Kawasaki ZZR600 progress thread

Good progress! I'm about to use some cable ties to hold bits in place on mine today :D. I'm adding in a PDM60 I've had sitting in the garage about about 7 years.

Do keep us apprised of 3D printy stuff. I'm trying to engage my brain enough to look into tougher materials again. My i3 Mk2 is 10 years old now, but still going strong on PLA and PETG.

Oh yes, fasteners! If you want non-corroding things I highly recommend avoiding <insert Donald Trump pronouncing China> direct, and go for some proper stainless steel stuff where there's at least the idea of an alloy being what they say it is. Even on the pin that held the rear brake pads in on my old K1300 I swapped from BMW's horribly corroding one to a stainless steel (Shaw Stainless, but they don't do general stuff) and it made changing pads so much easier with no seizing!
 
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Cheers! I ordered this yesterday:

www.ebay.co.uk

Kawasaki ZZR600 ZX600 1990-2004 stainless steel fairing bolts rubber well nuts | eBay UK

Nose cone fairing. Front left & right side fairing. Rear left & right side fairing. Front mudguard fairing / fender. High quality stainless steel fairing bolts, washers & well nuts kit. Stainless steel bolts and washers (as seen in the picture) to fit -.
www.ebay.co.uk

We'll see how "stainless" it actually is when it arrives but it can't be worse than gutter bolts :D

As for 3D printing, I need to start repairing the fairings first, ordered some acrylic powder yesterday too and will grab some acetone to fix up all the little cracks and whatnot. I've got some PLA, PLA+ and PETG in stock so will use those first and see how it goes.

Loving this little project, I can't believe it took me so long to get something to fiddle with.
 
Diddums said:
Cheers! I ordered this yesterday:

www.ebay.co.uk

Kawasaki ZZR600 ZX600 1990-2004 stainless steel fairing bolts rubber well nuts | eBay UK

Nose cone fairing. Front left & right side fairing. Rear left & right side fairing. Front mudguard fairing / fender. High quality stainless steel fairing bolts, washers & well nuts kit. Stainless steel bolts and washers (as seen in the picture) to fit -.
www.ebay.co.uk

We'll see how "stainless" it actually is when it arrives but it can't be worse than gutter bolts :D

As for 3D printing, I need to start repairing the fairings first, ordered some acrylic powder yesterday too and will grab some acetone to fix up all the little cracks and whatnot. I've got some PLA, PLA+ and PETG in stock so will use those first and see how it goes.

Loving this little project, I can't believe it took me so long to get something to fiddle with.
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Good quality kit from those guys, I had the set on my blackbird and have used a couple of other random fittings on other bikes
 
tom_e said:
Good quality kit from those guys, I had the set on my blackbird and have used a couple of other random fittings on other bikes
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Impressed doesn't quite cut it, I wasn't expecting to get each set of screws in their own little marked up bag, this is bloody fantastic!

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Will likely be stripping the carbs down and doing the valves this weekend, weather permitting. Saturday's pretty booked up but Sunday I should have some time to play :D
 
Diddums said:
Impressed doesn't quite cut it, I wasn't expecting to get each set of screws in their own little marked up bag, this is bloody fantastic!

GgHfQPY.png


Will likely be stripping the carbs down and doing the valves this weekend, weather permitting. Saturday's pretty booked up but Sunday I should have some time to play :D
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Yep they're so much better than a lot of the really expensive places.

For the blackbird they even recreated the completely custom heads on the bolts so it was like for like, whereas probolt were charging 3x the amount and you just got standard pan head bolts.
 
Didn't have much time today but had to do something! Started stripping the carbs and gave them a good clean in an ultrasonic cleaner leant to me by @bloodiedathame

Before stripping and checking fit in the cleaner:

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Bowls removed, one of the float pins was loose AF which is probably why the oil is full of petrol. You can see it on the left in this photo:

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After 20 mins in the cleaner. I still need to go over them with a brush to clean the muck off the outside, I left it there to see just how well this ultrasonic cleaner works. The answer is terribly for muck, but spectacularly for the tiny stuff:

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Carb rebuilt kit should be arriving on Monday, new float pins and seals and stuff.


A few observations was that there were more non-standard screws holding things together, just proving even more that this was owned by someone who maintained it on a whatever-we-have-lying-in-the-shed budget. The ultrasonic cleaner is a game changer. I'll likely order my own fairly soon.


I also ordered a ton of fluids, literally everything. Following @Scuzi's advice I ordered some proper motorcycle oil as well as brake fluid, fork oil, coolant, engine flush, the lot. I'll be using the Castrol GTX for the engine flush, then replacing it with the proper stuff. I also ordered some acrylic powder for repairing the plastics, that'll be another new thing to learn.

