Hello Guest User,
Please feel free to have a look around the forum but be aware that as an unregistered guest you can't see all of it and you can't post.
To access these 'Registered Users Only' areas simply register and login.
Please feel free to have a look around the forum but be aware that as an unregistered guest you can't see all of it and you can't post.
To access these 'Registered Users Only' areas simply register and login.
Time to rebuild my old GPz
Moderators: chrisu, paul doran, Taffus, KeithZ1R
Re: Time to rebuild my old GPz
Top job.
Re: Time to rebuild my old GPz
Good to see you're back on track with it. The painted motor looks very nice, can't wait to see the rest of it.
Gary.
Gary.
Re: Time to rebuild my old GPz
Over the last week, I've started stripping down some of the GPz components to see what needs to be refurbished and/or renewed and I started with the forks & wheels.
The forks came apart without too much drama and once stripped and checked the stanchions have gone away for re-chroming. I had already upgraded to progressive fork springs from WP, back in the day, so they will go back in and I'm going to convert the forks to run cartridge emulators from YSS. These only have a single shim stack that controls both rebound & compression (unlike the more expensive Racetech units which have individual ones), but I think they will still be an improvement over the original system.
one fork stripped - one to go !
YSS emulators
The wheels were next to come apart as they need repainting and the discs were scrap. I was worried the disc bolts would be seized and if I used my impact driver gun, it would round the heads. So out came my trusty impact driver and 4lb hammer and they all came out without drama. I have a new found respect for the humble impact driver The bearings on the front wheel were a real mare to get out as I couldn't get the spacer tube between them, over enough to get a solid punch on the opposite bearing. Eventually after an hour or more and much swearing, cursing and the obligatory spilling of blood, they came out. In contrast the rear bearings took 5 minutes ! The spacer is just a tube with a collar pushed on and the collar on the front one had come loose, which might explain all the hassle I had. A quick tap with the hammer and it is back in place
Spacer before and after -
I gave the wheels a quick clean up and gave a section of the rim a polish to see how they would come up after languishing in my shed for 20 odd years and thankfully the rims look OK, but might need a bit of a deeper polish to take out any remaining imperfections.
Wheels before and after
Rim partly polished
Mark.
The forks came apart without too much drama and once stripped and checked the stanchions have gone away for re-chroming. I had already upgraded to progressive fork springs from WP, back in the day, so they will go back in and I'm going to convert the forks to run cartridge emulators from YSS. These only have a single shim stack that controls both rebound & compression (unlike the more expensive Racetech units which have individual ones), but I think they will still be an improvement over the original system.
one fork stripped - one to go !
YSS emulators
The wheels were next to come apart as they need repainting and the discs were scrap. I was worried the disc bolts would be seized and if I used my impact driver gun, it would round the heads. So out came my trusty impact driver and 4lb hammer and they all came out without drama. I have a new found respect for the humble impact driver The bearings on the front wheel were a real mare to get out as I couldn't get the spacer tube between them, over enough to get a solid punch on the opposite bearing. Eventually after an hour or more and much swearing, cursing and the obligatory spilling of blood, they came out. In contrast the rear bearings took 5 minutes ! The spacer is just a tube with a collar pushed on and the collar on the front one had come loose, which might explain all the hassle I had. A quick tap with the hammer and it is back in place
Spacer before and after -
I gave the wheels a quick clean up and gave a section of the rim a polish to see how they would come up after languishing in my shed for 20 odd years and thankfully the rims look OK, but might need a bit of a deeper polish to take out any remaining imperfections.
Wheels before and after
Rim partly polished
Mark.
"Racing is life. Anything before or after is just waiting" - Steve McQueen
Re: Time to rebuild my old GPz
Hi Mark
you did a very nice job there! They shine like new. If you want them to stay that way give them a coat of clear coat. Degrease them with aceton and use a special clear coat for alloys, not a common clear coat. If you use a common clear coat they will start to oxidize underneath!
GrtZ
Philippe
you did a very nice job there! They shine like new. If you want them to stay that way give them a coat of clear coat. Degrease them with aceton and use a special clear coat for alloys, not a common clear coat. If you use a common clear coat they will start to oxidize underneath!
GrtZ
Philippe
the differences between a little boy and an adult man is the price and size of their toys!
Re: Time to rebuild my old GPz
Happy to report more progress being made !
