Do you remember why it was parked up for the last time? Did it break something, like one spring too many, or had it run its course for the time being?
Do you remember why it was parked up for the last time? Did it break something, like one spring too many, or had it run its course for the time being?
Now THAT is a project. I shall watch with interest.
. “No pleasure is worth giving up for two more years in a rest home.” Kingsley Amis
Changes in F3 had made it uncompetitive. Tony had been told by kawasaki to ride the 400 fours they supplied as his special was too far from what they sold.
Open fuel was going out - and I'm still pissed at that. Canterbury cast the vote that swung it - and the top F1 bike in NZ and several top F2 and F3 bikes which were on alky were owned by members. The singles and twins allowed in the F3 rules needed alky badly to be competitive with the fours. Mark had bought a good TZ and was chasing 2 stroke glory. 750 2 valve engines were coming in to F3 too.
We'd built another bike - a GSXR750J chassis - with initially a supercharged 500 in it then when it became apparent we couldn't keep coolant in it, the downdraft unblown motor went in. The old girl still got taken along as a spare - and got used too. We did 2 years of intensive development and basically got tired of pushing shit uphill against the fours.
It had been a good advertisement for the shop and I was reaping the rewards of that - ie bloody busy building hot engines.
I suppose at this point a bit of history wouldn't go amiss.
The older ones here may remember that Coca-Cola used to run an annual summer competition...Pre cellphones, you sent in labels or tops and went into a draw for prizes...Well, my wife was an avid enterer of these competitions. The first summer of F3 at the Nationals, she won one of I think 6 second prizes...a Kawasaki jetski. Ironic as neither she nor our daughter swim....
So, by partway through that season it was apparent from helping Tony with the GSXR400 and watching Mike McCutcheon with a warm GPZ500, that the Kawasaki was the way to go in F3....It was only my putting Tony onto the Meth/Toluene brew that got him the title. At the GP he was ready to go home as he couldn't get it to run right on Meth/petrol.
Anyway the competition results came out in Feb I think and after some "household discussion" I headed off to Norjo's to see if I could turn a jetski into a bike...
Alan Norfolk - old family friend - welcomed me with open arms and told me what his deal was. Coke had negotiated with Kawasaki NZ about 8 months earlier to buy the jetskis at the then price. The dealers who would eventually supply had to abide by that price and invoice Coke as agreed. As Alan pointed out, the current dealer price had gone through the roof and he was looking at a substantial loss if he supplied a jetski, LOL.
So we agreed that I could have a 500 off the floor at dealer cost - less the amount Coke would pay him. As it turned out, about $1600.
So I started modifying it....built a pipe, played with the airbox, ported it mildly...And ran it in a few club days that summer and autumn. One highlight was a flying quarter at Charing Cross. With large rider aboard, 125mph, next F3 Pete Walsh, FZR400, 118mph.
Another was at a club day where I did a swap bike race with a friend who was running a good VFR400 - not an NC30 - We warned him that on the 16in rubber and with that engine setup, when you hit 7000 it went sideways. He didn't believe it. I finished the race on his bike - running it to the limiter looking for power - but he came in early saying it was unrideable....It certainly had a sharp edge to the powerband with std cams and carbs.
Pic is how it was raced in it's early life.
That winter it got built up pretty much as it is now. Mark came on board and paid for quite a bit of it.
LOL I had one of those the same colour - white with a red stripe must have been 1988 or so. Good little bike for its day but in stock form not super quick.
I like this thread by the way.
I thought elections were decided by angry posts on social media. - F5 Dave
The stock brakes weren't that good either...Mark wanted to do the Dunedin street race while it was still in lightly modified form. He'd been racing a 450 Ducati in BEARS - very successfully too. I'd built the bottom ends for him and his friend the owner. They'd fitted a Performance Machine 4 pot billet caliper to the Ducati - and had a 2nd one sitting there...So it got grafted on just before doing Dunedin. Very good brake....
Mark was to ride it in F3 and I'd ride it in F2. Mark went out first in F3 practise then me in F2. I came in saying "there's a knocking from the front end - did you notice it ?" Mark admitted it had started knocking toward the end of his session...
The standard flat front disc was heavily dished - and had a big pressure wave in it which was so big that it was knocking on the fork leg...It was also blue.