Also, for the first time ever I lowballed someone on Ebay and they agreed. Centre stand with bolts and spring, which will make the chain/sprockets/brakes a lot easier to work on. That'll arrive soon too.

Not entirely sure what to work on tomorrow, but I'll have a decent amount of time so should be fun either way :)
 
You’re /We’re going to need to check your piston rings if you’ve got petrol in oil. My limited carb knowledge would suggest that a float that doesn’t move properly either means that carb floods or it doesn’t get enough fuel. When the float rises there’s a needle that plugs where the fuel is drawn in, essentially to stop the chamber filling up more.
 
bloodiedathame said:
You’re /We’re going to need to check your piston rings if you’ve got petrol in oil. My limited carb knowledge would suggest that a float that doesn’t move properly either means that carb floods or it doesn’t get enough fuel. When the float rises there’s a needle that plugs where the fuel is drawn in, essentially to stop the chamber filling up more.
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From my limited research, the poorly tightened float resulted in the cylinders filling with fuel. Then a couple of years standing still means that the petrol will slowly seep past the piston rings and in to the oil.

Of course a compression test is required, but from a mechanical point of view it might actually not be as bad as initially thought.

Which is Diddums speak for "best start learning how to rebuild the bottom end of an engine" :p
 
My van suffered from it, ended up figuring out that the vaporised fuel was condensing in the intake manifold, then the spark simply can’t ignite it as a liquid, so ran like **** and dumped what it didn’t burn down the sides of the pistons.

I hope you’ll be ok with bottom end, if the fuel has perished seals, and oil and water are getting into places they shouldn’t, that’ll be a pain.
 
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Had a ZZR600 for 2 years back in the day. Did let me down on the A1 at about 80mph when engine block failed and dumped the oil over rear tyre. When cleaned up there was a hole in the block.

Apart from that it was pretty reliable. Not as nimble as cbr600 but quicker in a straight line, genuinely good for 150mph. Even today that wasn't to be sneezed at.
 
Lunar_Fox said:
Had a ZZR600 for 2 years back in the day. Did let me down on the A1 at about 80mph when engine block failed and dumped the oil over rear tyre. When cleaned up there was a hole in the block.

Apart from that it was pretty reliable. Not as nimble as cbr600 but quicker in a straight line, genuinely good for 150mph. Even today that wasn't to be sneezed at.
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This made me laugh in a "it was great... It tried to kill me but ignoring that it was" way :D
 
Good progress. Do you have an air compressor yet? Genuinely my most used tool when working on older bikes. Everything gets a blast.
 
tom_e said:
This made me laugh in a "it was great... It tried to kill me but ignoring that it was" way :D
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It was fine in the end, was fishtailing for about 1/2 mile and left a load of oil on the road and massive smoke screen but managed to pull over OK.

I also was left stranded on M11, after a service the bloody garage forgot to wire the fuel level sensor back in. I was thinking, wow getting great mileage here only foe it run out of petrol on the motorway. And no reserve tap. Had to wait nearly 4 hours for the AA. I told them that i had run out of petrol, but they insisted on waiting for a van with a trailer as they don't fix bikes roadside and could only take me to a garage. Of course the guy turns up (not in AA van), says i am out of fuel, tops it up (double the pump price) and starts first time. That was over 20 years ago.
 
haaammit said:
Carbs are looking better! Don't forget to chemically clean all the tiny little passageways as well - it'll really help
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Whatcha mean chemically clean?

They're going to get another sesh today, however focussed more on the outside with a brush. Then another 10 mins in the cleaner, they they should be ready for reassembly when the rebuild kit arrives, hopefully tomorrow.
 
Proper deep clean today. I reckon it's lost a few kilos in road grime and muck:

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How about this for a quality repair:

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As the rear brake is completely non-functional, I'm going to need to sort that too. There's fluid in the reservoir, the lever moves, but absolutely zero resistance :rolleyes:

That said, I think this caliper has seen better days:

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Checked the tyres, the front is a Maxis from 2015. The rear is an Avon, no idea of the date, no date stamped on it. Which is frustrating because it pretty much looks brand new. So I'm gonna hafta spend £lol on a rear tyre that might not be needed just to be on the safe side.
 
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Complete rebuild of the master cylinders and callipers required there. Might even be worth getting new pistons in the calliper if they’ve corroded bad enough. Wire brush on a drill will have them looking great again. Clean with a little patina. Chefs kiss.
 
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