Topic: Terry's Kawasaki ZZR1100 "Bring it back to life" project.

[Alan F.]

Put the shiny new  petrol cap on the bright green tank using blue anodised bolts, looks lovely.....
Eventually the tank will get painted and the bolts will be replaced with green or black or silver

To myself,looks good to go.

+1

[Terry in Australia]

God save me from the "loony lefties", the " radical rights", the PC zealot's and the world's conspiracy theorists that struggle with their ever tightening tinfoil hats.
We can all reach into the www and pull out any sudo fact that support our views.
Me? I'm gunna stick to talking #$%* about motor bikes and taking the piss whenever I get the opportunity.

Cheers,
Brian

Ha ha, I didn't say that I subscribe to the theory Brian, but it is an interesting one.

[bear]

Arrr yer a bear baiter Uncle Tez.
Ya gotta a growl so consider me poked.

[Terry in Australia]

There’s nothing better than a good conspiracy theory to entertain me during the lockdown Brian, I’m watching “Project Bluebook” and “War of the worlds” on SBS on demand at the moment, with tinfoil helmet firmly affixed.....

[bear]

Orson would be pleased.

[RAFster122s]

Terry, since ya need to give your liver a rest, maybe start making Ginger juice to drink instead of ginger beer.

[Terry in Australia]

Terry, since ya need to give your liver a rest, maybe start making Ginger juice to drink instead of ginger beer.

Thanks David, I need to bottle my latest batch today, and I must say after a small tasting an hour ago, it’s definitely one of my better efforts. I am going off the booze (And food) for 2 weeks as I need to drop a couple of Kg that I’ve gained from this Covid inactivity, so I’m going back on the Optifast VLCD protein Shakes. To make them work, I have to go completely off sugar, salt, fat etc, but they do work very well. By the time I’m off them again, my delicious ginger booze will be ready, and waiting.....

[spotty]

As long as they're not taking your happy tablets away

[Terry in Australia]

That’s a good point Spotty, I must ring my doc and get some new prescriptions, interestingly (conspiracy theory alert:) the government has disallowed repeats on my favourite drugs of choice since the CV thing first raised it’s ugly head, so I have to go back once a month and (cap in hand) ask nicely for some more drugs? It would piss me off if I was paying $75 for a telephone consultation every month just to get $11 worth of drugs, but the DVA (VA in the US) pays for it, so no biggie.

[spotty]

Minor success yesterday, hooked a car battery up and lights and stuff started working much better, shorted out the starter relay and it turns over with a spark, yayyyyyyy.
The fuel pump noises happen much as one would expect, horn is much louder, indicators work properly
The next problem us why doesn't the starter button do anything ? I've pulled the switch block apart and all looks good ( and extremely clean which is nice after years working with dirty old cobweb filled components )
All was going well with this process until I sent one of the tiny little screws from inside the switch block into the great abyss otherwise known as my carport floor, going out soon to spend a while on hands and knees looking it
The other annoying thing is that whilst it has a Power Commander ignition, the wires coming out of that don't match the wiring harness on the bike you'd think it would have been easy enough for Vance and Hines to match up their little bits of wire
Anyway, back into the darkness of wiring we go
It's going to be a right fcuker getting that battery under the seat though

[Terry in Australia]

Good work Spotty, yep, that battery won’t fit, You might need to bungee it on to the back of the seat? Did you try pulling in the clutch/pulling the sidestand up to start it? Some of my bikes have lockout switches on either (the Triumph on both) so I have to remember to sit on the bike, kick the stand up, and pull in the clutch (in neutral) to start it. Have fun!

[spotty]

Sidestand up, neutral, clutch in, nothing

[spotty]

when i got some time last week, i got the cover off the big beastie cos i've been lockdown busy and haven't been giving it any attention
so.....

luckily found the little screw that holds the internals of the starter button but while looking for it found an oil leak from the oil pan...fcuk, that'll have to be taken off and checked

then noticed more fluid on the bike lift on the other side of the bike, hoped it was rsidual oil from taking the ignition cover off...nope, its bloody coolant leaking from the head gasket...triple fcuk

took the carbs and rocker cove off to see how easy it is to get to the head bolts/nuts to check the torques...mostly under the cams

so now the cams need to come out, which also means pulling the ignition cover off so i can turn the engine over to TDC to reset the cams , i've already drained the coolant, so oil next . at least i'll be able to refill the coolant with the cams out to check for fixed leaks before i put it back together

[RAFster122s]

Spotty, what a mess...sorry to see you are facing that.