There was another 500 there which was damaged in a practise crash. Bastard got it fixed - we wanted the disc off it. Ours was way too bad to race on.
Hence when it got turned into a proper race bike we ensured it had the best brakes we could source...
Well, the cases came apart easy. Everything looks just as I remember it, shells look OK, any marks are from turning the crank after it's long rest.
Box is good - as I'd expect, it's overbuilt like a lot of Kawas. Primary chain might get looked at. I've got a couple of spares so the best will go in.
It'll get pressure washed and everything inspected before reassembly.
The odd item on the end of the crank is an ignition trigger. Std they trigger off a lump on the OD of the alternator. That's the OE alternator boss with an alloy piece carrying a steel shoe as a trigger. And it's adjustable...
Standard the alternator is a big bastard thing. When they're raced hard with it fitted, the crank breaks at the inner end of the alternator side bigend.
I was approached a couple of times by guys who'd had cranks break - I always told them how to do it, but of course none had come to me before it broke...
I once showed the crank setup to a guy who was ex DSIR and had a balancing/noise/vibration business in ChCh. He reckoned it was a torsional node at that point. Simply reducing the mass on the end of the crank raised it's natural frequency to the point where it didn't break...
When we ran the blown motor we ran a polyvee belt from a pulley at that end with the ignition trigger on the back of the pulley. Probably acted as a torsional damper, LOL.
Bottom case is an easy clean, top case has ratpiss damage....just cosmetic luckily.
I have an EX500 17" front wheel with a Yam disc. XJR1300 or it might be FJR. PCD is the same, central hole a couple of mil bigger. Kwak uses 8mm bolts with 10 mm shoulders, Yam 6mm with 8mm. Think offset is the same but it hasn't made it onto a bike, yet (disc is just held on with stainless cap screws to try it for fit). Guessing yours has different wheels and discs, anyway.
It does now, yes. 320mm GSXR750 discs with Suzuki Impulse calipers. You've probably never heard of the Impulse in the UK. It was a watercooled 400/4 for the home market which got sold here in big numbers. The calipers are a smaller 4 pot but take the same pads as big GSXR's
The quick fix for the mild steel OE disc was an Impulse disc. Identical size and bolt pattern - but made from top quality material.
They're almost a halfway house between the 550/750 family of fours which have a chain primary - and the GPZ900 family which don't.
The box I'm pretty sure is same as the 900 - the clutch is massive so it's prob the same too.
Pistons/rods and head components I'm pretty sure are same as the 1000 which followed the 900.
If you can find that period article, it would go on here very well thanks.
Wouldn't surprise me. kawasaki have used the same spline numbers and sizes from the Z1 right up to date - so a lot interchanges.
We were out at the track one day running in/testing at the same time as the Britten boys were there testing something with Stroud riding.
They were down the end at the hairpin so we didn't know what they were doing. Anyway, we ran into them at the Yaldhurst pub where they'd stopped off for a drink on the way home. Mark came back from getting drinks where he'd talked to one of the boys and muttered to me - "they were timing from the 100 yard brake marker around to the first ess"..."and I just got asked if we have a slipper clutch as I was consistently quicker than Stroud "
No, we didn't - but I found out later that was their first test with a slipper.
I've got a lot of engine parts soaking in various baths at present but had one small victory. I pulled out my box of valve stem seals - I carry a few...looking for an old packet of 500 ones to get the number. Remembered when I looked that when Darbi got out of stem seals they sent random assortments to customers to get rid of stock. I'd been at Don's not long after they'd arrived and had been invited to have a pick through what they sent him. More in stock than I remembered, LOL.
Anyway, Yamaha FJ1200 fit the 500 and I've got a free packet here. Sorted.
The barrel has some water staining - no corrosion. It's been deglazed lightly a number of times but on handheld equipment - quick and dirty.
I'll drop it in to a mate with a reconditioning business for a guaranteed straight deglaze.
Valves cleaned up well. A quick lap and it can go back together with new springs and seals.
Picked through the spare chains I have here - I have a better primary, and a better camchain too.
great to see ya digging your toes into something after a bit of time up on blocks from heart surgery, look forward to seeing this at levels...
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