A Newbies Adventures in Maintenanceland!

I went to take some pics of my tank and covers, but my buddy (the guy who own the house where my bike is at) wasn't home, so I couldn't get in his house to take the pics. All my paint and paintables are inside as well, so I couldn't really do too much in that vein. My propane tank ran out as well, so I could only last in there for a half an hour. I did manage to do some polishing and took some pics. I cleaned out the "KAWASAKI" logos with alcohol and filled them in with nail polish. Plummen said to use sharpies, and that woulf have been easy, but I wanted that enamel glossy look. I dropped the polish into the letters, and it filled the leter in on it's own, so I didn't really need to do much painting, it was just a matter of "dripping between the lines" as it were.






There are a couple spots on the clutch cover in particular where I got some polish outside the letter, I will now clean it off the smooth polished top with a razorblade. I am not sure if originally the 1N2345 part had a black background, but I filled it in as well, and I think it looks good, and hope it will last!

I went to put on my nice and polished clutch cover on, so when I put the clutch back together I broke another bolt (One of the bolts that hold the springs)...I had the bolt remover from when I broke a bolt in the head so I got it out no problems. I went to the Hardware store and found a perfect replacement for the bolt and thought I might as well replace all 6 of the bolts to keep it balanced. Is it OK that I use the shiney zinc plated bolts from the hardware store instead of those black bolts that are were in there originally? The Zinc ones are steel too right, so they are strong enough I assume.

Once I get my shims in I will get started on some chassis maintenance, so I will start posting more again.

9am53 wrote:

I went to put on my nice and polished clutch cover on, so when I put the clutch back together I broke another bolt (One of the bolts that hold the springs)...I had the bolt remover from when I broke a bolt in the head so I got it out no problems. I went to the Hardware store and found a perfect replacement for the bolt and thought I might as well replace all 6 of the bolts to keep it balanced. Is it OK that I use the shiney zinc plated bolts from the hardware store instead of those black bolts that are were in there originally? The Zinc ones are steel too right, so they are strong enough I assume.

Once I get my shims in I will get started on some chassis maintenance, so I will start posting more again.

Earlier model large fours used 78~95 in-lbs torque on the clutch spring bolts -- inch-pounds. If not already done, would double-check FSM for the particular bike at hand to assure applying correct torque to the clutch spring bolts.

Am unaware of the specific oem bolt specs, but don't think the zinc plate would do any harm (although the bolts aren't in a rust-prone environment).

Good Luck!

yeah, it's 76 inch pounds I think, I am going to get another torque wrench...I used a zinc bolt in my head too, buying and shipping the OEM bolts would cost me at least 10 bucks to canada and take a couple weeks, I like 1.70$ today at the hardware store better

Man stop breakin' dem bolts :laugh:

Your OK to use those bolts. No problems, they'll hold just fine.

I would go stainless if you can find them for anything on the outside.

All the covers on your bike need only have the bolts snugged really. Just enough to prevent a leak, and it doesnt take much really. 90 inch-pounds or so...

Good luck!

Don't hardware stores up there have SS or grade 8 bolts?

Same time, sooner or later your going to bust one you can't get out.... Cheap bastard, spend the $10....

And it's INCH Pounds for christ sakes.... Lay off the muscle on the torque wrench.... :laugh:

Old Man Rock wrote:

Don't hardware stores up there have SS or grade 8 bolts?

Same time, sooner or later your going to bust one you can't get out.... Cheap bastard, spend the $10....

And it's INCH Pounds for christ sakes.... Lay off the muscle on the torque wrench.... :laugh:

grade 8 for inch pounds?......a tad bit of overkill? ..:woohoo:

10 bucks aint the main thing, the time to ship is the worst part. It's the middle of January and just today I got 6 shims in the mail so I can (hopefully) finish the motor and move on. I still have a lot of work to do on the bike and if I shipped everything up here to canada (which takes usually between a week or 2) I would be missing some of the early riding in april/may. I expect Mr. Saunders' Neighborhood will be getting at least 3 more rounds of orders from me before the winter is done, assuming Z1E gets it here fast (which they usually do) I have at least 3 weeks of downtime, if anything is not in stock that time goes up.

I still want to clean up and grease wheel bearings, paint my rims, rebuild brake calipers, install new ss lines with my new zx10 master cylinder, remove those twenty pound aluminum footpeg holders and install (figure out) rearsets, possibly put on new sprockets, finish paint, clean up electrical, perform the WGCM, errrrr, I mean the OMRCM find a new headlight, make a custom brakelight for my newly to be installed ducktail, and track down some rear turn signals...damn, that sucks. I have a feeling my newly built ice-hut won't be seeing too much of me this winter...

p.s. is it a good idea to blue-loctite every bolt I put in that I don't intend on removing anytime soon?

"a tad bit of overkill"...
Not the way he torques bolts... :blink: :huh: :dry: :laugh:

Old Man Rock wrote:

"a tad bit of overkill"...
Not the way he torques bolts... :blink: :huh: :dry: :laugh:

Hey now, Women usually like how I tighten bolts!

Not to deflect blame, but could the fact that my motor is in a cold garage (as in by the time I am turning wrenches it is up to maybe around the freezing mark after an hour of heating) have something to do with my bolts breaking? Not too many more bolts to tighten so I have to find another way of messing things up! lol

9am53 wrote:

...
p.s. is it a good idea to blue-loctite every bolt I put in that I don't intend on removing anytime soon?

Imo, "anti-sieze" is sometimes a better choice.

Good Luck!

I went to put the new bolts into my clutch pressure plate only to realize that the washers seem to be much smaller than the threads on the bolts, so I can;t take the washers off the bolts, or put the washer on the broken bolt onto my new bolt. Should I just go buy new washers that are close to the right size? or is there a special way to get them apart?

EDIT: Never mind, I drilled out the hole on the one offending washer and just kept the old ones in there. Worked out good, I now have the clutch cover and it looks good. I also started adjusting my valves, all are good, exhaust are 0.08-0.1, and my intake are all going to be 0.05-0.08, although I may have to go buy one shim from the shop because one valve is being frustrating.