Topic: Terry's NEW big Kawasaki build, the "Lockdown 1428" special.

[Alan F.]

Oddly enough yesterday when I popped the rotor from one of my early 90's CB250 Nighthawks I found this, I'd never seen a round key before:

[Terry in Australia]

Thats interesting Alan, my mighty twin engined bicycle uses a keyway to secure the clutch assembly on the final drive shaft, and I discovered that the Chinese motorised bicycle engine manufacturers don’t use loctite, when it spat the key straight thru the primary chain cover @ max RPM. It was only a tiny hole that I first mistook for a drain hole, and no real carnage inside, so I installed a new key and loctited the securing bolt, and so far, it’s worked magnificently.

Terry's twin engined bicycle 17 Jul 2020 2 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Terry's twin engined bicycle 17 Jul 2020 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

[754]

Taper shaft with key,  used on a lot of propeller shafts for boats, Harley transmission and motor shaft used them ..
 Lots of stuff. Cb 350 twinshould have a key on the rotor as it has timing marks..

[dave500]

i hate ride to ride that bike naked Terry,my dick would get caught up in the primary chain and stall the engine!

[Terry in Australia]

i hate ride to ride that bike naked Terry,my dick would get caught up in the primary chain and stall the engine!

Ha ha, there are 2 x 80cc engines (although I'm told they're actually only 68cc) in that beast Dave, so I reckon your "crank" would survive maybe one revolution @ 7000 RPM, and then we'd have to rename you "Davina"? I installed the expansion chambers when I was still recovering from the surgery in 2018 and I don't think I've ridden it yet, so I might fire it up on the weekend if the sun is shining and do a speed trial around the block, just to see how it's travelling?

The great thing about having too much time on my hands currently, is I have plenty of time to indulge my motorcycle passion. Before I made the cylinder spacer plate, there was no way I could rotate the 1428's crank without the pistons hitting the combustion chambers of the GPZ1100 head, much less install the cams and have one kiss a piston. Today I thought I'd take another look. The GPZ head has had around 2.5 mm machined off the gasket mating surface so I wasn't expecting too much, but I bolted it on anyway.

1428 head swap 17 Jul 2020 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Unlike the Z1/KZ1000, the GPZ head doesn't have a mechanical cam chain guide between the cams, but rather, it has a rubber guide built into the cam cover.

1428 head swap 17 Jul 2020 2 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Not having a GPZ1100 workshop manual I didn't have any instructions for setting the cam timing, so I set it as per the KZ1000 manual, and it seemed intuitive to install the cam cover to take up the slack in the chain between the cams before I wound the APE manual camchain adjuster in just a tad to take up the remainder of the slack. I took a deep breath and slowly turned the crank, and was very happy to see that nothing touched. No idea how close though, so I'll take Frank's advice and pop the head back off again and clay the pistons and see just how much.

The more I think about it, the more I hope I can use the GPZ head. I wrote it off before I made the spacer plate, but now that clearance (apparently) isn't an issue it's a better choice than the Z1 head. It has bigger ports, bigger valves, under-bucket shims, it'll take the 40mm Mikuni flatslide carbs and the black exhaust, and I don't need to change the cam chain. It's also painted, so it'll save me some work. More tomorrow.

1428 head swap 17 Jul 2020 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

 

[dave500]

thats really gonna haul Terry?its pretty obvious it aint gonna be no lay about,great attention to detail as usual,id be scared to test ride it i think?

[Alan F.]

Ha ha, there are 2 x 80cc engines (although I'm told they're actually only 68cc) in that beast Dave, so I reckon your "crank" would survive maybe one revolution @ 7000 RPM, and then we'd have to rename you "Davina"? I installed the expansion chambers when I was still recovering from the surgery in 2018 and I don't think I've ridden it yet, so I might fire it up on the weekend if the sun is shining and do a speed trial around the block, just to see how it's travelling?

That should be a good read, check your brakes first thing though right? ATGATT.

[grcamna2]

Ha ha, there are 2 x 80cc engines (although I'm told they're actually only 68cc) in that beast Dave, so I reckon your "crank" would survive maybe one revolution @ 7000 RPM, and then we'd have to rename you "Davina"? I installed the expansion chambers when I was still recovering from the surgery in 2018 and I don't think I've ridden it yet, so I might fire it up on the weekend if the sun is shining and do a speed trial around the block, just to see how it's travelling?

That should be a good read, check your brakes first thing though right? ATGATT.

What have you named the twin engine bicycle Terry ?

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks guys, yeah, both bikes are a little scary to ride, but that's part of the attraction to me, I like scary fun.

