1983 GPZ1100 A1 Restoration

[Zoso]

Hello all

Bought this bike in October last year as a half finished project from a bloke that had got fed up with it. He had got as far as painting the frame and wheels. The rest of the bike was in boxes.
My intention was to get the bike running then return the paintwork to firecracker red. I pieced the bike together and got it running but it was a bit rough. It was leaking oil from the cylinder head gasket and blowing from exhaust number 2 so it was beginning to appear like a head off job

[Zoso]

When I removed the cylinder head I discovered the reason no 2 was blowing was because the stud was broken and had been JB welded in place. The head itself was badly pitted, the head gasket was wrecked - it's been sent to Segar Engineering to fix the exhaust stud and a skim - so that won't be a cheap repair download/file.php?mode=view&id=28445

[Philippe]

Hi Zoso

I'll be following this restoration to see how the bike turns out so please post lots of pictures.
It's always great to buy a bike in boxes, you never know what you're going to find...always surprises, some good, others not so good.
As far as I can see you're almost there.
GrtZ
Philippe

[Zoso]

Got the cylinder head back from Seagar Engineering, cleaned, fixed and skimmed. I painted it with Simoniz Gloss and fitted it to the bike - all good so far. However 4 of the bolts on the cam chain caps won't torque to spec so the head is now back off and awaiting a helicoil kit from Bikers Toolbox.

[Al]

If youre following the stated torque in the manual verbatim, you will have stripped all 16 by the time youre done. 6ft/lbs or less, better with the wrist ratchet to just nip them and to that end, having the cams fully down will help immesureably.

AL

[Skid Mark]

I found similar issues on my cam caps when rebuilding. I went to a local precision eng. work shop and got a a half dozen 5/16" ( I think) and a tap. There was no need to drill the original holes and the imperial tread was that bit courser which works well in the aluminium.

[Zoso]

@ Al - I read about the workshop manual torque being too high so I was tightening them to 10NM - I'll try a bit less. I was using a Gclamp to hold the cams down while tightening the bolts - not quite as sophisticated as your setup though.

@ Skid mark - that's an idea - thanks

[Zoso]

A bit of progress over the last few weeks. Heliccoils on the stripped threads, new piston rings fitted, barrels honed, head back on, camshaft timing done.