Jays bike project

[Jay-ZS+]

Had a delivery of parts yesterday so decided to make a start on the front end. Stripped down the forks and replaced the fork oil, springs and spacers using a kit from a forum member. The fork oil looked almost as if it had never been changed!! Had to wrestle slightly it one of them but other than that went fairly smoothly.
Took the opportunity it give bits a clean and coat of paint.

Whilst I had the front wheel off I decided to clean up the discs.

The front wheel will be coming off again as it needs new tyres and will be replacing the bearings.

Decided to do the engine next week as got my sister and her little'en coming over the weekend and though prob not the best time to have the engine in the lounge!!

As for the rear brake thats had new seals and is now painted, just waiting on a boot seal as the one I got sent had a hole in!!

[stamford]

How I miss working on engines in the kitchen! I once carried a slant four Vauxhall engine through my house in bits to clean and rebuild. I had no garage, no conservatory or side access, so that was done in the dining room

[Jay-ZS+]

Originally Posted by stamford

How I miss working on engines in the kitchen! I once carried a slant four Vauxhall engine through my house in bits to clean and rebuild. I had no garage, no conservatory or side access, so that was done in the dining room

lol I live in an upstairs flat so will be lugging it up the stairs. Must make sure its fully drained before hand! Cant wait to get a house with a garage.

[stamford]

Then the garage will fill up with useless crap! You'll see

[Jay-ZS+]

Originally Posted by stamford

Then the garage will fill up with useless crap! You'll see

I dont doubt that for a second!

[Jay-ZS+]

Well decided to make a start on removing the engine, Had bought the socket to remove the locking bolts, although it didnt take long to find out that a 14mm allen key was needed to remove an adjuster that held it in on one side. Managed to find a 14mm bolt and a couple of matching nuts so locked the nuts together and stuck the head of the bolt in where the allen key should have gone. Lucky it did the trick so work could continue.

Withing 20mins the engine was out, got a mate to lend a hand but to be honest reckoned it wouldnt be too tricky single handed. The engine must weigh 40-50kg so was easy enough to lower once all the bolts had been removed.

Once it was out started stripping it down to try and reduce the amount of oil in the flat

Rocker covers off
Heads off.......Umm look at those water ways! lovely!
Removed the cams
Ive got a feeling it may be a replacement engine as there are some marks similar to scrappie marks. Also it seem remarkably tidy for a 22yr old year old bike, that has been stood around for the last few years.

Carried it upstairs to the flat without dripping oil on the carpet which was a bonus.
Will clean the water ways and lap the valves, measure shims and replace all the gaskets.

[lawrence-zs180]

looks like its coming on dude

[Jay-ZS+]

So having got the engine upstairs into the flat the girlfriend then said she wanted it out as soon as possible, understandibly so!

With that in mind I pressed on and opened it up then decided to ordered a valve spring compressor and a couple of gaskets for the oil pump, starter, thermostat and waterpump that werent included in a 'full' engine gasket set. In the mean time, I reassembled the engine to spray it whilst the old gaskets were in place just in case the paint effected them at all. Got a few coats of gloss black on it which instantly smartened it up.

Once the spring compressor turned up it allowed me to strip the heads and start to clean up the valves.
Got a wire wheel in a cordless to clean up the valves. Did the faces by sticking a socket in the head the placing the valve stem in place, bit risky as could damage the head but seemed to work well. As Ritchy suggested got some tar remover on the head itself and a stiff nylon brush to clean as much of the carbon deposits off.


Went to lap the valves in but the lapping tool Id bought was too big for the tiny exhaust valves so decided to take a lazy option and fit the valve and use the cordless on the stem of the valve and lap them in using the drill!

Once Id refitted the valves with springs and new stem seals, I could refit the heads with new gaskets and then assemble the cams and measure the shim clearances all of which need replacing.


Gave it a coat of gloss black. The themostat full of crud, although put it in a boiling pan and it still works

So now im just waiting on new shims and a few gaskets then it can go back in the frame and it should run better than it was before it was taken out. Its the first engine that Ive stripped and rebuild without someone who knows whats going on and so far its gone well. Although will have my fingers cross when I fired it up!!

[peterzs]

Looking good Jay, bet you cant wait to get it running.

[Jay-ZS+]

Little bit more progress, Got the shims all fitted so that now all the valve springs are withing the required torrelences.

Although before fitting the engine I decided to remove the swing arm and clean up the frame as would be easier without the weight of the engine involved. Would also make rebuilding the rear end easier.

I was amazed at how much crud there was around the rear sprocket and along the swingarm!! Once seperated and after alot of cleaning I dried it of and filled the swingarm with expanding foam as its a hollow structure and has a reputation for filling up with road dirt. Gave the rear shock a clean up, they arent servicable as the damper is filled with nitrogen and this prevents the spring being removed. So just got any rust off it and gave it some colour. Fitted the new rear disc and sprocket.

Then set too putting the engine in, who said that a haynes manual is useless!!
Front brakes on

Loom in place, still needs some tweaking. Found some gremlins when I stripped it down to check it over. One of which was this, now Im no electro mechanic but that isnt how its meant to be!

That has all now be repaired and fitted the koso digital speedo, although not fully wired up yet. Should be pretty trick when done!

As it stands today:

New tyres turned up today, got some super soft bridgestone BT090's which wont last more than 3500 miles but should give plenty of grip for when Im confident hanging off it!

Took the exhaust to get the pipes all polished up so they will be all shiny and like new!

Lastly anyone got any tips of cleaning carpets? One reason why its not a good idea to spray inside!! Think I better do ours before your next flat inspection!!