[Terry in Australia]

That doesn't sound good Spotty, I torqued the head down as per the manuals I gave you, so if there's a leak you might want to get the head machined, it could be warped? It was a new Cometic head gasket, so I'd be surprised if it failed before the engine even fired a shot? That engine has done over 100,000 Km and according to all the invoices and paperwork that I gave you, it has been apart at last once before I got it when it had blown second gear at the 50,000 Km mark, even though it looked pretty good to me, so who knows? an engineer can skim a couple of thou off the head (and the cylinder block's deck, while you're at it) and make it like new again. Gotta love water cooled bikes.........not.    

[spotty]

Ah well, if the cams are coming out then it's only a few more bolts to get the head off .....

And a skim here and there should bump the compression up a bit

[spotty]

Well, here's the thing.....there is one 6mm bolt that is part of the cam holders at the chain end and....you can't get it out with the engine in the frame. That one bolt not coming out stops the whole cam train coming out
If I could get the cam sprockets off then I could get the rest out but the one bolt holds the can end holder in the way of the bolts that hold the sprockets on

FCUKING FCUK

[spotty]

I worked out how to get the bolt out

[spotty]

Got the cams out quite easily after that and as Terry said, the head was torqued down as per Mr Kawasaki's instructions

So ....I gave up for the day as at a minimum I have to take off both radiators, exhaust, shrouds, footpegs and a whole load of other cr@p to even think about getting the head off

I have this nasty feeling the head probably won't come off with the motor in the frame anyway but I'm going to try

Wish me luck

[grcamna2]

Did you cut the long bolt spotty ?

[Terry in Australia]

Good luck Spotty, and I really do mean it, but I'm pretty sure you're right, the engine will have to come out again.

[spotty]

Did you cut the long bolt spotty ?

i certainly did, and even surprised myself by covering all the rest of the engine before i unsheathed the angle grinder

i fear there will be a whole load of swearing involved in the next few bits of progress, one way or another thew motor is coming out so i can at least put the long bolt back in ( when i get a new one, i have this feeling it might be a bit essential for holding the cam in place )

and just to make life even more fun, the bike lift that the zzr is on is stuck in the full up position, which is not a major problem for unbolting the engine but what the hell am i going to do to get the bike off the engine when its undone, i'm pretty sure i can get the lift unstuck but not until theres nothing on it

even after i get it apart, the problem is going to be cash, during these covidy times money is , to say the least, a bit thin on the ground, ah well, we shall see what happens

so anyway, back to it tomorrow, start stripping it down , i have had a look at the parts diagram though and i think once the head bolts are out the head may just slide backwards off the block as opposed to having to lift it off cylinder studs, hopefully cylinders the same

did someone say beer ?

[spotty]

Well, a couple of minor progresses

The stinking Hyosung I've had out the front for ages finally let me diagnose it's problem ( or one of then anyway ) so I got the money off its owner for the part and also the battery I out in it which was supposed to go in the zzr

So that money has been used to buy a new bolt , two valve collets and a valve stem Seal ( not beer though ) from a local dealer. I was going to buy another battery but it seemed more useful to actually get the motor back in one piece first

The bike stand it lives on gas been found to be functioning when it feels like it so at least the bike doesn't have to be lifted off to move it

I'm moving at the end of Oct back to my old house where I have a proper garage so any progress until then will be intermittent ( as if it's ever been anything else )

It looks like lockdown might end this weekend so I'll be able to get back to gardening so there should be more money to play with after we clear up some of the debts incurred the last few months

So next step is ring my mate with the engineering workshop and see if I can take the cylinder head over for a skim and a clean once we can travel again

[BPellerine]

you have patience or you are stubborn,that thing would have been scrap metal had it been me,haha

[RAFster122s]

The Hyosung was someone else's or I think Spotty would have turned it into scrap...