A Tale of Two Zeds

That sucks, was it transported by a courier or did you collect yourself ?

wrote:

Got the cases, cam cover and sump for the Z1000A1 back from a local specialist who gave them a silver ceramic coating, very pleased with the results. The cylinder head couldn't be coated at the same time, as it was away at a local machine shop having its valve seats recut and getting a mild skim. 

I unwrapped the head to see if the colours matched with the cam cover, as then perhaps it didn't need an expensive ceramic coating too. It looked pretty good..

However when I unwrapped the cylinder head for the first time since it came back from the machine shop,  things weren't so good... they had somehow managed to break four of the fins. A pita as it took me months to find a head on Ebay which didn't have any broken fins. I think it can be repaired , not sure what's happened, but looks like its been dropped?  The machine shop has a good rep, and normally they work on classic Porches, Aston Martins etc .

  

that damage is seriously f....d up !

Dammit! 

Haven't told the machine shop yet, as waiting to get an idea of the cost to fix the issue. I now someone else who had the same problem recently, seems an apprentice dropped the head, but the boss paid for the repair no problem. Suspect the same thing happened with mine, but the apprentice didn't tell the boss, while the head was carefully wrapped in bubble wrap when I collected it, and I didn't unwrap it until yesterday. Lesson learned, should always check parts when I collect them.

wrote:

wrote:

However when I unwrapped the cylinder head for the first time since it came back from the machine shop,  things weren't so good... they had somehow managed to break four of the fins. A pita as it took me months to find a head on Ebay which didn't have any broken fins. I think it can be repaired , not sure what's happened, but looks like its been dropped?  The machine shop has a good rep, and normally they work on classic Porches, Aston Martins etc .

  

that damage is seriously f....d up !

Are you absolutely certain that the damage didn't occur during shipping?  I ask because it looks as though fins are broken off on the left front corner, as well as the rear corner.  This would imply that the head was dropped twice(!).  Hard to imagine this happening even if being handled by an apprentice.  Any sign of the broken pieces in the shipping box?  Did the shipping box show any signs of being dropped?  Just thinking out loud here....     And, those fins *might* be repairable.  I've seen a very good welder rebuild a fin on a J-head, back in the day.  Almost couldn't believe my eyes.

Mike

My guess the mashine shop wrap the head with the broken fins. If no fins where found in the wraping or shipping box, nobody else as the shop had broke off the fins!?!?

The longer you wait to talk to the shop owner the less chance he will step up and make it right.
Maybe the broken fins are under the work bench  where the last man to handle the head  left them  hoping it would be  forgotten
DD

A chat with the owner is in order. The fact that the broken fins are not in the box confirms that someone at the shop did the damage and tried to hide it. Any reputable business will try to make it right and figure out who is the responsible party.
I would have a hard time staying calm so I would have to bring my buddy to negotiate.

To be clear I took the head to the machine shop and collected it, both times the head was kept in a tough plastic box, carefully wrapped in foam and carboard, I have now emailed the owner with pics to see what he says. There are no signs of the broken fins in the packaging, so it was broken beforehand. 

The Kawasaki Mk2 has the yokes and forks from a ZRX1200, which has a cockpit fairing, and a rather big ugly bracket to mount it to the bike.My bike wont be having such fairing, so had to make a better, neater looking steel bracket to mount the headlight and indicators, using the mounts on the yokes.With that done, then had to make the 'ears' which project forward and mount the headlight, but the headlight is much wider than the bracket, so decided to make the ears from 50mm thick alloy.A test fit showed the back of these 'ears' look odd, as they aren't parallel with the stanchions.. more machining required. Then they will be shaped to more closely match the originals fitted to the MK2. A lot of work just to fit the headlight...,




Despite not yet having n engine, I think approx 90% of the wiring and electrical components can be fitted to the bike. Ordered a new rectifier, coils and M-Unit Blue. While the matching switchgear is on the way. Ditto a electronic tacho/speedo unit, I wanted to use an original set of clocks, but both are cable driven, while I need to use electronic versions. I can buy a replacement electric tacho, but couldn't find any equivalent electric speedo. There are a few ways around the problem, but for now, I'm taking the easy solution, by fitting a new multi function gauge. 




I wanted to avoid drilling anymore mounting holes than needed, so made an alloy adaptor plate to fit the M-Unit to an existing pair of captive nuts under the side panel..

Mounted the M-Unit without having to add anymore holes to the frame, will cut down the alloy mounting plate at some point, but for now leaving it, as may want to bolt something else to it, such as the horn.

Made a cardboard template for the rear part of the mudguard, then make it in 1.2mm stainless plate. Bit of a gap on either side, which I may need to address, but then again this bike wont be seeing rain if I can help it.

The headlight mount is coming along, though need to make the wide part of the alloy ears look better, not decided how yet..

Got the cylinder head back, with the broken fins repaired, looks good,.. now it needs to be coated to match the rest of the engine cases