ZL900 Houston Craigslist

[texas-ss-tornado]

This ZL900 is now being parted out, send me a PM and I will respond back with prices and shipping! Thanks!

[zlMark]

I'll bet he's tired of phone calls! Nice score! Hope you save it

[texas-ss-tornado]

Just woke up and now I'm headed off to work! Just unloaded her and snapped a few photos, will know pretty soon whether it's a keeper or a parter, but ya'll will be the first ones to know!!

http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o236/83GS1100E_Tornado/ZL900_Houston/001.jpg
http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o236/83GS1100E_Tornado/ZL900_Houston/002.jpg
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http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o236/83GS1100E_Tornado/ZL900_Houston/005.jpg
http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o236/83GS1100E_Tornado/ZL900_Houston/006.jpg
http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o236/83GS1100E_Tornado/ZL900_Houston/007.jpg
http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o236/83GS1100E_Tornado/ZL900_Houston/008.jpg
http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o236/83GS1100E_Tornado/ZL900_Houston/009.jpg
http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o236/83GS1100E_Tornado/ZL900_Houston/010.jpg
http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o236/83GS1100E_Tornado/ZL900_Houston/011.jpg

[markus56]

One heck of a buy John!! There's some serious profit to be made on that one for sure but don't part it...........too complete for that!! Good Luck!!:thumbsup:

[golddrakul]

And you probably don't even feel guilty!!

Nice find!!

[texas-ss-tornado]

Well, worse case scenario, I have a parts bike with a good motor, but I have never done a motor swap before, don't know if I have it in me! How much work is it REALLY?

[markus56]

Have a look in the video section and you'll see how far we had to tear mine down at Marks' place to get that motor installed and that will give you some idea!!

[zlMark]

Load that sucker up and bring it to ohio.. Time for another zl motor swap!

[texas-ss-tornado]

Load that sucker up and bring it to ohio.. Time for another zl motor swap!

Where at in Ohio? Actually, I'm heading that direction in about 2 weeks, taking our yearly vacation in Northern Kentucky, but I generally take a couple days to visit relatives in the Canton, Ohio area too. Wouldn't hurt me one bit to load up both bikes and pull them with the new Silverado!!!!

[DSBeav]

Nice looking bike for three times the price. Good job!

It is probably something real easy to fix... if not selling off the tires and air box covers will cover what you have into it.


Good luck!

[paulfun]

The motor swap is not as hard as it looks!

You could swap one out over a weekend by yourself if your handy with tools. The more you tear off before actually pulling the motor the easyer it actually is.


nice find on that one hope you decide to save it.

[furchin]

First dibs on the supertrapps if you end up parting it out

[Prostreet]

Beat me to the dib, Martin! You don;t need those! You already have a set!! Seriously, though, Texas can unbolt that front cafe fairing and sell it for 1/2 of what he paid for that whole bike! Great find!

[zlMark]

Akron,, just 30 min north of Canton

[Wstar425]

Beat me to the dib, Martin! You don;t need those! You already have a set!! Seriously, though, Texas can unbolt that front cafe fairing and sell it for 1/2 of what he paid for that whole bike! Great find!

You beat me to it, I was going for that fairing. I want to be the one to smash it to pieces, that thing is about as bad as it gets!!!!! But, if you can get real money for it, more power to ya! Great find, I just have to hate you a little more each day! You Da Man! :headbang: I think I am going to start collecting antique Amish buggys, there are more of those around here than motorcycles by far.

[Bacchus]

and thats what you call a....SCORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

as far as the motor swap, its a pain but do-able. I wouldnt cout that motor out just yet, you know how people are .... probably needs a carb rebuild.

[texas-ss-tornado]

Yea, I haven't counted it out yet, but I figure this guy HAD to think something serious was wrong with it for him to give it away. I haven't had time to do anything with it, got home last night and had a tornado warning in my neck of the woods, spent about an hour in the "safe room" of our house, and our power was out for like 4 hours! All I know is that when you hit the starter but, it just clanks, like the motor is stuck, but who knows. I will tear into this weekend and see what happens!!!!!

[Prostreet]

Safe room! i love that. In my house thats called the trouble room. Every time I'm in there for more than 20 minutes, they know I'm either installing my "secret purchase" or ripping into something that will cost money! Yea, I guess it can be called the safe room....until your finished. Thats when all the questions come up that I've carefully anticipated answers for in advance!:laughing7:

[golddrakul]

Hmm - picked up a ZL900 last year making a similar sound; had thrown a rod thru the front of the case! Definitely made a clank when cranking, and you couldn't really see the hole because it was behind the radiator.

[texas-ss-tornado]

Hmm - picked up a ZL900 last year making a similar sound; had thrown a rod thru the front of the case! Definitely made a clank when cranking, and you couldn't really see the hole because it was behind the radiator.

It was leaking oil though, right? This bike is dry as a bone, even after sitting in the garage overnight, I don't see any liquids under it. He did mention something about possibly being low on oil, said he put 2 quarts in it after they got back home. I don't know, I'm really chomping at the bit to start working on it, life keeps getting in the way though!!!

