Project RM - a true story inspired by Kro.

[cheese]

Right so my RM is blowing a bit of smoke adn it looks like its coming out via teh crank seal. So I gave teh bike a clean tonight and then decided to strip it rigth down.........

So I started at about 9 pm adn it's not 12:26 and it's all stripped down.

Things I found so far.....

The chain links securing clip had fallen off (I'm so lucky that didn't fall off in teh weekend - FUCK!!!!

there is a leak around the kick starter seal - think I got one somewhere

everything is fuckign dirty

Probably due a piston - got one here

Crank seal - one on order

bore is a tad on the worn side, but I got one of ebay quite cheaply.

exhaust needs repacking and a clean. - how do you clean out the carbon inside?

My radiators are banged up pretty badly, the left on got bent inwards when my bike fell off the trailer (I was spewing about that) and I didn't realise the right hand side one was as bad as it was untill I took it off. I found a place in newmarket that does repairs ane they said it would probably be around the $100 mark.

I'm going to try and get this bike back to good nick with a budget of bugger all. The main reason is taht I don't want to spend alot on a bike that is now 10 years old and it would be a waste. But I think that with a little TLC is can be bought up to scratch.

I'm going to reclean the frame tomorrow and I found some CRC spray on zinc coating that I'm going to use as a base coat. I've got some Suzuki greay frame paint that I got for $10 from Colemans. I've got a dremel with a wire wheel that I'll use to clean teh old paint off and get rid of the rust.

Anyway I've posted up some pics for you guys to look at.

[cheese]

Where did teh pictures go.....

[cheese]

take two on more pics

[cheese]

more pics, including teh might XR100!!! ther is a picture of teh bike clean too.

[kro]

WICKED !!!!!


Mate, I'll be watching this with very keen interest, well done, I salute thee !!.

[ArcherWC]

to clean the carbon out of the pipe,

plug one end and fill with caustic soda and water, be carfull as the reaction happens the pipe will get HOT,
wash out and redo untill its all clean

[cheese]

Sweet i've got some of that at home I'll do it tonight.

What about the outside of the chamber? autosol? LOL

by the way, seeing the ammount of sand every where I'm starting to hate woodhill!!!

[Ghost Lemur]

Great start Cheese.

Looking forward to following your progress.

Looks like I might have scored a project to work on too. I have been trying to get my mate out riding and now his parents have just given him their notworking (but complete) old batch hack. So once I've cleared out the garage we going to start work on getting it up and going.

[Sketchy_Racer]

Oh dear....

Kro it seems you have started a trend here!!

Because as i type this my KDX250 is sitting the garage in a million pieces!!

It's amazing what you learn about you bike when you strip it down.... It's also amazing what you find wrong with a bike too!!

I learned that my engine is Poked and not worth fixing, so it will be ridden how it is now untill it goes Bang.... Then I get a KX250 motor..... Muahahha

[Wellyman]

Another project by a KB member! good stuff mate.i would have done it in winter , as you will miss on all the summer rides. guess you could ride the mighty honda!!
WM

[cheese]

Na I'm doing this project over the next few weeks so it should be ready to roll in a couple of weeks.

Bit of an update

I've taken teh radiators into Vercoe radiators, they do alot of bike one and are just in newmarket. the inital diagnosis is not too bright, the left hand side one could be fucked, but teh right looks ok, just warped. You may notice that I actually have 3 radiators as I accidentally bought one of eBay for a 01, but I got a right and teh left is the bad one (DOH), Hopefully they can mod is for me so I can make it into a left. the mounts are all teh same, it's just a tad wider. I'm definately going to make some radiator guards!!!!

[ArcherWC]

I have some Devol guards from an 01 wr426 that you may be able to mod to fit, they are in mint condition and are anodized black. some beers and they are yours

[Boosted]

if he doesn't take them i will :D

[cheese]

What beer you like?

do you come auckland way often? I can come to you but if you coem this way I can easily meet you.

