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Messages - z1100r
16
« on: June 05, 2013, 06:17:43 PM »
I'll re-evaluate the situation when he gets back and I actually see the state of his secondhand head. Everything looks new on the proper head Bryan - exhaust studs etc, no broken fins, totally flat, and nice and shiny.
Sort out brakes and carbs tonight. looking forward to it.
17
« on: June 05, 2013, 11:41:02 AM »
I've been Saved...haha...A friend of mine just texted me from the IOM. He can sort me out a spare head as long as i fix the immobiliser/alarm on his Pan Euro as a swap. Excellent. trouble is he's not back until Saturday. I have no patience..!!! Doh. Still it gives me time to sort out the incredibly bad carbs. Petrol left in since 1981 has done them no favours. Inside of tank is probably not great either ..not looked yet.
Funny but I last rode a 400 four in the IOM. A mate lent me his customised black 1976 400four to go on in 1984. 2-4 seat, piper exhaust, fancy black paint job, I had a great time on it. I did a minimum of 2 laps a day rain or shine for a fortnight trying to learn the place. Blimey that was a long time ago.
CMSL list the valves but dont currently have any either apparently...and they only have pattern guides. Silvers told me that in a round about way. I'd rather tap some guides out of this spare head and pick the best 2 original valves from it i think. Knowing my mate this head of his will have stripped threads and be from a right old knacker. hehe. I'll salvage something I hope and retain the bikes original head.
Getting those circlips out the master cylinder is a bitch aint it...!!! haha. had to grind down my favourite long nose pliers to do it last night. Sulk.
18
« on: June 04, 2013, 11:36:04 AM »
Hello chaps,
I was here alot a couple of years ago when I corrected a terrible dis-service I'd bestowed my poor old 500-4. I recorded its resoration on here.
I have however become one of those thats just looks in from time to time.
Well to get to the point my Mother-in-laws gardner collared me the other day and asked if would be interested in getting his old bike going - he fancies a tootle round on it again.
"Hey that 500 looks great, would you mind having a look at a bike I've got..?"
"Yeah sure.. what is it..?"
"A 400-four"
"oh right, I used to like the Yellow ones"
"It is Yellow".
"Whats up with it.??"
"Nothing its just not been run since 1981".
"Yeah Ok I'll have a look at it".
Well bugger me....it must of been a mint bike that had only done 1,700 miles when it was parked in a shed. Its been relatively well stored, but not been turned over or even uncovered since 1981.
The good bits:-
Paint work is Excellent,
Chrome is really good,
All brackets, nuts and bolts etc still have their original plating and look new.
Master cylinder and caliper/disc look new, as does all rear brake gubbins.
Engine exterior, Dusty and grimey, but looks perfect underneath.
The bad bits:-
The brake fluid has solidified,
Clutch cable has seized solid....I mean solid, and throttle cables are stiff.
The baffle components of the immaculate original chrome silence poured out onto floor as a pile of orange powder.The bits that are left just rattle around.
Carbs slides are seized and inside the float bowls is an horible mess.
THE WORSE THING OF ALL though is that he has tried to kick it over. The inlet valves are seized/very stiff in the guides (too stiff for springs to return them), it must of started to whizz over then went clonk and locked solid.
2 bent inlet valves and 2 broken inlet valve guides, exhaust valves are fine, cylinder bores are perfect. When I eventually got the head off the inlet valves were all jammed down in the open postion.
Bottom line though is that with not too much effort this thing will look incredible for an original untouched 1979 bike. I mean fix these valves and strip the front brake stuff, buy a new clutch cable and free off the original throttle cables ( at least they move) and give ity him back to clean....wahhay. So I rang DS to enquire about parts and was surprised to find NO INLET VALVES (been on order for a year), have to order pattern Valve guides, clutch cable £25.
Hmm, need a secondhand head or just a couple of guides and valves. I used to have tons of this stuff cos i raced a Yoshi 460 but I only have 500/550 parts now - typical.
Will post some pics shortly when its been degreased and dusted off. I cant wait to have a go on it..!!
19
« on: November 19, 2012, 08:33:59 AM »
I found the charging system pretty weak I have to say. Immediately after rebuilding my 500 I was using it for an IOM trip and initially I worried about the charging system not coping with a H4 headlight on all the time. I didn't have any problems though. It was fine. Mine seems to need quite high revs to produce anything but is OK after that.
Is there anything available Solid state to replace the regulator/rectifier...?? I've done this with great success on my Brit bikes with dynamo's.
20
« on: October 12, 2012, 10:19:38 AM »
I am really cheesed off with lead acid batteries. The new one I bought for my 500 a year or so ago is now completely useless. Its even been connected to an accumate most of the time and its still gone a bollock. I have the same Yellow motobatt gel batteries on my Z1100r and Thunderace and they are superb. Bikes can sometimes stand for months but still start OK. Anyone know of GEL battery - preferably the yellow motobatt - that fits a std 500-4 battery box. I dont want to mod anything. Physically smaller than std would be fine. My big old Z is using a much smaller Thunderace battery with no issues at all. In fact it seems loads stronger than the massive original lead acid. So I'm looking for a same size as std or smaller Gel battery with similar cranking power. EDIT aha...spent a while searching and found it http://www.amazon.co.uk/YB12AL-A2-CB12AL-A2-YB12A-A-MB12U-MOTOBATT/dp/B0087RW8XA/ref=sr_1_20?s=automotive&ie=UTF8&qid=1350034443&sr=1-20
21
« on: September 28, 2012, 08:17:59 AM »
I did mine by hand with some white lining tape. Pretty easy really. I was going to do a template from the original but in the end I just did it off pics and following the lines of the tank. Tape was really cheap, Stripes applied before laquoring. 