I've had to have some remedial work done to the frame - the steering lock stop had to be re-instated on the headstock ( It had been removed to accomodate the "other" forks & yokes I was going to use). Also, the main stand bracket had gone oval where the pivot goes, so needed building up with metal. The original stand pivot tube had almost worn through where it was turning in the frame. Thankfully, i tracked down a NOS item in the USA as it's NLA via Kawasaki.
Additionally, the front mudguard had some rot between the brace and the guard itself and that's been cut out, with a new piece welded in. Thankfully, other than that it's sound and with some making good of the welded area it'll be good to re-use.
Built up and back to round !
New pivot against old worn one - can you work out which is which
Corroded metal removed
Patched and ready to be finished
Mark.
I've had to have some remedial work done to the frame - the steering lock stop had to be re-instated on the headstock ( It had been removed to accomodate the "other" forks & yokes I was going to use). Also, the main stand bracket had gone oval where the pivot goes, so needed building up with metal. The original stand pivot tube had almost worn through where it was turning in the frame. Thankfully, i tracked down a NOS item in the USA as it's NLA via Kawasaki.
Additionally, the front mudguard had some rot between the brace and the guard itself and that's been cut out, with a new piece welded in. Thankfully, other than that it's sound and with some making good of the welded area it'll be good to re-use.
Built up and back to round !
New pivot against old worn one - can you work out which is which
Corroded metal removed
Patched and ready to be finished
Mark.
"Racing is life. Anything before or after is just waiting" - Steve McQueen
Re: Time to rebuild my old GPz
Sometimes rebuilding a bike, you strike it lucky.
This arrived a couple a days ago - possibly the last NOS GPz550 ignition cover in the UK. It had been gathering dust dust on a shelf in a Kawasaki dealers for almost 40 years, until I tracked it down and liberated it
This arrived a couple a days ago - possibly the last NOS GPz550 ignition cover in the UK. It had been gathering dust dust on a shelf in a Kawasaki dealers for almost 40 years, until I tracked it down and liberated it
"Racing is life. Anything before or after is just waiting" - Steve McQueen
Re: Time to rebuild my old GPz
GPZ592 wrote:Sometimes rebuilding a bike, you strike it lucky.
This arrived a couple a days ago - possibly the last NOS GPz550 ignition cover in the UK. It had been gathering dust dust on a shelf in a Kawasaki dealers for almost 40 years, until I tracked it down and liberated it
Doesn't happen often...
Re: Time to rebuild my old GPz
After another weekend in the garage, I've finally finished cleaning and checking the frame and running gear. Thankfully, I didn't find any horrors and with everything sorted into various containers, it's time for a trip to the Powdercoaters :-)
"Racing is life. Anything before or after is just waiting" - Steve McQueen
Re: Time to rebuild my old GPz
Whilst waiting for my bits to return from the powder coaters, I started to look at the brakes to see what horrors were lurking in there !
I decided to tackle the master cylinders first and unexpectedly, the screws holding the cap on the ffont m/cyl came undone without too much of a fight. However, when I took the cap off, I was greeted by a thick black gunge sitting in the reservoir. it took me minute to work out that it was the remains of the diaphragm It must have dissolved over time as a reaction to being in contact with the brake fluid.
The piston was stuck, but came out without too much effort, but I was slightly shocked to see the piston is not held in by a metal circlip as I expected, but a plastic clip that just pushed into the M/cyl bore !
The rear m/cyl was much the same, except the piston was so stuck,so I had to carefully drill the head off it, to free it up. The rod from the brake pedal to the m/cyl is pretty corroded, but is NLA. I'll have to see how it looks when it comes back from the rebuild, but I'll keep a look out for a good secondhand one in the meantime.
The m/cyl bores look OK, so I think they/ll be OK with new pistons.
The calipers were next and whilst they didn't look too bad, they were as furry as my cats The pistons were stuck solid and the bleed nipples didn't want move either. I didn't want to damage anything trying to get them apart and it was at that stage I decided to send the whole lot away to be professionally refurbished. Once I'd factored in my time in stripping everything, then the cost of getting them aqua blasted, then painted and sourcing new pistons, seals, etc to rebuild them - it made sense (to me anyway) to farm out the rebuild.
That was a couple of weeks ago and the people rebuilding my brakes sent me this picture of the pistons, they removed from the calipers
Having seen those, I was happy that I decided to send them away for refurbishment as they were probably well seized in and I would probably have damaged the calipers themselves trying to remove them myself.
Mark.
