Kawasaki Sportsbike Riders Club - Australia - Online Forum

So I thought I would post up a summary of things done to the old A2 over the past 16months.

From a $200 purchase from a mate, Pushed into the shed and stripped down of all plastics. Degreaser and pressure washer as had been a greasy dog kennel for several years.
1. Pulled the plugs and had a look, oily but not wet considering it had sat for 5 years.
2 Pulled the carbs and started labelling all the bits and cables.
3 Stripped and cleaned the carbs, two smashed float, replaced
4 bought new battery and went to start it, repair corroded broken wires in RHS controls, fix that, and kill switch that broke while working on starter button.
5. Did compression test -1&4 ok, 2 nearly nothing, 3 not much better than 2.
5a. Dropped oil in the bores, went to crank it and do retest, found negigable change which was pleasing.
6. pulled the head and stripped out all the valve springs, measured to spec.
7. Stripped the head and re-did the valves, bought replacement head from Sean and stripped that, tested all valves on dial guage rig I made up, less than half of the originals were ok, some bent or heads out of round.
8. Assessed and sorted all valves and springs, checked all rocker arms and cams for wear, all seem ok, no scoring etc.
9. Made new head gasket from .6mm annealed copper sheet and Hylomar
10. re-assembled head and lapped all 16 valves, leak test with kero in inlet and outlet, redo 2 lappings, retest all ok.
11. Made pressure test rig and bolt up to head to check leakage under pressure, all checked ok.
12. Clean down block and piston crowns, polish with 1200wet and dry with oil,
13. Re-assemble head to block and torque down. Re-assemble all ancillaries.
14, check timing, reset gap on crank pick ups,
15. Compression check again, yay, all 150psi plus, Win
16. Rebuild carbs and assemble onto bike, made test tank from lawn mower fuel tin. Bought and installed 4 x unifilter 60mm pods, in red of course.
17. Attempt start, oops no mufflers cause they get in the way of work, sorry neighbours.
18. Restart with mufflers, idles but wont rev past 3000
19. pull carbs again and put overhaul kits through them.
20. Balance carbs with diff. pressure guage and SWMBO vacuum cleaner, using a home made 2-1 adaptor, carbs balanced with .3 kpa of each other, Google Dwyer Magnahelic.
21.Carbs back on bike, now revs better but not great, to 6000.
22. Replace all leads and plugs, making sure non-standard leads actually make it to the plug terminal, and seal the well at the same time.
23. Re-install tank onto bike and fill will 10L of 98oct.
24. Starts after about 6 attempts with tap on prime.
25. Rebuild tap with overhaul kit, now pump works.
26. tank back on bike, starts easy runs well for 2 minutes then coughs and dies.
27. Pop lid of tank to relieve pressure drop, remove cap assembly after carefully dropping one lid bolt into tank
28. Rebuild cap with new gasket and clean out breather passages, reclaim bolt and re-assemble lid.
29. Tank test with spare hoses and sucking on vacuum port hose. Reserve flows but no main.???
30. Discover that in 13 months, A LOT of fuel has evaporated or disappeared somehow, leaving not enough fuel for the main port.
31. Another 10 litres of Saudi's finest and we are a happy GPZ900r ready for rego tomorrow.

Oh by the way, in between time I replaced the tank with a straight one,thanks Steve, and fixed, bogged, sanded, primed, sanded and top coated all the plastics.
Also replaced the fuel filter, oil filter, oil, bled the front brakes, replaced all pads, stripped and rebuilt the clutch basket and plates, freed up the frozen brake pistons, cleaned the chain and soaked it in oil for 2 weeks. replaced the front brake switch, several bulbs, tightened up the sloppy controls and generally cleaned the beast up.

I sure there is more but I am tired and need a beer.

sounds good throw a few pics so we can see if its as good as it sounds

Out and about on the central coast

You may have noted the above list says nothing about doing anything with the gearbox.

Well, commuting to work monday mornng, bike starts finding neutral between 5th and 6th.
No great drama, back to 5th and change again, all good.

Into neutral at some lights and now it wont go into gear. Finally after much coaxing, 1st is found, away we go.
'mmmmmm' thinks I. Never heard gear noise over the exhaust before.
Come into the next roundabout and go to change down and it is locked in 5th, much clutch slipping and around the turn. Pulled into a handy suburban carpark to have a look. Aboslutely will not let go of 5th plus much internal noise in the box.

So 3 day later the easy bits are checked out ok, so weekend the motor comes out for gearbox rebuild....

With rego and insurance this is costing me $3.50 a day to have sitting on a workbench in pieces.

That is my motivation.

Bugger. After all that resto work and then for the box to seize up........

It's still not summer so not all bad,time is on your side.

spewin, would be good to know what part or parts let go, just for future preference

So far, sprockets and chain are worn, oil pickup had crud stuck to it after 5 years of sitting still, clamp linkage on shift shaft was not tight. So new oil, filter, chain and sprockets.

Everything else measures up ok. Shift drum, forks, grooves, circlips all ok. No bearing failure as was first assumption. Clutch plates measure ok, alternator drive chain ok, gear backlash for primary drive and transmission all ok.

Somewhat of a setback tonight.
You know those times when you need to get something done on the bike but everything fucks you over and then work on the bike goes to shit?
Well imagine the pic above but upside down on the concrete floor...

Putting the engine back in and nudged the front wheel chock with the forklift, chock falls out, bike rolls forward under the tension of the straps, centre stand folds up, next thing is the bike is doing a perfect endo, landing upside down on the floor.
At each stage the image of my pride and joy rolling off its perch onto the floor is etched into my brain.
I swore.


A lot.

Somewhat of a setback. holy shit!!!

I bet you said a few swear words....

sounds like something that would happen to me but theres no point going crook cause has i have learnt it doesnt fix the problem,hope you didnt do to much damage to your bike

Sad news there Jon, I feel for you I once had a Ducati pantah go sideways off my bench & land on its head......you never forget

So the damage list is both right side blinkers smashed, fairing upper destroyed, screen destroyed, seat sub frame considerable lower than it should be(bent)

BUT.
Then engine was bolted in so the main frame appears ok (does anyone know any quick tests besides a road test) forks are ok (straight)
Guage pod is ok, levers bent a bit but I have spares for them.
Fortunately I had taken out both foot peg plates so the subframe had plenty of room to bend and absorb the damage rather than transfer it to the mainframe.
Thats what I am clinging to for the next few days until I see whether all the bolt holes line up

FUCK x infinity

JonW wrote:

Somewhat of a setback tonight.
You know those times when you need to get something done on the bike but everything fucks you over and then work on the bike goes to shit?
Well imagine the pic above but upside down on the concrete floor...

Putting the engine back in and nudged the front wheel chock with the forklift, chock falls out, bike rolls forward under the tension of the straps, centre stand folds up, next thing is the bike is doing a perfect endo, landing upside down on the floor.
At each stage the image of my pride and joy rolling off its perch onto the floor is etched into my brain.
I swore.


A lot.

Besides the swearing I would have found a nice quiet corner and cried, then got absolutely shit faced, bloody shame mate after all the work you put into her, I hope she'll be ok, feel for you mate!

BUGGER,BUGGER AND BUGGER!!!!

WHAT A DISASTER,AFTER ALL THAT YOU'VE DONE.

ONE STEP FORWARD,TWO STEPS BACK........

GOOD LUCK WITH IT. I'M IN QUEANBEYAN IF YOUR CLOSE AND NEED A HAND.

I'm in Newcastle but thanks for the offer.
Add a bent AND broken subframe and buggered rear guard to the carnage.