22
« on: September 20, 2012, 10:47:29 AM »
The main cause of this steering shake to violent tank slap is your head bearings. I had it on the Direblade and I've had it on my z1100r. On both bikes it didn't do it unless I let go of the bars but releasing pressure on the bars would set it off and it would become very violent if you didn't grab them again. Both head races were replaced with tapers. Tapers are a doddle to set but you seem to have to keep setting them on a regular basis.
Weaving is usually rear end, knackered shocks/swing arm bushes/wheel bearings/flat or bald tyre.
IMO Handling problems are never usually just one thing, its just that the first thing sets other things off in some sort of chain reaction.
It does seem weird that it took 30+ years on stock ball bearings before the headstocks started wearing out and playing up, yet I thought I could do better and replaced with taper roller....why did I do that...madness.
23
« on: September 12, 2012, 08:07:46 AM »
It was loud though, and to an 18 year old that was what really mattered OF course, we were all the same. When I first got mine it was fited with an unknown set of header pipes welded to an upswept single pipe and an old Brit 'pea shooter' style silencer. I thought it sounded great.
24
« on: September 11, 2012, 02:32:43 PM »
I said NEARLY every single one. The Yoshimura pipe was slightly better but not much. I raced one of these things early eighties and spent ages trying to find an exhaust pipe that was better than stock. (Stock K3 not the 500 ones like I've got - they are terrible). The Yoshi one worked very well with a R&T cam and screaming at 10,000+...not so good pulling out of a 30mph corner in top.
The Piper was awful. Loadsa noise and no go. That was the one with a 2ft long dead straight tube 2.5" silencer if I remember right.
25
« on: September 11, 2012, 08:22:26 AM »
Slow to rev is extremely unlikely to be the carbs....assuming they are clean and funtioning properly. It is also very rare that you need to rejet for an exhaust pipe. There is an awful lot of crap about changing pipes and having to re-jet - even on 2-strokes. Your jetting is far more sensitive to airbox changes/leaks and I would start there. If K&N type filters are fitted then a complete rejet from scratch of the whole carb is required - and is an unbelievable pain in the arse aswell as requiring special equipment. Refit an airbox - makes the bike so much nicer. I agree K3's are faster and more economical, they are also smoother and a lot nicer to ride. Its all down to a much better carburettor and exhaust system. The original 4 pipes were the best I've ever fitted to a honda 4 and worked great on all of the many capacity changes my bike went through. I fitted loads of 4-1 pipes and nearly every single one of them made more noise and was slower. No matter what you do you wont beat Honda. They cast new manifolds and rubbers, swapped the carbs, and finely tuned the whole system making the K3 a much more refined bike. IMO Which is why my 500-4 600cc bike has a K3 motor with K3 carbs and a std airbox...shame about the pipes, but I cant get K3 pipes anymore.
26
« on: August 07, 2012, 11:54:19 AM »
Frame looks very rusty. Is it as bad as it looks.. 
27
« on: August 03, 2012, 10:13:52 AM »
My road bike is using the original 1975 points. Its done most of the 70,000+ miles using them.
I tried electronic ignitions when racing, 3 in all, but all conked out for various reasons. In fact I have a draw full of the good bits that remained. The last 1 blew up because Pirahna reckoned I left the ignition on too long without the engine running.
I bought a new set of Genuine points in 1998 for the road bike, but never bothered fitting them. Its had one new condensor due to wiping one out crashing when I had too use the points plate off the road bike for racing (new centre bolt aswell).
28
« on: July 18, 2012, 09:25:02 AM »
The throttle in the link will be horrendous. you will soon get fed up with that.
Stiff controls make a bike horible to ride. That throttle is for a large bodied carbuettor single cylinder motorcrosser and IMO is entirely unsuitable. (I have tried one)
29
« on: July 18, 2012, 09:19:02 AM »
I would grind whats left of screw flush with case, centre dot it and drill with 5mm drill. I would then heat it with a heat gun/blow torch until its real hot and let it cool down, heat it again and try an easy-out. I have hammered small torx bits into the 5mm hole in the past. This sounds well stuck though and drilling out and helicoiling maybe your only option.
30
« on: July 09, 2012, 10:57:45 AM »
I was quoted £20 a pot to bore to pistons I supplied - that was on my z1100r to fit a Wiseco forged 1170cc big bore kit. So £80 for rebore. They said they would do my spare set of Honda barrells aswel for £140 all in. Thats was last year at a place near me. That was for the whole job piston matched, but I insist on doing my own finish honing as I am a 2-stroke nut and appreciate the difference 0.0005" or so can make.
550 liners are fine for 600cc kits. Its 500's that need all the new liners and crankcase opening up. I have bored a 500 to a 550 to avoid machining cases to fit a 550 barrel.
Back in the early eighties I used std Kawasaki GPZ305 pistons. Its now on +.5mm O/s of those. I had alot of messing about though with copper head gasket, combustion chamber re-shaping, and compression ratio calculations. Hight lift cams gave me another problem. It was alot of effort, but the difference was amazing, 750+ performance.
The very same engine now has a stock cam with bores honed and new 305 pistons and rings and I must say its still pretty amazing. Its one of those big smile fun bikes that people that ride it think 'Bloody hell, I wasn't expecting that'.
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