Come from the shadows - the Shadowfax restoration.

very nice were they pretty reasonable price wise, its amazing how many pwdercoaters we have in wollongong, looks great mate can't wait to see it going.

It's probably due to how much heavy to medium steel industries that we have here. They'd all need to have stuff powder coated at various times.

......Man those cams have some serious lift!!!! I had Yoshimura cams in my Z900/1036 & they were nowere near the lift of those cams. I'd say it would have huge top end power, but little midrange. & with the small carbs would be making nowere near its full power ?? Could be wrong though. Great write up Gos .....

thanks Steve, I know you will get a kick out of seeing this old girl back on the track next year.

The lift is about 9.6mm, which is a fair bit more than stock, but still not as big as you can go with over-bucket shims in these old motors. The best cam of the lot for these motors was the Andrews3X grind.....

My initial thoughts on these cams, is that they are the old Ivan Tighe 253B grind cams. The lift matches the 253B grind specs, but I won't know the duration until the motor is a lot closer to starting - and the cams get degreed in.

I am watching a set of 29mm smoothies at the moment on US ebay - these would be perfect for this motor, and almost look identical to stock carbs, so they would fit the *original* look that Phil is working towards.......far better carbs for trackwork than the stocker 28mm jobbies......

that one is a piece of cake, if I don't get them looking at least as bad as that I don't reckon their ready for restoration.

yeah, I would say bead blast, do what welding it required and then paint or pawder coat, if powder coat be sure to ask that they prime first, or gal dipped as you said.

I only know Rad here in bris for fork legs, but they do have a postage service, they can also powder coat the lowers to look like stock factory alloy.

Will that do?

very nice, I also love that the original main stand has been adapted to paddock stand

That came with the bike; a real "period" piece!

Hey Gos do you think those cams would maybe cause the valve to drop off the stem. Phil told me that one had dropped ?? I would say It wouldnt like big revs, it would suffer valve failing if reved more than 8500/9500??
My Z never got reved over 9500, & was really safe. But didnt have the lift that has.??

OK, some more progress today! Yay. My brother and I went to Canberra and spent a profitable 2 hours or so removing the hub from the back wheel preparatory to replacing the disk brake hub with a drum brake one that the bike originally had.
http://www.halltech.com.au/forums/Shado ... pokes1.JPG
Gotta tell you, it was damn cold in that garage.
http://www.halltech.com.au/forums/Shado ... rated..JPG
Amazing how long it takes to do this.
http://www.halltech.com.au/forums/Shado ... 20head.JPG
The head shows no sign of valve recession while the bores are in remarkably good shape. We'll put a very light hone through them but it's only precautionary.
Thanks again, Gos, for your valuable assistance today.

I just realized from one of those pics your one of the twins ....We met at wakefeild a month or two ago in the cold and wet....And I have been on a ride or two with your brother

BTW love this thread we need more like this I have been following it closely

You're right on both counts! I'm just blown away by how much interest this rebuild has generated. I started out doing it just for something to do to occupy me while I recuperated, but I now feel that it has become something much bigger than that and I feel a real sense of responsibility to carry it through to the end. I'm excited.

......Hey Gos do you think those cams would maybe cause the valve to drop off the stem. Phil told me that one had dropped ?? I would say It wouldnt like big revs, it would suffer valve failing if reved more than 8500/9500??
My Z never got reved over 9500, & was really safe. But didnt have the lift that has.?? ......

Its possible Steve, but only if the engine copped a massive over-rev from a missed gear.....the lift on those cams is better than stock for that motor, but on the Tighe cam-grind charts for these old motors, the 253B grind (which I am almost 100% sure are these cams) - are listed as 'Mild Road'. You can still go up a bit and keep using shim-over-bucket, before you hit the really big cams that require the use of z650 followers (shim-under-bucket).

As long as the revs on this motor were kept at 10k or less, it should be fine I think.......probably had a few missed gears in its time, and I am yet to split the cases and have a look *down below* - NFI at this stage what sort of nick the selector forks or drum, or any of the gear dogs are in. Fingers crossed - everything will be sweet. The problem with these gearboxes is that big hp outputs through stock gearboxes, can cause all sorts of drama to the selector forks and corresponding grooves (wears both of them to buggery) - which in turn leads to missing gears - and then the dogs on 2nd gear start to wear out - and you basically can lose 2nd and even 3rd pretty quickly after that. Makes for an interesting race.......not.

In a completely unrelated to this bike - but related to a gearbox - story - - the bloke who owned the Black Pearl for almost 10 years, had to have 5th gear on the output shaft replaced back in the early 90's - the bike had done so many miles - in top gear - that the case-hardening had actually worn off the gear !! this is not a common problem - but does reflect the massive amount of kilometres that the Pearl has done in its lifetime ( well over 1/2 a mill now).

Phil - great to meet your bro today, yes it was chilly out in the 4th - and funny that Paul found that story about himself in that 1980 Two Wheels - now that someone else has found a story in a magazine over 30 years old - within 5 minutes - I am happy that the library works !

He is a shameless self-promoter, mate. If it was there, he would have found it....bwhuhahahahahhahahaa

Damn I love following this thread, and I certainly hope you do see the build through Phil.

It's going to happen, Dave, don't you worry. Coming soon to a track near you!