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Where does the time go?

I managed to get a bit of momentum going on the ZXR early this summer, but as usual this situation regressed to the norm and I have hardly taken the cover of this last few months.

One reason is that I haven't been able to get the bike running without the choke on. I had a few small attempts at trying to get the engine running nicely, but to no avail. So I though "Sod the neighbours" and kept the thing going until the temperature gauge reached running temperature, but it still wouldn't run without the choke. This might be down to the fact that I disconected the choke to clean the cable and maybe I just need to readjust it. I just haven't got round to it, partly because it is a bit of hassle getting to it (...remove seat, side panels, tank, airbox...). In itself the engine not running smoothly is not a problem though, it goes and that is the important thing... it just needs some tinkering.

The other problem that I have been pondering and the one that is really holding me up is, as I think I have already mentioned, the forks, which are really quite badly pitted.

I either have to find some second hand stanchions or get the old ones re-coated. Either way I will have to remove them from the fork legs, a task I would rather not face. The solution, I have decided, is to remove the forks from the bike and take them to my local mechanics to separate. Then either find some second hand ones or send the originals off for re-chroming. This raises the problem of how I keep the front of the bike up without forks? - Blocks of wood under the engine/downpipes? Which means I then have to remove the side panels... and I have to spend some time finding out what is the cheapest option...

Really it isn't much to do, but I haven't had the time recently and now summer is pretty much over, evenings are too dark and weekends at the mercy of the weather and family obligations.

There is a very real prospect now of nothing more being done until next spring. Still I might yet surprise myself and pull my finger out...

Oh Danny Boy!

The (exhaust) pipes are calling! My new end can has arrived. It is waiting for me at home (after an unsuccessful delivery attempt yesterday). Unfortunately I am off on holiday this weekend so I am not sure when I will get to fit it.

I shall try and upload before and after mp3's of the exhaust note when I have done it, which should be interesting. I hope the standard end can doesn't sound too tame, although it is bound to a bit after hearing it completely unsilenced.

-later-

OK, I couldn't wait! I got home and stuck the end can on, even though it was raining. It went on easily, it doesn't look like the bent bit has caused any problems. I didn't try to warm up the engine because it was raining, that will have to wait for another day, but I did run the engine for a bit and it did sound quite nice!

Exhausted

Last weekend I had another go at warming the zxr up (still unsilenced) but no luck. Admittedly I didn't try for very long due to the noise. My wife came out and said "Can't you get an exhaust pipe for that, first?" I took that as permission to splash on one and yesterday I found a standard ZXR400 end can in good condition for £80. which should arrive tomorrow. I bought a road legal one as at some point it has to pass an MOT and the engine should be set up to run on it.

So what is next? Well, I will fit the silencer and hopefully get the bike running on tick over, then I need to sort out the tyres (note, need to find out which tyres are a good option). However before ride it, I need to sort out the pitted forks which would rip the seals to shreds as they are now. The way I see it I have two options, either buy some good condition second hand ones or get the ones I have rechromed (or nitride coated?). It all depends on cost and hassle.

Anyway, once I have the engine sorted (hopefully no further problems there) and the tyres and suspension done I can take her out for a test ride - must remember to put some brake fluid in first though! After that I can start making her nice, still got a long way to go though.

Fuel for thought

I guessed the problem with the carburettors was just a sticking float and was easily fixable if I could get the carbs off the engine. I have previous experience of tinkering with carbs (well carb - singular) from my early days of biking when I had a Honda CB100n that had a lot of problems, so I at least know where to find a float/float chamber.

The kawasaki carbs looked intimidating. I spent a long time looking trying to figure out how best to get them off. I saw a few likely suspects in some bolts in the engine that might do the job, but these were inaccessable to I ruled them out, I eventually found the little circular clamps that held the carbs to the rubber inlet bits (my knowledge of techincal terms is getting a bit ropey here, sorry). So I loosened the clamps and tried to pull the carbs off, they moved a bit but ultimately stayed where they were and I wasn't sure if there was something else I had to do. Then I noticed that although the carbs were in a bank, they were all individual and may I sould just take off the one that I wanted to look at, so I removed the bar on top that held them altogether and then I noticed that there was a long (and slightly flimsy) bolt that went through hem all at the back, I loosened it but I could pull it out beause it hit the frame, but only just. So I tried to lift the carbs up a bit so the bolt would clear the frame and guess what? The bank of carbs popped nicely out. I had just not pulled them in the right way before.

I quickly put back all bits I had unnessacarily been removing and opened the left hand carb float chamber, which was indeed gunked up with a strange slightly gritty brown mush and wouldn't wash away with parafin, but would with water, (which in myexperience is quite odd for a motobike) I looked in the next carb along too just to make sure that was OK as the overflow pipe that was leaking petrol served both carbs on the left (it did need a bit of a clean).