It was bitterly cold today, was supposed to be a balmy 51 deg F, but there was an icy wind blowing thru my sheltered workshop. I need to do some more woodworking so I can frame off one end and cover it with the same clear plastic sheeting as I screwed to the lattice, but with a door/doors wide enough to ride my bikes in and out, and let some air in in summer, when it's 100+ degrees. Anyway, I didn't have a lot to do today anyway, but there were a couple of niggling things that I wanted to address, so I bravely braved the cold with 4 layers of clothing on, and my beanie.

The first thing that was pissing me off was the kick starter. Being a Kawasaki engine building noob, I relied very heavily on my own incredible mechanical skills, (not....) and my factory workshop manual. When I've been turning the engine over, it's hard to hear any little "pistons kissing the valves/combustion chambers" noises because the very loud kawasaki kick starter shaft ratchet assembly was going "clack clack, clackity clack" as I turned the crank. I was pretty sure I'd installed the assembly into the cases correctly prior to buttoning up the bottom end, so yesterday I attached the kick starter pedal and apart from the noise, while it cranked the engine fine, it didn't return under spring pressure. I popped the cover off to check it out.

1428 kick starter fix 18 Jul 2020 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

The manual wasn't helpful at all, but having wrestled with many CB750 kick starter return springs I assumed that the problem was that the spring wasn't pre-tensioned. There was absolutely no instructions in the factory manual on how to pre-tension the spring, but I was able to nut it out, and it fixed both issues, the kick starter returned as hoped, and the ratcheting noise was eliminated. Win/win.

The kick starter cover has been chromed and I had a chromed clutch cover in a tub that arrived with my last consignment from Oink, so I threw it on, not so much because I wanted to make it shiny, but I wanted the unchromed covers for the Z1 engine. I'm still confused as to why there are no locating knock pins/dowel pins on the clutch cover, as it's the only cover on the engine with no provision for them. Weird.

I pulled out the points plate that was on the engine and gave the points a good clean, and installed them. The bike came with a Dyna S ignition and coils, but when I got it it had the points in place, (probably because the Dyna didn't play well with a dead loss ignition system and a tiny battery) so I know they work, and if it doesn't run too well when I finally get it ready to start, I can pretty much discount ignition as an issue. Also, I'm keen to see a little light show through my smoked plastic points cover. If it runs well I'll install the Dyna, because I like them.

1428 kick starter fix 18 Jul 2020 3 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr         

By this time it was getting even colder, and I was thinking about food, so I packed up. Not a really big exciting day, but I was very happy that the kick starter issue was sorted, and the only "clackity clack" noises I should hear now (and I hope I don't) will have something to do with pistons, and valves/combustion chambers possibly coming into contact. We'll see.

[grcamna2]

The engine looks good Terry 

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks Bill, yep, hopefully the new rings will arrive soon, and I'll be able to make some noise, even if I won't be able to ride it very far until the current lockdown is over. I forgot to answer your question about the twin engined bike, I've only ever called it the "Twin Engined Bicycle", which isn't very imaginative, I guess?

[grcamna2]

Thanks Bill, yep, hopefully the new rings will arrive soon, and I'll be able to make some noise, even if I won't be able to ride it very far until the current lockdown is over. I forgot to answer your question about the twin engined bike, I've only ever called it the "Twin Engined Bicycle", which isn't very imaginative, I guess?

I hope you get the top-end mocked-up as well as you like with the correct clearance Terry,with those new rings and custom gaskets,etc. All Locked Down to spec. and take'r out for a 'shake down' ride on your favorite stretch of road 

[Terry in Australia]

As my rings haven't arrived as yet, and most of the Z1 parts are now here, I decided to push the 1428 engine to the back of the bench to make room for the Z1 engine build. Only problem I had was I'd had the top end apart after claying the pistons to check for clearance, and "modifying" the pistons with my dremel tool to conform to the shape of the combustion chambers in the GPZ1100 head.

1428 claying pistons 27 Jul 2020 7 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Well, no point just shoving it back together, I clayed the pistons again and bolted the head back on. The Z1 head came with a set of Norris .425 cams which are way too big for what I want from the Z1, so I thought I'd bolt them into the GPZ head and use the GPZ cams in the Z1, as they worked very well in the drag bike with the Moriwaki 1100cc pistons I'm going to use. The Z1 head had some serious "clearancing" done for the much bigger cams and I assumed that  I might have to do the same with the GPZ head, but it looks like they'll just clear.