Cheers

[cheese]

Update

So I got a call from Verco today about my radiators and they are all fixed up! cost about $200 + gst to get both of them fixed. I'm so stoked!!!! I'll post up some pics when I get them at lunch time.

I also gave teh frame a quick blast with the dremel last night and gave it a blast with the zinc paint. I want to see how hard it is and the I'll paint it. I'm thinking of making up a bash plate for teh bottom from some Ali and make some skids to protect teh bottom of the frame. I'll see what I can get from the place accross the road. (metalworks) they had a sheet of 1.6mm thick ali the other day for $15 that I could have made a good bash plate from. they can cut it for me too. I'll make a template from cardboard and see how it goes.

[telliman]

dude, you should get some more sheet metal and make a little roof as well, and then take off your bars and chuck on a steering wheel! that would look mean.

[cheese]

how about you do that to your one first.

[Sketchy_Racer]

KDX is on its way.

I made some new suspension bushes at work yesterday.

They seem ok, and give really really smooth movement in the linkages.

[kro]

Dude, the KDX is looking very sharp, what did you clean the swingarm and cylinder with?. They look very clean and shiny.

Cheese, where you up to buddy?, it's my turn to bug you for updates :bleh:

[Sketchy_Racer]

haha,

I found a tub of elbow grease lying around..... thought i better use it up.

Seriously. The swingarm got paint stripped. bead blasted and a paint job.

The engine got a good couple of hours with a scotch brite.

You should see my fingers...... I mean stubs.

[Sketchy_Racer]

KDX is almost done.

What do ya think of the YZF side cover ( Dads YZF can go without :p )

( sorry cheese to steal your thread for a moment.... )

[cheese]

I've been at U2 this weekend and I had family up here, my weekend has been pretty full on. My mate is coming up next weekend and it keen to go out so I might have to hurry up and pull finger. I've got most of teh bits here an the radiators are sorted so I might see what I can do this week. I might crack onto the frame now. I'm very keen on having a sleep though.

[cheese]

Ok SO I cleaned all teh rust of with my dremel (love that thing!!!!!!) and coated it with some CRC zinc spray and one coat of top coat. I'm really happy with how it is looking.

Light grey is teh zinc spray, dark is teh proper Suzuki grey for my year.

[kro]

Dude, mint pictures, she's gonna be a pearler !!!!. Great work.

[Ghost Lemur]

Did you bake the frame, or use some other method to make it chip resistant?

One of the things which is occuping my thoughts most about my up coming project is, while it's easy to make a pretty bike. It's harder to make a bike pretty that wont detoriate and look like shit after the first ride. With a road bike it's not so difficult. But with an dirt/dualsport bike that is likely to get pummled by gravel, scrap over and fall on rocks and logs, even probably go swimming. It therefore has to be strong enough to take the beating and as easy as possible to clean.

[kro]

A cheap bake oven, is available to most people over summer. Throw the painted item in the back seat of your sedan, or rear of the stationwagon on a hot day, with the windows up.

I know this sounds crude, but it works, and can help with the proper curing of your paint if you can't afford to have it done properly.

[Brian d marge]

Your not the only one with bikes in bits ,,,,,,,,

Stephen

[cheese]

That looks liek a nice new clutch.

[Brian d marge]

Old clutch , put together carefully ...I sat down and worked my way through ALL of the Cr range of clutches , they change the wire diameter of the clutch spring and make it slightly longer ,,,

Soo I will order some crf springs ( 06, 07) and use those

The other thing is the routing of the clutch cable ,,, I am making cable holders to keep the line straight ,,,, or as straight as I can get it... we will see how that stacks up

The blue is prussian blue, used to what parts touched and how .... Flex etc ..

Stephen

[cheese]

ok so I changed the crank seal, removed the clutch and put in a new one that is just about as bad as teh old one (bugger) at least I've got a spare set of plates now...... one bonus was teh set of stronger springs in the new one. So I'll fit those and see how they treat me. it's easy enough to swap them. the primary gear has some wear on it that so I guess the best I can do is to use some really fine wet/dry adn try to get the burrs off. I'll price up a new one too.

