what did you wrench on today??

[GregT]

Pulled down a GSXR1000 motor today. It's one I built for a roadrace sidecar outfit about a year ago, it's done a pretty busy season on tracks around NZ and gone pretty well. The owner wanted to go to a practise day at a local track so pulled the sidecar out of his garage and did an oil change in preparation. Noticed the water was down a little so topped it up...and suddenly it needed a lot more water...and the oil was going cloudy....
He drained everything and did an engine change ready for the practise day...and handed the motor to me, expecting it to need a head gasket.

Ha - our winter has been colder than he thought...it's popped all the frost plugs in the head. The one at the camchain end wasn't visible so I stripped a little more off and found it sitting on the crank sprocket - undamaged...He's a lucky boy. When he told me what had happened, I asked where he had it stored and was it possible it had frozen. He said no, good garage, not much above sea level. But of course we're not allowed antifreeze in race motors...

But the whole motor is full of vanilla milkshake...a day at least pressure washing everything before reassembly. At least all the bearings appear fine.

This should teach him to drain it between meetings.

[GregT]

More work on the XS... Cleaning, buffing the painted bits, restoring the chrome bits, wire wheeling the rust, lowered the forks, refreshed the brakes (no rebuild necessary looks like the PO did that already)+new pads then painted the calipers, Cleaned and polished the engine, new plugs for the hell of it... Next is painting the diff and changing the oil of the diff... Needs a front tire too and the fuse box is... Well not anymore. Runs like a champ though!
Grimly, IT's really not that big of a bike compared to the C14 or even the FZ1. Weighs in at 520lbs which if memory serves me right is 50ish lbs less then a GS750 and only 10lbs more then my FZ1 which I consider a light bike. I removed a couple of chrome bits. The exhaust looks to be a big weighed item as well... So cutting that down (pipes are rotting from the inside on this one too) will lighten the bike up. Sure the shaft drive is heavy but this thing with it's lower stance seems pretty nimble under me and is no way top heavy. Pick up is pretty decent too, get's into illegal speeds pretty quick. I'd say it's on par with my buddies modified Kawasaki SR650. The claimed 70hp is probably true it picks up no problem. I'll tune it once it meets my daily riding requirements in a few more weeks.

I did a lot of work on one here for a pre 82 race bike. Brembo calipers, cams, ported, VM35's, braced frame. Goes quite well too.
The heads show Toyota influence - very similar porting to the 2V dohc Toyotas of the period. Inlet ports too big, exhausts too small....

Nice bikes though.

[Jedz123]

I did a lot of work on one here for a pre 82 race bike. Brembo calipers, cams, ported, VM35's, braced frame. Goes quite well too.
The heads show Toyota influence - very similar porting to the 2V dohc Toyotas of the period. Inlet ports too big, exhausts too small....

Nice bikes though.

Greg I'd be very interested in seeing your build! I would like the bike to be a bit of a fire breather. It's snappy but would like it to be quick. I hear the brakes are more then adequate if paired with modern master cylinders and stainless lines. They actually are pretty decent as is... Their design seems to create an odd wear to the pads (a diagonal wear across the pad).

Please shoot me a link or PM.

Thanks for you share!

[GregT]

Greg I'd be very interested in seeing your build! I would like the bike to be a bit of a fire breather. It's snappy but would like it to be quick. I hear the brakes are more then adequate if paired with modern master cylinders and stainless lines. They actually are pretty decent as is... Their design seems to create an odd wear to the pads (a diagonal wear across the pad).

Please shoot me a link or PM.

Thanks for you share!

The owner has done a long thread about building and racing it on one of the triple forums...The details of which one I've lost.
I'll ask him for the link.
I seldom keep pics of racebikes I've only partially done. The owner did the final buildup.

Greg

[Grimly]

Mostly rumor and conjecture, they burn up pistons randomly!!
Most of the triple experts out there will tell you it's mostly false I have the same jets in all three the middle is just a touch warmer 15deg or so. The big thing is carb sync AND carb balance you have to do both and you have to do it VERY accurately or you will get one "pulling" and running hot. If one is running hot there is something wrong, air leak, timing, carb balance or sync. There finicky for sure! Makes tuning my Gs seem easy.

Well, I can only tell you what I saw in person - three people I knew with triples had middle piston seizures and disintegration. Turned out it was actually quite common, but they were hooligan bikes in their day and got thrashed all day long (for a very short day) - until they went 'cronk' 'bang', at the end. Modern synthetic oils will make a huge difference, of course.

[Joe H]

Well, I can only tell you what I saw in person - three people I knew with triples had middle piston seizures and disintegration. Turned out it was actually quite common, but they were hooligan bikes in their day and got thrashed all day long (for a very short day) - until they went 'cronk' 'bang', at the end. Modern synthetic oils will make a huge difference, of course.

