Who can resist a non runner? The Orson Welles project (1984) Gpz1100 1984

Hi, i had the same trouble on a 750 turbo i was restoring, after test lighting various wires and bypassing to see if things worked it turned out to be the relay also,  if you are careful you can release the metal retaining tags on the relay cover and separate , the contacts on one side of the relay were green with oxidisation, careful cleaning makes the item usable again if not too far gone. Hope this helps.

You guys were perfectly right.

I took and other look at the relay and on the outside it still looks fine since I gave it a good clean over the other week.


I opened  the relay up and the contacts inside did look alright too, no visible corrosion.
 


I ran a 800 grit paper between the contacts and assembled it back together again and run all the check that are in the FSM and it passed with flying colors.

Hooked the relay back up and got ready to run all the checks for when the relay is installed, but as soon as I turned the ignition on the pump came to life and squirted whatever fuel that was in it.

So I put back all the crumbling remains of the old fuel lines and the crap jubilee clamps that the PO has fitted, chased fuel leaks for a while, bleed the lines and gave the starter a go.
Instantly she came to life and ran without any worrying noises from the valves, cam chain or other parts of the engine.
Crisp throttle response even though she was cold.Even though I can nail exactly what the problem was, I guess we can blame it on bad conductivity.

I call that a success and I guess I can save my new Bosch relay for a rainy day.
So I guess the 800 USD we paid for her was money well spent.

Now we have to make up our mind, she needs a full restoration, complete paint job and new exhaust.
But shall we keep her stock or go for a light restromod with 17’ wheels, new fork and bigger brakes?
One thing is sure, we are not planning to go hay wire with the engine and the DFI stays.

/Anders 

So the jury has returned and the verdict has been made, it will be a light Restomod.
Sturdy Fork, 17’ Wheels, Big brakes, a superbike handlebar and the things that come with that it will be.

So trying to learn from my previous build, I have decided to try to stick with safe cards.
I had good a experience using the Zephyr 1100 fork as it sports 43mm legs, accommodates 310 mm discs, 60mm brake caliper mounts and has the notch for the speedo drive.

I went on a shopping spree on E-bay, but only the fork made it here for the weekend. 


Guess I was lucky last time I bought one and that was really nice, this time it was ruff and the stanchion will probably have to be replaced, except for that it was ok 



I was a bit surprised when I found out that the steering stem was not the same on the ZX1100A2 and the ZR1100.


So ok, just need to press out the stem from the lover yokes.
Right! On the ZX1100A the lover yoke is fixated with a spring dowel pin, tried all the tricks in my book trying to pull it out, but ended up resorting to drill the pin out. Spring steel is bloody hard and a mess to drill.


Thought I got the spring dowel out, but when I was trying to pressing it would not “pop-out”. So I resorted to uber violence and it finally gave in.


Unfortunately all that pressing had mushroomed the stem and it had to go up in the lathe to be touched up so the top yoke would fit.


Then pressing then ZX stem into the ZR lover yoke and we were on the roll again.


With that the new fork is fitted and the steering lock will actually work this time, but I don’t think I will fit the dowel pin.



Hopefully the wheels and more bits will show up shortly. 
//Anders 

its gonna be aweome! I love those 3 spoke wheels - ZR7? Looks like you got some cool gixxers back there. pics?

Tks Doc.

I will not be that ZXR400 wheel that is on the pic as the offset is wrong on that rim, It was just for show. But I do have an ZR-7 3.5’ rim that looks the same on the way, the ZR-7 rim lines up perfectly in the Zephyr 1100 Fork and gives the possibility to run the original speedo drive.

There is some nice bikes and some barn finds in the background of the picture, unfortunately no Kawasaki’s, there is Stefan’s GSX-R1100 build on the lift in the background, but also a nice Katana 1100 and a Harris CB900 (barnfind) and some other bikes at different stages of their build.

//A 

So now it’s time to try to fit the ZZR1100C swing arm.