Alos found a crack on the case by teh chain so I got some locktight stuff to fill the hole, but it's taking a long time to cure so I'll hit ti with the heat gun tonight and see if that helps.

Also the guys from spectrum (bloody good bike shop) said that the exsesive smoke is probably a tuning issue so I might get it back together and test it with teh new crank seal then slap the new piston in and see how that goes. Becausethe smoke is blue, this is burnt oil, if it was white, it would be gearbox oil. the only thing that I'd changed was the pipe and I was told that the FMF fat boy is a bolt on upgrade so I hadn't worried about the tuning/jetting.

I've also fitted a new seal to the kickstarter.

[Ghost Lemur]

Great work cheese. You certainly are cranking along.

[cheese]

Oh and yes I heat treated the frame with the heater while it dried. It's dried nice and hard now. I'm just waiting for teh metal sealant to dry off where the case was cracked. I just used my hot air gun to try adn speed it up as I think it's not curing as the engine is too cold.

[cheese]

ok, so the loctite 660 is finally starting to set (go teh hot air gun) upon reading the spec sheet, its' only for .5mm gaps, for larger holes it can take up to 3 days to cure!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! so teh heat gun is the go. It seems to be doing the job well.

The radiator guards that cost me a box of beer are a perfect fit!! Hooray! I'll have to mod them a tiny bit, but other than that its going to look good!!

I'll start on the assembly and all pivot points grease up soon.

[kro]

And some more pictures too eh Cheese?.

[cheese]

ok pics update

I'm still wainting on theis god dam loctite to set!! I'll go get some accelorator tomorrow I think!

Radiators repaired with the guards I got off brain for a box of beers (woot!!)

clutch cover off and inside the engine

heat gun on the case that has been fixed with the loctite 660.

going to run the bike on the old piston to see if I've fixed the smoke issue. if it's all good, then I'll put the new psiton and cyclinder in replace all the power valve seals and repack the exhaust.

[cheese]

oh adn teh frame.

Sorry about the shitty pictures, my phone takes crap phots at night.

[cheese]

Ok so friday night at home and I decided to fix teh lawn mower..... I found that both rings were cracked (2 stroke) adn the bore has a maaaaasive score down it. looks like on of the rings got caught in the intake port and now I need a new mower. not bad really, 4 years for a 100 mower......

Anyway I think got enthused to work on my bike.

So far

Repaired teh crack with a metal epoxy (fuckign strong shit!) the loctite product was crap!!!!!

used some 1000 grit emery paper to get rid of the rough bits of teh primary gear. It only took a bit of sanding and it should stop teh crank seal gettign chewed out.

Filed teh grooves out of my clutch basket

Refitted teh engine to teh frame

refitted teh swing arm adn greased it all up.

I went to fit the radiators adn one of teh bolts snapped off juat as I was just about done (FUCKER) so I've drilled it and now I just need to get the tap adn die set from work and fix that up.

I'm going to see if this fixes teh smoke problem before I put a new piston in.

Might have it reassembled thsi weekend!!

Pics tomorrow.

[ArcherWC]

So does that mean you are coming riding with us on sunday then ?????

[cheese]

The bike is going back together really well. I've got it looking like a trials bike at the moment.

[Wellyman]

Keep up the good work my friend.waaay cleaner then my beast.
WM

[cheese]

LOL cheers

Adam (GTAE) just told me I have to polish my wheels and swing arm. I'll do tha After I see how it goes this weekend. I'll get a new polishing wheel for the dremel and get some autosol. I've got a pack of wire wool to scrub up the engine too.

[cheese]

put the clutch casing back on and fitted the kick starter and radiators + guards. I had to bod the guards a little bit to fit as I couldn't turn full lock without bashing them. Also tapped that screw hole on the frame.

More pics!

