Project: 1990 ZR550 Zephyr (yes, another one)

Today I bought a project bike, a 1990 ZR550 Zephyr. Yes, that makes this my second bike of the same model and year, they’re only a few months apart on the manufacturing date. 

Some of you might remember that I have been keen on getting a second bike, and wanted it to be a project because I genuinely enjoy the project, restoration, painting, and modding processes. I could not believe it when I found this one for sale on Seattle Craig’s List for only $100. And it just so happened that I had a friend in Seattle on a work trip for the day, so he was able to pick it up for me. 

I don’t entirely know yet what the plan will be. As far as I can tell, it’s all there. The whole bike, albeit lots of parts in bins, and not the prettiest. But since it’s titled, I’m thinking a restoration with some tasteful mods is in order. 

First thing is gonna be some base level cleaning, reassembly, and trying to get it running. I’m sure I’ll have lots of questions along the way. 

 

Bargin. 2 weeks ago bought a stored 1991 ZR550B2 to use as a summer ride to work. I will go through the bike from front to back before use. It will complement my owned from new 1980 Z500 sort of first of the line and last of the line.
Will start a new thread with the project. Look for forward to your posting.

Rob B

Started digging into my new project today. Here’s some of the highlights, and questions to start out with. 

- The tank is rusty and bondo’d on the outside, but looks to be pretty clean inside. I already have a spare tank I can use on the bike while I clean and repaint the tank it came with. 
- The engine has been painted black, which looks decent, but the edges of the fins are red, which looks weird. I’ll see if I can just scrape/sand the red off the fins. 
- The carbs came off the bike in a bin, and fitted with pod filters. Thankfully the original air box was in another bin, so I’ll be putting that all back on. 
- The handlebars are bent. Included in the bins was two clutch levers, one of which was also bent, so presumably the bike was dropped at some point. No other signs of damage so far. 
- Many bolts have been replaced with black anodized alloy bolts. I’m dubious about this as I worry about corrosion, and seizing. There was additional black and red alloy fasteners in the bins. Open to opinions on this. 
- Front turn signals are goners. Rear turn signals are in better shape than the ones on my other Zephyr. 
- Tires are old, but show very little signs of wear or cracking. 
- Paint on the plastic bodywork parts is not too bad, but not good enough for me. I’ll definitely be repainting everything. 
- Exhaust is wrapped and painted black, and looks like the black is flaking off the chrome. Not worrying about that right now. 
- At present I have only one key, and it only works in one gas cap that is not the original gas cap. It does appear to be a genuine Kawasaki key and gas cap, just not from this bike. As such, I don’t have any key that actually works in the bike. 

Now one of the bigger things is that it showed up with no bolts holding the cam cover in place. It’s literally just resting on top. My guess is the PO had trouble finding all the appropriate alloy bolts for it.  Besides the obvious fact I’d likely need to check the cam chain timing before bolting it down, I wondered if there might be more. So I messaged the PO and asked about what all had been done with the engine. This was their reply:

“The engine was fully dismantled. I had to replace the base gasket. I think I reassembled everything but the cam/valves. Id check all of that, definitely do the timing (if the spacers are even in). Theres a cardboard box in one of the bins with parts for that. It sat for 10 years, so could be rust in the cylinders (I oiled them, so hopefully not) but probably worth a check.” 

So that gives me something to start with. I have done valves on a bike before, but not a shim type like this. Any advice welcome. 

I’m also wondering if there is an easy way to tell if the bike has any oil in it. The PO’s information above doesn’t say whether or not they actually filled it with oil post-rebuild or not. I suppose I could ask. But is there an easy way to figure this out in my own? I suppose I could just try and drain it, and if a bunch of oil comes out I just put it back in (assuming it looks clean). As far as I know there’s no dip stick. Again, any advice welcome. 

There's an oil level sight glass on the clutch cover. You need to check the oil level while on the centerstand.

I had an “oh yeah, duh” moment when I looked at the bike this morning and saw the sight glass, haha. It’s doesn’t have a center stand, but I can put it upright with my paddock stands. 

Stereordinary wrote:

I had an “oh yeah, duh” moment when I looked at the bike this morning and saw the sight glass, haha. It’s doesn’t have a center stand, but I can put it upright with my paddock stands. 

It won't be level on a paddock stand so will read higher than it is (given the position of the sight glass) 

Then I guess I’ll just throw a leg over and hold it upright myself, and ask a friend look at the sight glass for me. 

As previously mentioned, I am currently without a working key for this bike. Before I explore other options, I'm hoping I can find the key code and have a new one cut from that. So far I have the gas cap, and the seat lock removed from the bike, but I can't find any numbers stamped into either of them. I think maybe they are deeper within, but inaccessible without the key. I've also got some of the components on the front of the bike removed so that I can access the ignition switch, but there are no numbers I can see on that either. I could remove the ignition switch, but that involves drilling the security bolts out, and replacing them with a pin-in-torx bolt or some other kind of security bolt. 

So does anyone know if there is another way to find the code, or should just go ahead and whip out the drill?

You have only to drill away the heads of the security bolts to remove the ignition lock.
A good car body shop should have special drills to remove dot welds.

 
 

I found the key code on the seat lock, it was just in a place I didn’t think to check before, and having better lighting (the sun actually came out in the Pacific Northwest today!) helped. Got a key ordered up. 

Since I was already spending money I don’t have, I also picked up a new cam cover, some ThreeBond 1211, and a cam cover gasket. The cam cover is euro-spec from a KZ/GPZ 550 so it has  “DOHC” on it, which I just think looks cool. 

Does anybody know what kind of glue to use on this plastic? I don’t think it’s ABS, though I could be mistaken. I probably won’t use these gauges permanently, so even just a basic repair that gets me through some test miles would be enough. 

 

Project update!

Overall we're in pretty good shape here, and I'm still optimistic about it. It's taking every bit of my patience as an endless tinkerer not to tear it all down, clean it up, and repaint everything before putting it back together, but I want to follow the tried and true method of "see if it runs first" before I do any of that. With that as my ethos, I've now got the throttle and clutch cables reinstalled, did some cleaning, and I'm currently trying to cram the carbs back in. The rubbers on the engine side are stiff as all hell, and giving me a hard time. I might grab my girlfriend's hair dryer tomorrow while she's at work to soften them.

Anyway, here's a photo.