Q's Z900 A4

[wheelysteve]

I found the brute force way was a bit expensive in knuckle skin and the neighbours didn't appreciate the swearing

[KeithZ1R]

Levers, moments, Physics :

[Richard Q]

Lying beside a 230Kg bike and putting that much force on something leaning on its side stand kind of goes against my idea of common sense

I did try levering it on but it pinged off the lever (a screwdriver with a notch filed in the end) with some force. Made me a little cautious

Richard

[Steve Cooke]

[quote="Richard Q"]Lying beside a 320Kg bike and putting that much force on something leaning on its side stand kind of goes against my idea of common sense

Does that mean I've got none? maybe not, but my springs are on and my Powdercoat and knuckles are still intact.

[Jay1969]

Hi Richard,

I've never had experience with this myself, but read on another
forum a guy uses a long flat headed screwdriver with a 'V' notch
cut out the tip, slide through middle of spring,
onto hook of the spring, then stretch it that way, onto the centre stand
/ frame lug.

~Jay.

[Richard Q]

Thanks for all the ideas - the washer trick worked

I clamped one end in to the vice then just bent it to one side, opening up the coils on the other side. Pushed 4 x 20mm washers into the gaps then bent it the other way and pushed 4 more into the other side.

Then I turned it round and clamped the other end into the vice and did it again. With the centre stand up as far as I could get it, the spring clipped on easily. Then pulling the stand down to the ground to put some pressure onto the spring, it was simple to pull the washers out one at a time.

Nice one Steve saved me some knuckle skin - which I then lost fitting the exhaust

[wheelysteve]

Glad it worked!

Looking forward to seeing the finished article……….

[Jay1969]

Well done Richard, and great progress...
Have you a date planned for completion,
1st ride out on this?

~Jay.

[Richard Q]

Cheers Jay

I am looking to get it back on the road first week in April, so I have plenty of time yet. Just need to rebuild the carbs, refit and bleed the front brakes, get the lights working, and adjust everything up.

Shouldn't take too long

Richard

[Jay1969]

~Jay.

[Richard Q]

There's a fair bit of stuff on this bike, which simply doesn't belong there.

There's some stuff which I like so will be keeping, e.g. the alloy rims, stainless spokes, Dyna S ignition, rear disc (now it's sorted), Halogen headlight, twin front disc, and probably more that I have forgotten about.

And there's some which I dislike (some more than others) which will be changed for the correct stuff.

I wasn't that concerned about the carbs, (they were 29mm when I got the bike) but when I found a set of VM26SS carbs I decided to go back to the originals, and bought them.

They don't look much different; the 26s are on top



They were a bit mucky



Inside and out, don't know what's been sitting in here, but I don't think it was petrol



I stripped them down to the casings and was going to take them into town and get them vapour blasted, then chucked them onto a bowl of ethyl acetate instead to degrease them.



Then dropped them into a bowl of white vinegar for an hour and attacked them with a toothbrush. Nothing touched the gasket, so I removed as much as I could without scratching the surface and then left them pickling in a some gasket remover.



I got some comprehensive rebuild kits from Saisei and slapped them back together. The old jets were 125s and the ones in the kit are 115s. After a quick google, I found the 115 is correct. The old needles were 5DL31 and the new ones are Y63 . More googling finds they are the same, so that's ok



After testing the integrity of the seals/floats by filling up the float chambers on the bench, I 'test fitted' them onto the bike and connected the throttle cables. Everything went fine, so everything can go back on with air box etc very soon.



It did occur to me that the carbs were on and full of petrol The ignition worked It might start

So I turned the ignition on and hit the starter - the battery was flat, well not completely but only just turned the motor. So jumped on and kicked the starter, nothing. Second attempt it fired, just once but it did fire . I got off and opened the doors of the garage, don't fancy running a 70's engine in an enclosed garage

Third kick nothing, fourth kick it burst into life and ran for a few seconds at around 2,500 rpm. What a rush! What a sound! Now it's getting exciting.


Richard

[Is Vic There]

Nice one mate, also love the old Rover

[Richard Q]

Nice one mate, also love the old Rover

The Rover is called Sparky, and he's a 250BHP beasty

[/quote]



Took me nearly 5 years to rebuild him, every single nut and bolt

[Pigford]

Feckin' LUSH. Me old man had a 3.5 in pertol blue, reg: NTR 757F He used to let me get it out of the garage and play with it when I was just 14yrs, reversing up and down the yard.... it was an auto

[Richard Q]

Right, got the carbs fully bolted on, just need to adjust them up. Funny though, they look cleaner in real life than in the photo Throttle has more 'feel' to it now, new cables, rebuild carbs I suppose, it just feels tighter



Spent over an hour, with the help of Hinckley (cheers bud) trawling through the wiring. Found a few sockets and plugs which didn't go anywhere, but one in particular that I just kept going back to. It's a 4 pin plug which emerged from the loom under the airbox, but had the corner missing and had been taped up. I assumed it was not required as I couldn't find its socket. I was checking the resistance from the blue and blue/white wires from under the tank, to the fuse box when I tugged the fuse box out a bit farther, and out popped the socket from its hiding place under the electrical plate Plugged it in and :-



Woop

Still no speedo lights, but everything else electrical wise now works!!

Put the tank and seat on just to see how it looks - well chuffed with that



I did have to tap the threads for the tank badges though, they were full of paint.

So: to do list

1/. Put fuel tap back on (I gave it a good polish and bought some new seals)

2/. Connect carbs up with fuel pipes and overflow hoses.

3/. Fix speedo lights

4/. Bleed front brakes.

5/. Spent a few minutes with a torque wrench assuring all bolts/nuts are torqued up.

6/. Adjust clutch, rear brake, throttle cables, headstock, and anything else that needs adjusting.

7/. Give it a good polish.

8/. Go get MOT