[cheese]

Ok trying to get my bike sorted for this weekned so it's all go!

Fitted tank and cleaned teh filter (was quite dirty)

Tapped burred out holes for front guard

cleaned out mag from sand and yucky poos adn fitted new gasket

tightened all teh engien mounts adn swing arm

fitted the foot pegs

greased the clutch cable - teh new clutch springs feel a heck of a lot tighter.

Pics tomorrow.

Oh and any tips on how to restore the shine to my expansion chanmer?


Next week after I've tested teh engien I hopefully will be

fitting a new piston and new cyclinder

repacking teh exhaust

clening teh expansion chamber - how?

maybe clean the rims........... got to get some autosol and a polishing head for my dremel.

and if all goes well I'll see about maybe a new chain and sprokets, and maybe a plastic restore kit (still debating this as it is a dirt bike and a fall off regularly!!)

[Ghost Lemur]

Great work cheese.

[cheese]

pics of last night:scooter:

[cheese]

Ok it's more or less back together, I'll left the side panels off and not bolted the seat on as I want to give it another squirt with the water blaster tomorrow and clean teh plastics with some IPA to get all teh grease and crap off. I was going to start it up and tehn I found I've run out of radiator fluid!! Tits!!!! Any sugestions on a good one? I just got some prestone super cheap auto stuff last time. Is it all teh same stuff? Scored a bike computer of Archer so that will be cool to hook up too. I was going to hook up a fuel filter too but the space for me to do ti will mean that it will will sit below the carb fuel input. Would this be a problem? I thought that the carb is gravity fed as tehre is no pump. so this would not be ideal to fit??? anyone know?

So I'll see how it goes this weekend and then I'll fit the new piston and stuff.

[barty5]

Ok it's more or less back together, I'll left the side panels off and not bolted the seat on as I want to give it another squirt with the water blaster tomorrow and clean teh plastics with some IPA to get all teh grease and crap off. I was going to start it up and tehn I found I've run out of radiator fluid!! Tits!!!! Any sugestions on a good one? I just got some prestone super cheap auto stuff last time. Is it all teh same stuff? Scored a bike computer of Archer so that will be cool to hook up too. I was going to hook up a fuel filter too but the space for me to do ti will mean that it will will sit below the carb fuel input. Would this be a problem? I thought that the carb is gravity fed as tehre is no pump. so this would not be ideal to fit??? anyone know?

So I'll see how it goes this weekend and then I'll fit the new piston and stuff.
yes gravity fed as carb is well below tank this shouldnt be a prob mate has same set up on his drz400 dose ok the weight of the fuel from above will push the first aor lock through then youll be ok i use elf motox premix coolant my rep that comes in give me all my bike oils coolant as freebies pre mix is nice an easy just stick it in bleed it up an way you go no mixing and can do top ups when ever as italready mixed ( let us know if you want some ill get some in normal cost is cheap as)

[Danger]

Good going there Cheese! Did you look into powder coating your frame? I have the KTM pulled down and going to rebuild the bottom end and while the engine is out was thinking that I would powder coat the frame if not too expensive. It will mean striping of the stock powder coating first. Anyone with any experience of this?

[kro]

Looking damn fine Cheese, you have done a bang up job on that bike, it looks bloody excellent. Can't help with radiator fluid, it's been too long since I had my FZR to remember, but I think most major name brands will be safe.

[barty5]

yes i did a tt600 a couple of years ago costsome were around $50 to $100 cant fully remember but you really need to sand blast frame so its dead clean only problem i found was the flexing in the frame on the front up right caused it to peel of the frame and crack in other places you might be better of at paint shop and have it oven baked think you can have a flexing adjent added in to paint as well which may help stop this prob i had op nearly forgot p/coat didnt like the heat comin of the headers either softern the paint.