The Gpz1100A2 frame is 260mm over the pivot, the swing arm is 252mm over the pivot and the swing bolt is 18mm in diameter. The missing 8mm is taken up the indented spacer and the swing bolt.

The ZZR1100C swing arm is 256mm over the pivot, 262mm over the pivot tube inc the spacer and the swing bolt is 20mm in diameter so some shaving of the swing arm is necessary.

I took 2mm of each side of the swing arm using a good old file, much like Allen Millyard and then refitted the seals.

 



Now the spacer on the right side also had to sacrifice 2mm to flush with the swing arm seal.



Even the pivot tube that now is protruding a little bit too much on the left side also has to take a beating in the lathe. I was I bit reluctant to try to shortening it in our lathe as the pivot tube was too big for the head stock and the pivot tubes are usually hard as hell and a bitch to turn in the lathe. But I had to give it a try even though it protruded in a scary way. Low and behold it was not bad and it didn’t judder even though I was cutting with inserts made of chineseium.



Then the swing arm can now be wiggled in to the frame and I could hang it up on the original swing bolt.
Looking at it, I guess I can just as well make a new swing bolt from a centerless axle instead of making a sleeve to make up the missing 2mm on the swing bolt.

With the Swing arm in place, I tried out the ZR-7 rear wheel. It’s not a perfect fit. It might be because I fitted a hanging brake caliper holder, as I am planning to use a brake caliper from a ZXR400/750. So spacer will need to be fabricated but first I need to center up the wheel in the frame and make sure that the chain will line up.
But before that can be figured out, the new swing bolt has to be fitted to make sure that the swing arm is fixated.





Except for that, the GSX-R600 K1 front brake caliper also showed up in the mail, that’s a given as I know that they works on the Zephyr 1100 forks. I just need to source two brake discs and turn out the top-hat spacers on the lathe in order to handle the M10-M8 caliper bolts and disc spacing situation.



Next up is the suspension linkage and figure out what shock and dog bones to use. I have got these from a GSX-R 600 wonder if they will work?



/Anders

DoctoRot was asking for pix of the Gixxer looming in the background of my pictures, sure it hasn’t with my build to do but don’t we all love pictures.
So it’s my workshop buddy Stefan’s .
Originally a GSX-R 750 -86 with a Bandit 1158 engine with GSX-R 750 88 head, Mikuni 38mm Flatsides and a 14Point7 datalogger placed under the seat.
Stefan is just about to button it up and I am looking forward to hear it run for the first time soon.











That was more Suzuki than my thread can take, so now let's get back to our usual content. 

//A

Now back to our usual broadcasts 

Started with whipping out the left side spacer for the front wheel on our trusty old Blomqvist lathe.



Works as intended and the wheel aligned beautifully even though I can’t for my life remember what bike I took it from, speedo accuracy will be interesting.




Next up I pulled out the 20mm centerless axle that I had ordered, here with the original 18mm swing bolt for reference.



It fitted the pivot sleeve like a charm, maybe just a little bit to good, guess I will have to shave of a few 1/100 mm if I am to zinc plate it.



But when I tried to put it through the headstock of the lathe that is supposed to be 20mm I run in to trouble. It’s not 20mm, more like 19,85 so my plan to turn one of the ends down and thread it to M16x1,5 went out the window. Guess I have to pay Erik a visit and use his lathe as it has a wider headstock, bummer.

Fitted the swing arm back on and Suzuki Stefan dug up an old Gixxer shock from is endless stash of Suzuki parts.



Guess I have to turn my attention to the Gixxer dog bones I found last weekend and try to figure out how long they should be in order to get a correct ride height.

Hope that Larriken can help me out here and chime in the measurement he is working with on his build. 

/Anders  

So with the trusty old Blomquist to small for the job I headed up to Erik to take advantage of his Taiwanese made lathe. Don’t you ever back talk Chinese products, this lathe is a piece of art.Metric scales, minimal back latch and a throat that can take a swing axle.
Erik who is a trained machinist will not let me even get close to his mistress, so I just had to stand by and watch.
In no time Erik turned down the axle and cut a M16x1.5 thread, forced me to cut the axle with a hacksaw and then finished up the cut surfaces.