I decided to tackle the master cylinders first and unexpectedly, the screws holding the cap on the ffont m/cyl came undone without too much of a fight. However, when I took the cap off, I was greeted by a thick black gunge sitting in the reservoir. it took me minute to work out that it was the remains of the diaphragm It must have dissolved over time as a reaction to being in contact with the brake fluid.
The piston was stuck, but came out without too much effort, but I was slightly shocked to see the piston is not held in by a metal circlip as I expected, but a plastic clip that just pushed into the M/cyl bore !
The rear m/cyl was much the same, except the piston was so stuck,so I had to carefully drill the head off it, to free it up. The rod from the brake pedal to the m/cyl is pretty corroded, but is NLA. I'll have to see how it looks when it comes back from the rebuild, but I'll keep a look out for a good secondhand one in the meantime.
The m/cyl bores look OK, so I think they/ll be OK with new pistons.
The calipers were next and whilst they didn't look too bad, they were as furry as my cats The pistons were stuck solid and the bleed nipples didn't want move either. I didn't want to damage anything trying to get them apart and it was at that stage I decided to send the whole lot away to be professionally refurbished. Once I'd factored in my time in stripping everything, then the cost of getting them aqua blasted, then painted and sourcing new pistons, seals, etc to rebuild them - it made sense (to me anyway) to farm out the rebuild.
That was a couple of weeks ago and the people rebuilding my brakes sent me this picture of the pistons, they removed from the calipers
Having seen those, I was happy that I decided to send them away for refurbishment as they were probably well seized in and I would probably have damaged the calipers themselves trying to remove them myself.
Mark.
"Racing is life. Anything before or after is just waiting" - Steve McQueen
- Mark Tiller
- Area Rep.
- Posts: 1292
- Joined: 12th Jun 2011
- Location: Amersham
Re: Time to rebuild my old GPz
Hi Mark
welcome to the little world of bike horrors !
Seen those things a lot of times, don't worry. You'll get over it and you'll be able to sleep again at night
GrtZ
Philippe
welcome to the little world of bike horrors !
Seen those things a lot of times, don't worry. You'll get over it and you'll be able to sleep again at night
GrtZ
Philippe
the differences between a little boy and an adult man is the price and size of their toys!
Re: Time to rebuild my old GPz
GPZ592 wrote:The calipers were next and whilst they didn't look too bad, they were as furry as my cats The pistons were stuck solid and the bleed nipples didn't want move either. I didn't want to damage anything trying to get them apart and it was at that stage I decided to send the whole lot away to be professionally refurbished. Once I'd factored in my time in stripping everything, then the cost of getting them aqua blasted, then painted and sourcing new pistons, seals, etc to rebuild them - it made sense (to me anyway) to farm out the rebuild.
Be interested to see how these turn out... who’s doing them and what’s it costing?
Re: Time to rebuild my old GPz
chrisNI wrote:GPZ592 wrote:The calipers were next and whilst they didn't look too bad, they were as furry as my cats The pistons were stuck solid and the bleed nipples didn't want move either. I didn't want to damage anything trying to get them apart and it was at that stage I decided to send the whole lot away to be professionally refurbished. Once I'd factored in my time in stripping everything, then the cost of getting them aqua blasted, then painted and sourcing new pistons, seals, etc to rebuild them - it made sense (to me anyway) to farm out the rebuild.
Be interested to see how these turn out... who’s doing them and what’s it costing?
Powerhouse are doing the refurbishment. I'll let you know the cost, when I get the bill
Mark.
"Racing is life. Anything before or after is just waiting" - Steve McQueen
Re: Time to rebuild my old GPz
Top Guys at Powerhouse i've used them a lot u won't be disappointed i don't think
Re: Time to rebuild my old GPz
The brakes have come back from Powerhouse and I'm well pleased with them
They've been stripped, cleaned, painted and rebuilt with all new seals/stainless pistons & rubbers. I have new decals to apply, but they can wait until the calipers are back on the bike, so I get them the positioned correctly ! For now, they are safely stored away awaiting fitment later on in the rebuild.
Mark.
They've been stripped, cleaned, painted and rebuilt with all new seals/stainless pistons & rubbers. I have new decals to apply, but they can wait until the calipers are back on the bike, so I get them the positioned correctly ! For now, they are safely stored away awaiting fitment later on in the rebuild.
Mark.
"Racing is life. Anything before or after is just waiting" - Steve McQueen
Who is online
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 10 guests