the spraygun so I shot a bit of base & clear over a broken piece of fairing first, wow,that metallic pearl pops out in the light, the sun even more so. The 3 months came to an end today, I finished the tank but the other fairing pieces will have to wait a week or two now, I also need tank hoses & am waiting on some indicators still.

 

Just the outside of the channel & down section, swingarm & wheels. Just give it a light scuff with 320 grit & brush on some paint stripper until it bubbles up and remove with a stiff bristled brush, repeat where necessary, what would take a week sanding or using a wire wheel is done in a day now, you can still see the cast marks on the front wheel, I haven't actually polished it smooth yet. I might take you up on that indicator offer down the track also, I have ordered some of the clear lenses ones on Ebay for this bike, but want OEM for the next project.

 

Sprayed the nosepiece late yesterday, had a look when I got home this afternoon & there were a few spots of dust that settled as the clear was drying. So I sanded back the dust nibs with 2500 grit & then got my 2 & 3 inch drill buffers & swirl remover onto it. Done the tank while I was at it aswell.