Now it looks mighty fine, even though we would have liked a harder axle to work with, but it will do the job.



And this is how it will go together.



Then test fitted the axle on the bike without the swing arm and it was a nice fit. But when I tried to fit the swing arm and put the axle in it would not work. Now with a 3mm thicker axle it nudges the swing arm some mm forward until it hits the frame, just enough so the axle will not go through the frame.

//Anders

So the frame was now in the way, busting the frame or bending the axle was not an option!

But as the saying goes, when things doesn’t fit revert to old methods.
Brought old the old file and went the Millyard route, marked up where the swing arm hit the frame, and as the swing arm outer tube has some good +5mm of goods I went down.



Took of a good 2,5mm at the thickest point on both sides.



Then it fits and thats how Clearance came to be, if someone ever wondered.




That’s when I realized that there was something wrong with the ZR-7 rear wheel and the ZXR rear brake caliper, they just didn’t really like each other. . . . . . .
//Anders

So I thought it would be a great idea to take both the front and rear wheel from a ZR-7 as I know that the ZR-7 front wheel fit like a charm in the Zephyr 1100 front fork. That way I would also get a 5’ rear wheel compared to the 4.5’ ZXR400 rear wheel I used on the Green Kwack.

Little did I know, more than that I have an fetish for suspended rear brake calipers with the torque arm anchored to the frame.




Ok, so if you want a suspended rear caliper there is no mix and match. The spacer that holds the caliper on to the rear wheel axle has to poke in to the rear wheel. Otherwise it looks like this:



I thought that the caliper could live together with the ZR-7, but that meant that the oil seals would rub against each other.

So now I have yet one more hose real made in Japan and a second ZXR400 rear wheel and that solved everything, of course I will have to remake the spacers, but that what our old Blomqvist lathe is for.

This is what the rear set up looks like




and it fits like a charm. 



On that note I ended the day by ordered all new bearings, needle bearings and seals for the wheels and swing arm, so I hope that the family will work up their appetite for oat meal. 

//A

Everything has an end except a wiener that has two.

After hanging out with the Katana team for the last five years, the lease on the workshop was terminated by the landlord, as the entire building will be turned in to a bakery. Luckily I have been able to get a demolition contract for a workshop that is going to be demolished, I don’t know for how long I can hope to be there but until next summer would be great.

It’s not all gloom as I had 55 Km to drive to the old workshop and the new is less than 5 Km from where I live and I will have >300m² for just 100USD/month.

Sad side is that I will have to part with a lot of good tools and machines, like the trusty old Blomqvist (Southbend/Mildford) Lathe.

So on dec 28th I moved the loot and started to set up an old polishing room aprox 30m² as the new shop.



With all this space I guess I can continue to let the stable to grow J.

A few days before when I was cleaning up the new place I took a trip to go visit Mats (old suspension-Yoda in RR circles) that just this summer finalized his version of a Restro-modded GPZ1100 Unitrack.
After seeing Pictures of Mats build, Bobby and I realized that we need to revise our chosen paint scheme .  .  .  . Stockholm is not big enough for two metallic green Gpz1100A’s.
  



Mats had told me that he had some DFI parts to spear and I quickly offered a bottle of pure malt for the parts. Unfortunately it took until now before we could do the exchange as Mats is often away on the Moto GP circus. Time really flies when you get together with a soul mate with the genuine interest for the old eighties AMA style Superbikes.

I will see if I get a chance to introduce you guys to some of Mats really beautiful builds.

That day Mats had this old mixed-parts build of a Gpz11ooB1 and a Z1000J on the lift, as the gearbox is giving him headaches.



Not only are the bikes a joy to look at, there is also some really neat wall art that decorates his workshop.




/A