With the carbs all clean, petrol all connected and a freshly charged battery, I gunned the engine... it turned over, but didn't start, tried the choke, which was of course still stuck. I removed the cable. It has an adjuster half way along that had rusted a bit, a quick clean up and re-lubrication later, the choke was ready for action.

With the carbs all clean, petrol all connected, a freshly charged battery and a working choke, I fired her up again. The engine ticked over... and rumbled in to life!

No leaking carbs this time, only a deafening roar due to the lack of silencer. I stopped the engine, suddenly aware that I hadn't check any fluid levels, oil was a bit low but OK, but the coolant was way too low so I topped it up. Starting the bike again, I let it run a bit, but if I let go of the choke it stopped, I figured I just needed to let it warm up, but with no end can, I was in danger of seriously annoying the nieghbours, so called it a day, happy that I had a running engine, now all I had to do was sort out the rest of it...

Fisrt things first...eventually

I am not entirely innocent with regards to the zxr's current condition. OK so I didn't take part in the "ripping in to bits" stage, but I haven't exactly helped. You see when I first got the bike home I had good intentions, really I did, but what with one thing or another (mainly struggling in a low paid job, supporting my wife and baby daughter, etc) I never quite got round to it and the poor little kawasaki sat in my garden sadly neglected. I eventually bought a cover for it, but money was in very short supply so the project was effectively on put on hold for about a year.

When the financial situation improved a bit last year I started to get my act together. First thing to do (are you listenening Rob and Greg?) was to try and get the engine running. Two things stood in the way of this. Firstly there was nothing to connect the petrol tank to the fuel pump and secondly there was no battery to start the engine with.

I got the battery first, from a local kawasaki dealer. They looked up the model in their little book and sold me a battery. I took it home and it wouldn't fit in. It wasn't narrow enough and was too short to fit in the available space, so I returned to the shop and explained. According to the book they had sold me the correct battery, but the nice kawasaki man had an idea and he went and got another battery that was the same voltage and amp but an old style battery as opposed to a modern seal unit. I could tell just by looking at it that it was the right size and shape and it was cheaper too (yeah!) I got it home charged it up (after buying a battery charger) and the next day I put it in the bike. I turned the key... the dash lights came on - which is always a good sign, and I thumbed the starter... The engine turned over nicely and had compression, things were going well... until I left the battery in the charger, but my wife unplugged it and it drained the battery flat... nuts!

The next challenge was to get the fuel to the engine. As I have mentioned the fuel filter was missing. Apparently when Rob and Greg pulled the bike apart the filter was blocked full of crap, this led me to believe (and I am surprised it didn't occured to Rob and Greg) that perhaps the reason the bike stopped in the first place was down to this. Had Rob just spent a couple of quid on a new filter the bike probably would've been fine, but then it would never have got to me. And I have a suspicsion that Rob had added some kind of additive to the petrol which caused the blockage, as the petrol that was in the tank didn't smell quite right.

Anyway I bought a new filter, which was a bit of hassle beacuse it has to fit a 10mm pipe which is really quite big and I had to shop around to find one, then I had to get some hose. I went to a car shop and they only had reinforced stuff but I bought it anyway. I drained the tank of the funny petrol, removed and cleaned the tap/filter to ensure I had a free run for the petrol.

It was about here that the project stalled again for a while. But eventually I bought a new battery, connected up all the plumbing, and crossed my fingers. Thumbing the starter the engine turned, but didn't start (which is fair enough after a few years of standing idle). I tried to give it some choke but the choke lever wouldn't budge. So I had to remove the tank (but leave all attached) so I could move the choke at the carbs. I tried again with full choke and the engine began to splutter into life... and then petrol began to leak from the carbs. But it had started! And that was a result! It meant the ZXR400 would live again!

Problem List...pt 1

Here is a list of problems, things that missing or need fixing or replacing:

Missing Parts

Battery (old one lost or disposed of)

End Can

Example of incompetence number 1: Apparently the exhaust end can was reluctant to leave the bike, well it had probably witnessed what had happen to the tyres (see below). Two of the three bolts were removed but the last one had different ideas and was siezed up. Now I admit that stubborn bolts can be frustrating, but the answer is not to bend the end can out as much as possible in an effort to snap the remaining bolt, but none the less, that is what happened - the end result? One completly ruined and therefore discarded end can, and the bracket it was attached to (a rather substantial chunk of metal - see photo) slightly bent out of shape. I have yet to see if this will cause a problem when I get round o fitting a new can.

