The Free Z650F2

Cleaning up the cases before they can be welded... a horrible job..



Damage has been welded and now the cases need to be machined flat, and the holes drilled and tapped.  Not sure yet whether to kep the engine black, and have it all vapour blasted to alloy..

 

Cases now welded up and machined, next task is to remove the black finish, as the engine is going to be plain alloy. I spent hours with paint stripper and wire brushes, but wasn't happy with the results, so packed the whole lot in the car and took them to a local specialist who will case the cases a ceramic silver finish, similar to that done on my Z1000A1 engine.




Next the clutch basket showed some back lash, due to wear in the rubber bushes inside the basket. The rivets holding on its back plate were drilled out to access these bushes. A mod will be done to eliminate the back lash, by inserting 1mm thick tubes into the holes in which the bushes sit, this will lightly squeeze the bushes and so remove their loose fit.

  

A better clutch fix is to replace the rubber bumpers.  A guy on the KZ750 Turbo website sells them.  You might want to check my rebuild thread, for more details on the mod.

His mod details

 

Thanks for the info on the replacement clutch inserts, though my clutch basket is now repaired. Moving on to the electrics, with many changed components.. gauges, rear lamp, rectifier/regulator, switchgear and coils from a Honda Blackbird.. similar spec to Dyna coils. I decided to make my own wiring harness. I have used the M-Unit from Moto-Gadget before, but they are expensive, so I found another German company making a cheaper, simpler electronic control box, called the D-Box from Axel Joost. I'm in the middle of wiring up the bike now, using the D-Box and a new, modern Rectifier/regular in place of them separate OE components.







Testing, Testing..

I am planning to use a "D" box on my build from Axel Joost 

Testing of the wiring was going ok. until I hit a problem. The D-Box needs to be told a series of yes/no questions to program it. It is put into this programming mode, by turning on the ignition switch with the brake applied and the left indicator turned on. List of questions below.

However when I did this, everything was dead, no power to anything. If the the bike is turned on with just the brake or left indicator turned on, all is well, but with both then nothing. Very frustrating, as I need to tell the D-box that I'm using switches not momentary contact buttons etc. I haven't found anything online about this problem, so will have to write to the manufacturer in Germany if I cant find a solution soon.

They seem to reply to email quickly ?

I sent an email last night, Sunday, so hopefully they will reply soon.

The problem with the D-Box is solved, seems I downloaded the wrong version of the English instructions from their website, one small change is the way you go into the set up mode. I am impressed how quickly I got a response back from Axel over in Germany, excellent customer service.

I asked about them a few months ago and Scirocco (German member) spoke highly of them and their products 

I bought this Z650B last week, an import from the States, only done 12000 miles, but the sticker on the fork says New Jersey 1980.. so I assume its not been used for a long time.


By the end of the next day it looked like this. I have six to eight weeks to get it back on its wheels, otherwise I'll have no space for another bike when it returns from having work done elsewhere. The frame should be back from being powder coated in a week, so lots to