Ya it is where the problems will show up quickly, but the lowly middle cylinder gets a bad rap for taking on the problems of the other two. In general a well tuned triple will not show big middle cylinder temp differences but they will when there is a problem. If you own a triple 2 stroke it needs a bit of attention and most guys monitor the cylinder temp periodically or regularly. When there is a rise in any cylinder temp it means theres a problem and all the over jetting and over boring that has been done to the middle cylinder is only a bandaid. I too have been monitoring regularly and can say the difference so far no matter how hard I beat it is about 15 deg. Some guys show well under that. I have been told 50 deg difference is where the concern really starts to get big.
I have also believe if you own one of theses bikes prepare to rebuild top ends if you beat the snot out of it! Its not a matter of IF, but a matter of when it will happen?LOL And thank God for better oils. I don't plan to beat it to bad, Im already having some clutch issues and parts are hard to come by.

Tabs are hitting the cases inside when I pull the clutch in, they need to be filled down, the clutch pusher is showing odd wear and the bearing on the clutch hub is wiggling a bit


And just because I like showing it off;

[chuck hahn]

Got new points and put stock coils on the Goldwing. Took the aftermarket coils..that had 4 ceramic resistors... about 3 inches long each off. Set the static timing and shes really running top notch now. Its a process and not a destination with these old bikes...LOL.

[steve murdoch]

Pulled down a GSXR1000 motor today. It's one I built for a roadrace sidecar outfit about a year ago, it's done a pretty busy season on tracks around NZ and gone pretty well. The owner wanted to go to a practise day at a local track so pulled the sidecar out of his garage and did an oil change in preparation. Noticed the water was down a little so topped it up...and suddenly it needed a lot more water...and the oil was going cloudy....
He drained everything and did an engine change ready for the practise day...and handed the motor to me, expecting it to need a head gasket.

Ha - our winter has been colder than he thought...it's popped all the frost plugs in the head. The one at the camchain end wasn't visible so I stripped a little more off and found it sitting on the crank sprocket - undamaged...He's a lucky boy. When he told me what had happened, I asked where he had it stored and was it possible it had frozen. He said no, good garage, not much above sea level. But of course we're not allowed antifreeze in race motors...

But the whole motor is full of vanilla milkshake...a day at least pressure washing everything before reassembly. At least all the bearings appear fine.

This should teach him to drain it between meetings.

Are you allowed and/or recommend something like Water Wetter for a track bike?
I know a track day with a street bike is a different ballgame i was just wondering if you thought distilled water would be good enough.

[Charlie G]

That's a perky little beast! Nice....

[dorkburger]

Not quite ready to claim victory, but, I think the new clutch hub may have finally cured my engine rattle.

[GregT]

Are you allowed and/or recommend something like Water Wetter for a track bike?
I know a track day with a street bike is a different ballgame i was just wondering if you thought distilled water would be good enough.

Water wetter is legal I think. I've always just used tap water. Coolant must be non lubricating - so glycol is out.

I've heard today of a case of burst/frozen pipes in a house in Christchurch - downhill from me - it must be a much colder than usual winter here
as when i grew up in ChCh you never heard of burst pipes that close to sea level.

[Joe H]

Not quite ready to claim victory, but, I think the new clutch hub may have finally cured my engine rattle.

I chased a rattle for a long time when I first got my 1150, finally gave up rode it for a few years. Then I rebuilt the motor, the only part inside with any real bad wear was the clutch basket, lose as a goose and the splines on the inner hub were wore bad. Cured the rattle.
I am actually on my second new inner hub now, I had my rockers fail and in the issuing clean up I pulled the clutch basket and the inner was all sloppy again, maybe now that I'm a bit older this one will last.

[Joe H]

That's a perky little beast! Nice....

Good use of language! Its perky and Its little! Poor thing probably hates me 290 and 6'-3" ..I will be doing NO touring on this one, just mild flogging. The power bands on these are a hoot you better be hanging on when the tach moves to 6000 rpm and be ready to shift!

Just got done measuring the run out in the outer clutch hub, its at .017. Seems like a lot considering it drives the whole bike.
I have been told .020 to .040 is acceptable , I may still take the hub to the local machinist and see if he can make a new bushing for a tighter fit. The manual says any perceivable movement well .017 is very perceivable.

[Grimly]

Replaced the two blown tail / brake bulbs in the XJ and discovered there seems to be a vibe problem common to many XJs that causes tail light bulbs to blow. I suspect it's more prevalent on bikes that spend a lot of time on high-speed routes where the vibe-buzz band is dipped into a lot. The presence of bloody great bar-end weights sort of confirms there must be a slight annoyance from that, sufficient for the factory to have fitted them in the first place.
Done that, then had a look at the under-seat wiring nerve centre - it says a lot for the reliability of this bike that the PO had never had to take apart and clean any of the connections, but it's just as well I did today, as all of them were crusty and would, sooner or later, have caused me a roadside pita moment or hour.
The original toolkit was still there, too. That's unusual on a 23 year old bike.

And just because I like showing it off;

That is very nicely done. I can almost hear and smell it from here.

[cowboyup3371]

Added on a lighted license plate frame (turn signals and brake light) that I bought from www.radiantz.com. The wiring is still a bit of a mess as I didn't have enough connectors for the pigtails I had to create; ordered more from Cycle Recycle II and should be able to finish that up by Wednesday.



Video of the testing afterwards; the brake light is not on until I touch the handle yet the taillight is so bright that it looks like it.