Fuel filter and hoses

Brake Fluid

Indicators

Rear foot pegs

Mirrors

Parts to replace

Tyres

This is another good example of the previous owners strange ways. Having noticed that the tyres were a little worn (can I see canvas? Yes I can!) they embarked on an interesting replacement technique. Not for them the simple task of removing the wheels and taking them to a tyre fitters, oh no. In Norman Bates sort of fashion they brutally attacked the front wheel with a large knife, obviously this completely failed to remove the tyre, but did make the bike almost impossible to push along.


Parts to fix

Fork Stanchions (quite badly pitted after a couple of years sitting in my garden)

Rear Spindle (hammered out of shape and nut no longer fits on)

I think that is it for now. Doubtless there will be more to add as I go along, but this is enough to be starting with.

Genesis

Admittedly Greg had a good reason for not getting round to fixing the little Kawasaki. Apart from a limited mechanical knowledge (which is not enough to hinder most tinkerers) he was also off to Australia for a year and was in the process of disposing of all his worldly goods. He had hired a van and I spent the weekend helping him transport stuff to the dump in return he gave me the ZXR and a lawnmower. The lawnmower was in good working order... the bike was in about 100 pieces, so before it could be removed from his garage, I had the unenviable task of piecing it all together.

Actually I enjoyed it. It was like a jigsaw puzzle for grownups, there was no lid with a picture on, so it was a lot of guesswork and it gave me a good opportunity to see all the bits that are wrong with it. You would not believe how much Rob and Greg had dismantled the poor Kawasaki, without any rational reason or any sign of wanting to put it back together (the exception being that most of the fixings had been but into labeled up bags, but why that had taken most of them off in the first place was unfathomable). So with the light beginning to fade I had converted what looked like an explosion in a parts factory into a reasonable semblance of a motorbike. And like most old jigsaws there were a few bits missing here and a few that wouldn't fit there. But it was bike shaped and I liked what I saw!

Ta Bruv...

...far, far, from rideable. Because, although the styling and technology of ZXR400's have aged well, this particular bike had seen better days. My knowledge of this bikes history goes back a few years, but this may be a far from accurate retelling, but it goes something like this.

The bike was owned by a friend of my brothers named Rob - who had not long purchased it from a friend of his. I believe at this point there was nothing too wrong with it. There is some minor crash damage, which I presume dates from pre-Rob, but otherwise it was a reasonably sound machine. At some point during his ownership it stopped and stubbornly refused to start again. At this point, aided by my brother Greg, he decided to make some alterations to the stricken ZXR.

Now most peoples first plan of action in a situation like this would be to get the engine running.
However, for reasons known only to themselves, Greg and Rob (I am guessing, mostly Rob) set out on a bizarre plan of removing and discarding parts of the bike deemed unnecessary, trifling parts such as indicators, mirrors and rear footpegs were disposed of never to be seen again (I can only guess it was some attempt to give the bike a more race orientated feel). Tyres were set about in a murderous fashion and various nut, bolts, fluids, piping where unexplainably removed. Looking at the bike, it was as if half a dozen mechanics had simultaneously started on their own little bit and then gone of for a nice cup of tea and never come back... In a similar fashion Rob had obviously decided by this point that he had done more than enough damage and sold the remains to Greg for £500.

My brothers intention was to carry on from where Rob left off, but faced with a task that brutal, he did what any sane brother would do - think very hard about it for a long time and then give away, free, to his little brother - me.

The Bike

1989 Kawasaki ZXR400H1 - Black with gold trimmings
nice.
For a bike built in the late 80's the ZXR400 is a fabulous bike. The styling is sporty and purposeful and has aged incredibly well. It may not be all sleek and pointy like the sports bike we see these days, but it hasn't that acquired that teapotishness that some old sports bikes do. And it is not just the looks, which keep this bike up to date. The ZXR features a list of goodies, some of which modern 600's are only just catching up with such as upside down forks and remotely adjustable rear shocks. OK so the hoover tubes look a bit dodgy, but nobody is perfect...

It is quite a small bike (which is just as well as otherwise a tall friend of mine would have purchased it by now) and it fits me like a glove. If I were but an inch or two taller, even I might find it a tight squeeze. The diminutive dimensions are no doubt down to the fact that it is designed for a Japanese market, in fact the H1 model that I have is a Japanese import (clocks read in kph and the lights probably point the wrong way). Anyway, when I sit astride the bike, my body fits into all the mouldings and I feel as if I am on a racing machine, it feels so light and compact and I can imagine the rev counter flying up to the late teens and I can hardly wait... but I have to as it is a long way from rideable at the moment.