1428 Norris Cams 31 Jul 2020 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Due to the nature of the top cam chain tensioner mounted in the cam cover, I wasn't able to check the cam lobe's clearance as the cams rotated, so I'll have to come up with a bodge to allow this before I assemble it for the last time, but I screwed down the cam cover, wound in the ape camchain tensioner, and rotated the crank a few times, with no obvious noises, so I'm guessing (hoping?) that all's well. It was interesting looking thru the spark plug holes and seeing the valves opening as far as they do now, I suspect the fuel economy isn't gonna be all that good........... Anyway, it's officially shelved until the new rings arrive, I'm so desperate I bought another set a couple of days ago, just in case the first set gets held up due to Covid 19. More soon(ish)    

1428 Norris Cams 31 Jul 2020 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

[Terry in Australia]

Wow, almost 3 weeks since I updated this build, mainly thanks to good ol' Aussie post. You see I decided that rather than spacer plates and half arsing the top cam chain guide, for the sake of longevity, and not ending myself in a grisly death (well this time anyway) I'd decided to give those huge pistons a haircut, dropping the compression ratio from 13.5:1 down to a more manageable 105-11:1(ish) This in turn would allow me to remove my 3mm home made spacer plate while not losing too much in the way of compression, should reduce component stress, lower engine temps, and allow the use of pump gas, as opposed to Avgas.

Now a redneck would probably just take an angle grinder to those beautiful Arias pistons, but the older I get, the more I like to try to do things right, so first I checked with APE's Kawasaki expert, who said that I need a minimum of 4mm of piston crown, so after some measurements, I estimate that I'll have 8-10mm of "crown" after I trim them, so no problems there, in fact I saw an exact same set that Wiseco make without the massive domes that they say are 10.5:1. Cool.

Now I need to set them up in my lathe. My chuck could (just) handle the 83.5mm pistons, but as I want to make a sleeve to hold them in rather than tighten my chuck down on the soft alloy pistons, I looked around for some sort of sleeve or tube that they'd fit tightly in, with no luck. Fcuki it, I bought a 4" long length of 6061 T6 machinable aluminium solid bar. I bought it from a shop 20 miles from here, and believe it or not, it took 18 days to arrive, fcuk! In reality that wasn't a problem as I'm still waiting for my custom APE top cam chain idler for the GPZ1100 head, so used my time to build the Z1 engine. Anyhoo, there's a pause while I wait for some valve shims and a ignition advancer (coming "Express Post" from a local guy thankfully, hopefully....) so I was happy when my big chunk of metal arrived today.

1428 piston clamp by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I skimmed it so it spun reasonably true, then started to drill it out. The biggest problem is that my biggest drill bit is 1 inch. Hmmm.... Then I remembered that I'd recently bought the mother of all step drills, a 5 - 60 mm sucker, so I thought, "why not?" and it worked pretty well.

1428 piston clamp 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

After removing a huge amount of swarf, it was bored to 60mm in record time. I then used an internal lathe tool to take it out to 83.5mm.

1428 piston clamp 4 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

1428 piston clamp 2 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

And the piston was a nice fit.

1428 piston clamp 3 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Tomorrow I need to cut it down to around 50mm long, with a slit to allow it to be further clamped in the chuck on the lathe, and I'll bore a hole thru the middle so I can put a bolt thru the wrist pin hole to ensure that the piston doesn't rattle out during the "haircut" procedure. Yes I know, 3 hours standing at my lathe and it doesn't look very exciting, but sometimes we have days like this..........    

[PeWe]

You are a true machinist, Terry!
You can make your own pistons, right? Billet pistons

[Terry in Australia]

You are a true machinist, Terry!
You can make your own pistons, right? Billet pistons

Thanks for the kind words Per, not sure if I'm that good, but I did bore a nice hole..........

[grcamna2]

You are a true machinist, Terry!
You can make your own pistons, right? Billet pistons

Nice job,you do lot's of nice machined parts:where did you learn to operate these machines ?

[PeWe]

He watched all episodes of McGyver?

[grcamna2]

He watched all episodes of McGyver?

Lol 

[754]

Woah 3 hrs, start making a boring bar..
You may get away with just slitting the sleeve. Use a single ring to set piston depth, and get repeatability.
You will proably have a tiny bit of run out due to pistons being oval,

I hold then a different  way, that works in lathe or mill, because I often cut valve pockets. 

[Terry in Australia]

You are a true machinist, Terry!
You can make your own pistons, right? Billet pistons

Nice job,you do lot's of nice machined parts:where did you learn to operate these machines ?

Thanks Bill, I'm self taught. Back in the 1980's I had an Aussie Ford car that I bought a Mustang steering wheel for. I bought a "boss" to attach it to the steering column, but it didn't fit, so knowing there was an old disused "Myford Super 7" lathe in the basement of the building I was working in, I sneaked down at lunchtime, brushed the dust off the machine, worked out how a lathe works, and turned down the boss to fit the wheel.

That hooked me, and a year or two later I bought a small cheap Chinese lathe, but had to sell it to pay for the repairs on my first BMW R100RS. A couple of years on, I bought and restored a CB350F that I bought for 200 bucks because it looked like it was dragged out of a drain, and by the time I'd finished, it came up like new. Once I realised that CB350F's are best designed for small, light riders, not 6'2" apes like me, I swapped it for a new $5K Chinese lathe, with another $1K of tooling thrown in, by my mate John, who owns a tool store.

