Z650 / 1100

[Bevelhead]

Took a few parts from the 1170 and my Mk2 project to Camcoat to be ceramically anodised, 2 or 3 week turnaround. So decided just to paint the rear light bracket for now in so called 'Tough Paint' not sure how tough it really is, but it'll do for now.

[KWACKERZ1]

Really enjoyed this thread thanks for putting the time in to document it.

The bike is Lovely top job that

[Bevelhead]

Really enjoyed this thread thanks for putting the time in to document it.

The bike is Lovely top job that

Your welcome, its all on YT is your really bored lol
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvLlYR ... qT8HQ5ww4w

[Bevelhead]

As this one slowly edges towards completion, got a couple more to work on, along with a new project that arrived last week, not much but its a start, didn't take long before the first Ebay buys arrived...

[Bevelhead]

Weighed the 1170 at last, with no petrol, but all other fluids, its 211kgs / 466lbs . That's 34kgs or 75lbs lighter than the dry weight of a Z1000. Happy with that, and I reckon the MK2 will be even lighter. Just got to fix its oil leak and it should be complete, for now..



Been looking for a replica Z900RS fairing for a few months, as the OE fairing is ridiculously expensive. Finally found what I was looking for on a Japanese website, and it arrived today. Very pleased with the quality, and of course its carbon fibre.

[Bevelhead]

Time for more work on the 1170. Had the foot pegs hard anodised black, while the gearchange lever was interfering with its link rod. The lever is made from 10mm alloy, it needed a lot of heat to bend it as required. That done, I'm now thinking the levers should've been anodised black as well. Something to think about.

The outrigger system is still leaking oil slightly, so removed it and now making yet another gasket, this time from thicker gasket paper. Hopefully that will solve the leak.



Lever Before



Lever After

[Bevelhead]

With a (very) long term project finally completed, its time to work on the 1170 again. First job will be to make a complicated mounting bracket in aluminium for this carbon fairing..

[Bevelhead]

Should've made it in steel, but its done now in aluminium..

[Bevelhead]

A couple of years ago, I got an empty pair of Z1000 crankcases as part of a deal when I bought an incomplete project. I think these cases came out of a Mk2, but not sure. They sat in a corner of the garage for a year, before I decided to use them to build a complete engine.





I bought a Z1000A1 block, cylinder head, and various engine covers and had the head skimmed and valve seats recut. After spending hours cleaning up the black cases and using paint stripper without much success... the cases had been painted in the past.. I gave up and sent everything off to be vapour blasted and ceramically coated silver, with the barrel done in black. The latter had been bored out to give 1075cc. BTW when I got the head back from the machine shop it was wrapped up and I only discovered later that it had been dropped and now had six broken fins.. The damage was repaired and things progressed.

Damaged fins..


Repaired head


So at the end of last year, I had a good looking engine, with no internals..


At which point, everything was carefully stored away, until I'd bought all the internals and my mate, who is a mechanic could build the engine. I have neither the space or skill to build engines, the last one I built was a Ducati about thirty years ago, which I didn't enjoy doing, so since then I have always paid someone who knows what they are doing to build engines for me.

Over the last year, I've been slowly buying the internals for the engine, some used, some new.. used camshafts, crank, gearbox, clutch, oil pump, new valves, seals, cam shells, pistons and so on. Turns out that's not such a good idea, as its costing far more than if I'd started off with a complete engine, even if it was worn out. Didn't help that the first two cranks I bought from Ebay, turned out to be too worn to use, but the third crank was good enough to use. The first two cranks were worn in different places, so they will be pressed apart and the good bits used to make one good crank. Which may come in useful one day..

Coming up to date, I finally have enough parts to begin the build, but with my mate being busy, I reluctantly decided to do it myself.

[Bevelhead]

The first problem to deal with was the fine grit/sand that was left in the engine from the vapour blasting. Blowing out the oil galleries in the cases and cleaning up the threaded holes with a tap was easy, if not boring. The same can't be said with the cylinder head. It's clear that the oil galleries that feed the cams have a dead spot that could hide grit that an air compressor wouldn't shift.

Therefore, copying something I read online, I drilled out the blanking plugs at the end of the oil galleries, which allowed those galleries to be clear out properly. Turned out to be a good idea, as a lot of grit was found in those 'dead spots'.

The holes were then tapped and grub screws lock-tighted into place. The oil feed is only 11mm inside the end of the hole, so have to be careful not to go too far with the grub screw and block off the feed.

By chance A Millyard has recently posted a vid of him doing the same thing, though he made replacement alloy bungs rather than use threaded grub screws.

[Bevelhead]

Time to start the build.. start with something easy, the cylinder head...

Fitted new oil seals and the new valves, then a used set of valve springs and buckets. Fitting the split collets was a bit fiddly, but found using a small pair of tweezers worked well. I actually had two sets of springs and buckets, so I just used the best of those on the head.

All was going well, until I got to fit the last bucket.. because it didn't fit. It wouldn't drop down into its bore. Not good. I tried a couple of other buckets but they had the same problem. Eventually, I pushed the bucket down into its bore, but it didn't feel right. After asking advice on here, I carefully smoothed out the walls of the bore with fine wet n dry, followed by polishing with Autosol. Thankfully this did the trick and the bucket now slid into its bore as it should. I think the problem was due to a small burr on the very lip of the bore.

Next, I fitted the new cam shells which just clicked into place... not cheap at £110 for a set of sixteen. I now wanted to fit the cams so I could measure and set the valve clearances, and work out what shims I'd need to get if I didn't have the correct ones already. However, being extra cautious, I didn't fit the cams, because I'd read dire warnings about pulling the threads out of the head when torquing down the cam bolts, even when those bolts had been torqued down to the correct value. Seems the alloy threads can weaken over time, and I didn't want to chance it yet. The cams will be fitted when the head is fitted to the engine. I fitted the valve cover, new exhaust studs and inlet rubbers and put it aside for now.

[Bevelhead]

Fitted APE studs to the crankcase, followed by the crank the third one I'd bought, the previous two didn't pass muster), then cleaned the transmission before fitting it along with the clutch basket. At this point I realised I didn't have the correct nut for the oil pressure relief valve, so couldn't bolt the cases together. The two dodgy cranks are worn in different places, so will have one good crank made from those two. Might come in useful one day.

This missing nut isn't available new, nor can I find one on Ebay.. I suspect its sold along with the crankcase. Happened to bump into Dave Marston on Z-Power fame at Triple S on Saturday, and he has a few, so hopefully will have one soon.

Just bought a starter from a CB900F which fit the Zed, but its 800w rather than 600 of the original. Though I'm told the positive terminal needs to be angled lower, so have to take it apart and rebuild it with the mod.

[Bevelhead]

Still plugging away at the engine build, lots of delays when I realise I'm missing yet another dowel, seal or special bolt.
With the cases bolted back together.. 2nd attempt.. the oil pump was fitted, then the sump. The sump plug didn't fit, as later realised the sump was actually from a later J or GPz model, though it was advertised as for an A1.

While fitting the clutch plates, noticed with heavy heart that the outer cage of the clutch basket was a bit 'wobbly'. Asking around it seems this isn't uncommon, but to investigate further would mean splitting the case again. With the pressure plate/springs fitted the wobble disappeared, but its still a concern. For now, I shall try to ignore the potential problem.