Project Bought a ZXR250C.

Sydney's weather has been miserable for riding, so I arranged to go in to work today and do a few things, since we were flat out and I couldn't get my bike in during the week just gone. On the list is brake pads + fluid for front and rear, plus a new rear tyre. Before the festival of speed (ie next weekend) it's booked in for a 48k KM service, valve clearances, timing chain + tensioner, and carb balance.

Bike lifts are so great, never have to bend down to do anything ever again!!



Pulling the old tyre off



New tyre on & balanced, then cleaned up with tyre buff/rubber cleaner so it's not so slippery (no idea why more bike shops don't do this)



Just got home and saw this...



Added to the list: Find and repair coolant leak

 

Don't think so, but I refilled the overflow with water as it was empty. Radiator was still full when I checked it. It's leaking down from the sidestand area, didn't see anything on the weep hole for the waterpump... have to get the fairings off and have a look. Hope its just a hose or a clamp and nothing else major. I haven't heard it boiling the overflow bottle dry, which is what my FZR250 did when the head was blown.

 

Bike in workshop today for service. Cutting it fine with valve shim selection, but all clearances are in spec now. All the exhaust valves were at or below minimum spec, and had 3 intakes on the right side that were also tight.

Protip for the ZXR - if you drain the radiator and take it off, you can do the clearances/shims/timing chain without removing the carbs or airbox



Got new air ducts, which cost more than I wanted to spend, but the old ones are toast and I don't want the R/R cooking.



While riveting the new cam chain I heard a POP. Cam chains shouldn't do that, I thought... Well, this is what happens when the pin to join the chain isn't being driven perfectly straight - yep, the plate broke.



These ZXR cam chains only have 3 plates, the FZR ones have 5 or 6 from memory and seem sturdier... not that it's an excuse for breaking a perfectly good new cam chain

Luckily I was able to quickly order another chain from A1 Accessory Imports via work, should get here tomorrow, so hopefully disaster averted - do not want to miss the festival of speed!!

 

Phew! Got my bike back together, running, and out of the workshop today after a marathon effort to finish it before closing time. All done and dusted now, but didn't get time for carb sync.

Old cam chain was not really that stretched compared to the new one that I broke, but the old tensioner was clagged up with gunk and old oil, so glad I replaced it. Engine noise is about the same, so going to chase it down with a carb sync next week, and if that doesn't fix it, then full clutch rebuild at some point.

See you guys that are going at eastern creek tomorrow.

 

Mystery solved concerning the broken cam chain. Turned out there were multiple size pins in the package - 2.4mm and 2.6mm. As you can imagine, the larger one is what broke the plate on the 1st cam chain. Be wary if doing a timing chain, I had never had this problem before now.

Coolant leak was left side radiator hose to water pump, it had bulged at the water pump end and split on the inside. Chopped off the bulged bit and refitted. Hose is a bit short now so will get replaced eventually.

Bike's been starting easy with the valve clearances done and new tensioner on, still needs that carb vacuum sync which I will get around to doing at work, eventually.

Today I checked the coolant and replaced the reg/rec with a new one. I checked the new one with the multimeter and it seems to be in spec. The old one, I can only get a reading between the top middle and top right pins of 32k ohms, so it failed the reg/rec test. I think my battery is a bit sad, resting at 12.20v after hours of riding around sydney traffic visiting family today. We'll see how it goes with the new reg/rec and hard ride through the nasho tomorrow.

 

Reading about 12.18v on idle and up to around 13.8v max at cruising revs, tapering off as the revs get higher. About to go out for an early morning (and hopefully traffic free) battery charging run

 

The ZXR Curse... this was the new reg/rec too





Checked the stator which had <1ohm across each winding and was putting out even AC voltage across all 3 yellow wires.

The white and black/yellow lead in the photo have gone hard, so time for a new plug/leads, and a new spot for the reg/rec...

 

Thanks Sharky.

Had another go at figuring out why this was happening and cleaned up the battery terminals + all fuses and their connectors with sandpaper... Doing so has brought my charge voltage up to 14.5v at 6k RPM, which is a massive improvement (was barely managing to get 13 volts before), and this is with the original reg/rec when I re-tested properly (multimeter needs to be on diode check) and is working fine.

Still going to chop and re-do the reg/rec plug to get me by, before I go ordering a $300 SH847 reg/rec kit from Roadstercycle.

 

I bought a Shindengen SH847 kit from Roadstercycle tonight, it's expensive so I plan to keep it if I ever sell the ZXR. I will also mount it where the horn is (bottom triple clamp). The charging system is working a lot better now since I cleaned up the other connections. My cooked wires were the positive and negative on the reg/rec plug indicating high resistance... I've cleaned up what I can on the plug and inox'd it so it should get me by until my fancy reg/rec arrives

So, other ZXR owners, clean your battery terminals and fuses/fuse holders

 

Anyone ever had trouble with their sidestand not cutting the engine when in gear?

I've replaced the sidestand switch but it seems that wasn't my problem, it still doesn't cut the engine when put down in gear, and doesn't prevent starting when down and in gear. I tested both sidestand switches and they work. The clutch switch is definitely working as it won't start in gear without the clutch held in.

Rego is due soon and I need this fixed to pass an inspection.

 

So if you're in 1st with the clutch held in and the stand down, yours starts? Because mine does.

I was under the impression that the sidestand switch is supposed to prevent the engine starting, or kill the engine, if the bike is put into gear and the stand is down, even if you're holding the clutch in.

If the bike is in 1st and on the stand, if you let out the clutch it will pop the bike off the sidestand before the engine dies. The sidestand switch is supposed to prevent this, by killing the engine if you put the bike in gear with the stand down, or just prevent in-gear starting if the stand is down.

Or am I wrong?