Frank, I've got several boring bars, but it wouldn't have made the job any quicker, because due to having to reverse the jaws in my chuck I couldn't bore all the way thru in one pass, I had to bore just past the halfway mark, un-chuck the piece, reverse it, bore it, unchuck it, reverse it, bore it, etc etc. When I'd roughed it to 80mm, I then did 1mm cuts, then .5mm, then .25mm, then .12mm until I had a nice snug fit. Speed was of no consequence, ensuring that I didn't fcuk up the piece was way more important.

The piston clamp will serve two purposes, holding the pistons firmly in the chuck for the haircut, and then they will be used as ring compressors, so I'll be cutting a slot wide enough to pass the conrods thru. The various methods we've discussed for compressing rings sucks, so these clamps will be fantastic. I'll probably need to bore them out a tad for a slightly looser fit over the pistons with the rings in place, but the good thing is I won't need hose clamps, pieces of plastic strip or beer can etc, the walls of the clamps are thick enough not to flex, so the sleeves should slide on much easier now. We'll see.    

 

[Terry in Australia]

Okay, Thank God it's Fcuking Friday (TGIFF) today, as I just couldn't wait to finish the piston jig/clamp thingie and see if it actually worked. While the rest of the world was sleeping, I was thinking about how I'd make sure that the pistons didn't move out of their jigs. The wrist pin is 17mm and I didn't possess a 17mm bolt, so I made a full length (83mm long) 17mm OD plug that I bored to 8mm, and made a through bolt from stainless 8mm allthread. I slit one side with my bandsaw, but they were such a neat fit, the gap hardly closed at all when I tightened up the two 13mm nuts.

1428 piston machining 21 Aug 2020 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

And this is how it looked ready to go for it's "haircut".

1428 piston machining 21 Aug 2020 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I was that consumed when turning the 12mm off the top of each piston that I forgot to take a pic while it was in the lathe, but this is the result.

1428 piston machining 21 Aug 2020  2 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Not wanting to fcuk anything up, I took fairly shallow cuts with a slow feed in, on each pass. After only 5 hours, (yes I know Frank, you could have done it much faster..........) they were all done.

1428 piston machining 21 Aug 2020 5 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I then bored the clamp out by a couple of thou, so I can use it as a piston ring compressor. These will need a bit of work still, but I'd machined a recess on the inside so they were a fairly tight fit over the bottom of the sleeve, so that the transition from the ring compressor to the cylinder sleeves with be seamless, unlike the usual plastic strip/beer can tin/hose clamp shambles.

1428 piston machining 21 Aug 2020 6 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Because the pistons are so huge, the ring compressors are way to thick to be able to pull out between the cylinder studs, so I'll remove all the front studs, and just wind them back in later, they haven't been torqued or loctited into the cases as yet. So tomorrow I'll continue on, and hopefully have the bottom end together with the new rings on the pistons, in freshly honed bores, but I'll have to wait for the custom APE top cam chain guide and drill jig to arrive before I can torque the head down as I may need to drill the new holes for the special guide off the bike, so as not to get metal shavings anywhere they shouldn't need to be. More tomorrow.

 

 

 

[Alan F.]

I'm not a machinist either, 3 hours and 5 hours seems similar to the time I'd spend on things like that. My lathe is just a toy though, a Chinese 7x10" from the late 80's so I'm constantly trying to figure out how to make what I need while working within the limitations of the machine.

Nice work and a well done video. Maybe I need to make some ring compressors for my stockers like that.

[PeWe]

Ring compressor for stock, use your nails and screwdriver

Important that the sleeve has a conical design.
Some oil rails are really thin and flimsy and can hook into the expander as my JE pistons with Wiseco rings did.
Grind the inner (rounded radius) edges of the rails so they will not hook into expander. Let cylinder mate the pistons by vibrate the pistons.
I had a screwdriver sticked into the wristpin hole, vibrate it.
Be aware to not make the clips to come loose.
This is easier if having a frame kit, build with engine in frame.
(Like Frank's) Terry has his own design using fork pipes. (Nuclear bomb proof)

Drive chain connected, gear in so crank will not move when assemble the cylinder block.

[Alan F.]

Very true, I used my nails when I put my K3 top end back together and that went smoothly. Stock bore so taper is intact.
I have Frank's frame kit on the K8 and although I saw your thread where you built your top end with the engine in the frame, I never thought I'd try it that way myself. I thought it would limit the available room to work, but if you recommend it that much I suppose I should give it a shot. It'll certainly be easier to get the full  cases into the frame without top end or studs installed.