Picture of my KZ650 so far.
I need to keep working at it until it’s done. However here it is at the moment.
Brakes and other jobs
I’m so close the end of this….
I’ve made a chunk of progress though it doesn’t all show. The main jobs left to do from last time was sorting the wheel placement and fitment. I then also need to fit the brake calipers.
1. Front axle
I had the axle machined down to the correct length. This meant I could finally test fit the wheel and get the correct spacings
2. Front axle spacers.
The local engineering shop also made up two more spacers for me, once I had worked out what size wheel spacers I needed. I got them to machine down the existing spacer as it was quicker for them. They then created the second one.
3. I picked up some new caliper bolts as the calipers didn’t come with any. This allowed me to fit the calipers and see if it would even work!
4. The original petcock was on it’s way out so I tried to find a suitable replacement. After much research it appeared a Suzuki GS450 one would work, so I ordered one. It turns out it will fit the tank perfectly, but you cannot get it the tank back on the bike! In then end I just put the petcock in with the tank in place. This creates future headaches when removing the tank, but it will have to do.
5. Disc spacers.
With the axle and wheel spacers in place I could finally work out what to do with the discs. As they were touching one side of the brake pads on each caliper. It was around 1.5mm out. I tried to find some suitable disc spacers, but couldn’t find any. In the end I just made my own. In the end they worked perfectly and didn’t take me too long to make.
6. Brake hoses
With the fitment of the brakes I could finally get the brake caliper hoses ordered. I went with some nice Venhill ones like I had used before.
7. Mudguard mounts
I’ve not finished this yet, but after various attempts I think I’ve got the design sorted. It uses some round 6mm aluminium, I bent it to shape around the rear tire to get the perfect bend. I tried to hammer out mountings, but found it far to hard to be perfect. So now I am using some little brackets that I’m waiting to arrive. The pics give you an idea where it’s heading.
8. Speed sensor
The final job I’ve done was to find a place to mount the new magnetic speed sensor. In the end I’ve used a longer cinch bolt on the bottom or the forks. On the extra end section I’ve mounted the Koso speed sensor using the p clip to get it in the perfect place, I then routed the cable using the brake hose as a path for neatness.
GSXR 600 Forks fitted
Well more forward progress towards the getting it back on the road. I had both the bottom yokes and front axle machined to fit the new GSXR 600 forks. They also made up a spacer to fit the larger axle hole in the forks.
I could then try my first test fit of the forks to see if they would work
I then tried to fit the brakes and wheel and hit a major issue. The brakes wouldn’t go on! After 10mins of panic I realised I got the forks on back to front! What a bloody idiot. Anyway I swap the forks round.
The axle is correct in the diameter, but too long, but the wheel fits in place and the axle works! I have taken it back to the machinist to get it down to the correct length.
I have a few more issues to now over come.
1. The original speed sensor will not fit so that has to go.
2. I will need axle spacers or the correct size to make sure the wheel stays in place.
3. Both front discs touch one side of the pads
These are relatively easy to over come.
1. The Koso DB-01R I have has a magnet sensor option which I can pick up locally tomorrow.
2. These will be hard to measure as the wheels are not identical either side, but once measured I can get some knocked up.
3. This is harder, my first reaction was to think about some washers behind the disc, but that seems like a terrible idea. So what I will do is make some spacers out of sheet alumnium that cover the whole of the contact patch. I’m waiting for the axle spacers and brake bolts to turn up before I start these. I’m thinking of something like the picture below.
I have also broken two things when putting everything back in place. I broke the starter button cable which is very annoying. I also found the mounting bracket for the Koso speedo was snapped off. I’ve managed to glue that back in place.
I should have the axle back later this week so I can get some more work done this weekend.
Old forks new Forks
Well as seems to be the case with this project. It’s been two steps forward one step backwards. I’m losing the will with it at the moment.
When last I did an update I was awaiting tools so that I could remove the front axle and therefore the front forks. I managed to do this in the end and took them into the garage to have the seals redone. However after discussing it with them, they noticed some rather bad pitting on the inside of the forks hidden from view. They recommended that they would need to be rechromed sometime soon. As a short term solution to get me on the road I asked them to replace the seals anyway and I would look at more long term solutions.
However they simply couldn’t get the forks to come apart, they tried everything they could including using a blow torch to heat them up. So we had to abandon them. I have to give the garage thumbs up as they must of spent hours on them, but didn’t charge me a single penny.
That gave me a big headache, I saw little point in spending a fortune on similar ZXR400 forks as they would also be nearly 20years old and need work soon. I headed to the web to see if I could find a suitable alternative option.
What I was hoping for was some forks of the same diameter as the ZXR400’s but newer and more modern. This proved to be fruitless. I could just do a whole front end swap, but I wanted to not spend a small fortune on this! Eventually I settled on some forks that I think will work, I had to do a ton of research and all kinds of bikes to find out what would be best. I even had to use a spreadsheet :sick:
The ZXR400 forks are the following dimensions
Length 745mm
Top Yoke Diameter 50mm
Bottom Yoke Diameter 52mm
Standard calipers
310mm Discs
The closest match I could find we GSXR 600 K6 forks, they match for everything apart from the brakes, bottom yoke, mudguard and axle….. Groan :sick:
Queue some expensive ebaying
Next I have to get the old forks back of the bike as I put them back on so I could use the ladder!
I then set about removing the yokes as well. I thought it would be a nightmare, but it wasn’t too bad
Next week I will be taking the axle in to be machined and a spacer created. As it’s a pretty close match. The yokes will be machined out from 52mm to 53mm. The light brackets will also need to be changed, but I’ve already sorted them out with some small rubber pieces to act as spacers.
I also had to find a new mudguard which was particular annoying as I’ve only just had this one made for me! I wanted something more similar to this bikes one
I managed to find a small triumph mudguard. I will need to make a custom mount for it
So there we go, another depressing update, but I can see some blue sky in the future at least now.