[Danger]

Yeah I might just paint it. Its already powder coated so that protects the frame pretty good. Probably scuff up the powder coating and primer the bare metal spots and spray over the lot. I have the compressor and spray gun so thats no problem. Only need to test if the 2pac paint will react with the powder coat. So little of the frame is really seen, but want to change the colour from grey to black like the later KTM models. My forks have already been anodized black.
Should look wicked. This is how it is at the moment. Should look good with a black frame!

[cheese]

I rang all over the show about powder coating and it was far too expensive, most quotes were around 200+ whena can of paint was $15 for suzi grey expoxy paint.

Barty, when could you hook me up? I mught just get some as I want to start it tonight

[barty5]

it no the way should have later today you can call if you want 5345571work Aaron

[barty5]

I rang all over the show about powder coating and it was far too expensive, most quotes were around 200+ whena can of paint was $15 for suzi grey expoxy paint.

Barty, when could you hook me up? I mught just get some as I want to start it tonight

coolant just turned up ph 021760573 5245571w 4760069h

[cheese]

Sorry I didn't check this before I went to lunch adn I grabbed some stuff from colemans...... Sorry.

[cheese]

Right a pic of it nearly done.

I'll have some more after I get it going tonight. Hopefully not smoking...........well not as much as it was anyway.

[barty5]

Right a pic of it nearly done.

I'll have some more after I get it going tonight. Hopefully not smoking...........well not as much as it was anyway.

hope they didnt charge to much ill put it in mine about time due to replace

[barty5]

Right a pic of it nearly done.

I'll have some more after I get it going tonight. Hopefully not smoking...........well not as much as it was anyway.

if it gose ok bring it out on sunday doin the second mr motorcycles ride down east of the bombays

[cheese]

I've got a mate cooming up from gissy, where is that ride? got some info on it?

[Ghost Lemur]

Looking great cheese.

[k14]

Mate, you don't need proper coolant to run it up once. Just throw tap water in there. Don't leave the water in there for too long though, can rust the water pump impeller. Just use any cheapo coolant, will do the trick.

Oh yeah, really nice bike too. Good job.

[barty5]

I've got a mate cooming up from gissy, where is that ride? got some info on it?

http://www.nztrails.com/ check out the events list second from the top good ride down it for the last 3 years ill be leavin the shore about 7-730 am

[cheese]

Well i just got some motul coolant (label basher!) adn fired her up and she is going great guns. smoke is reduced to a normal 2 smoker level and I just pulled some great wheelies on my neighbours fron lawn - Maybe the fuckwits will mow it now??

Took a while to get started as I was a bit nervous (fucks knows why) and then I forgot to turn the fuel on (duh!! done that before too after a rebuild!!) took it for a quick blat down the road and it seems all good. this weekend will be a better test though.

The clutch is fucking fantastic. I can actually kick it over in gear if I hold the clutch in!!!

The repair ont eh case seems to be holding well.

the radiators and guards look and feel so much better. I'm really glad I got them fixed, especially with summer comming. :scooter: :scooter:

So I guess this is the end of part one :Punk: , part two will start next week with a rebuild of the engine and exhaust repack. I'd like to get my jettign checked too (can anyone do that for me?) it rins fine, I think it just needs a tweek.

thanks for the support guys, it really helps keep you motivated to finish something. It was a pretty quick strip down and I didn't go the "Kro factor" but as I said, it's a dirt bike adn I fall off it a fair bit so why try to turn it into a show piece when all I want is it tidied up.

Part two and finished pics to come soon.

[cheese]

Well i ended up taking it to the onehunga track for a blat as I was a bit hung over to go on that big trail ride and got up too late. so it was perfect at onehunga, the rain had made teh surface nice and soft while the big bog bits have dried up.

Anyway the big smoked a little bit, but really went to a normal 2 smoke level. I'm really happy with it and so I'll start on teh rebuild sometome soon. I might wait till after xmas as I may run out of time.

Anyway all good! Glad it all held together. Only downside is that the paint on the frame where my boots rub has come off already. I might coat it wiht some of the engine epoxy I got as it's quite easy to work with. I'll see how I go.