[furchin]

Beat me to the dib, Martin! You don;t need those! You already have a set!! Seriously, though, Texas can unbolt that front cafe fairing and sell it for 1/2 of what he paid for that whole bike! Great find!
Sorry Bro, guess my typing fingers were just too fast for ya:laughing7:

[texas-ss-tornado]

OK, just got home and it's finally raining, so I pushed it outside to start the troubleshooting. Took the cover off the left side so I could get a socket on the crank, and she seems to spin with out stopping, good sign. I can hold the socket on there and hit the starter button, and feel it tug, but will not spin? I can put my hand on the starter and feel it bump when I hit the starter button, it's just not turning it over. Bad starter maybe? Doesn't explain why it quit going down the road like he said, but that's all I have to go on so far, obviously, this guy wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed to begin with? Any ideas? I've got a few starters on my other parts bikes, I'm assuming ZL1000 and ZL900 are the same, what do you guys think I should try next?

[texas-ss-tornado]

Well, here's something interesting. At some point during our conversation, he told me it had a new battery? However, I've had it on a charger for about 30 minutes now, and on my charger, the numbers on the display keep dropping until it is fully charged? The numbers on this one have not moved in 30 minutes? Also, I tried to take the battery cover off, and one of the screws is rusted in place, so it obviously hasn't been off in quite some time??? WTF? The headlight looks bright, the flashers came on and didn't blink "slowly", so I hadn't even thought about it being just a dead battery. Surely it couldn't be that simple. I've got the WD40 working on the screw that holds the battery cover on, trying not to bust up the side cover, since it's in decent shape, my next step is to put a known good battery in it and go from there. If it turns out to be THAT simple, OMG!! I'll be buying a lottery ticket tonight, that's for sure!!!

[texas-ss-tornado]

Well, took the tank off, took a couple plugs out. By turning the big nut under the left hand engine cover, I don't see EITHER piston moving up or down? Am I doing something wrong here? Might just be a blown up motor, eh?????

[texas-ss-tornado]

Just to be sure my eyesight wasn't bad, I put a long screwdriver down the spark plug hole and turned the crank. NO MOVEMENT WHATSOEVER!!!! Busted crank or busted cam chain??? Rats! Oh well, now I will start contemplating the motor swap, or maybe parting it out. Haven't decided yet. Oh well, win some, lose some.

[Bacchus]

as long as there insnt a hole in the cases it can be fixed.

I might have the parts you will need. I got a blowed up motor here... blew a rod and destroyed upper and lower case halves, also killed one piston and one connecting rod otherwise have all othere motor internals with the exception of a starter clutch which will be used on one of the bikes being built at this time.

[texas-ss-tornado]

Well, I've got a complete motor from a parts bike that was crashed with 10K miles on it about 15 years ago, never been inside it though, but I know it's not locked up. I figured since the bike was crashed with low mileage, it's probably still in fine shape, unless something crazy happened at the moment of impact, which I highly doubt. The forks were bent in pretty badly, but was probably only a 20-30 mph collision, not some high speed crash and burn! I just need to decide if I'm game for a motor swap or not, still thinking about it..........

[golddrakul]

Go for the motor swap, the bike is too nice to part out. As for no leaks, the one I bought with the hole in the case wasn't leaking either, the hole was high enough to not drip and the splatter from the failure had apparently been cleaned up. If you really don't feel up to the swap, throw the bike and motor into the truck and take it north; there are probably a couple of us stupid enough to go for it! :) I'm in Chicago, and would be interested if we could work out a price; I'd even be willing to meet up in northern Ky.

[texas-ss-tornado]

Well, after some serious soul searching, I've decided to go ahead and attempt the motor swap. I have a few good mechanic friends that have offered to help, and it will also help me get another parts bike out of my way in the garage, it has been taking up room for too long, once I pull the motor out of that frame I can ditch it and make room for more bikes! Probably won't start on it for a few weeks, but rest assured, I will be posting here for advice! I'm going to save this puppy, it would just be a shame to part it out!!!!

[paulfun]

Glad to hear you gonna save it!
The swap really isnt that hard just a lot of taking things off to get down to it.

[golddrakul]

Awesome!! You've made the right decision, just remember, it's all only nuts and bolts!! :)

[texas-ss-tornado]

Well, I hate to say this, but I'm leaning towards parting this thing out. I had a good friend that's a mechanic for a living that had committed to help with the engine swap, but he just found out a few weeks ago his wife has cancer, and he's been off of work ever since. We talked and he said it would probably be months before he could get to it. I just don't have a complete motor swap in me, I've already robbed the carbs off it for my 900 Ninja, and I was thinking about robbing the Dyna ignition and coils for my other ZL900. Stole the petcock too, and a few other little things. I hope you guys don't beat my down too much for parting it out, but I think that's the route I'm taking. Send me PM's with what you want and I'll give you prices, I only want Paypal payments, I'll give you guys first dibbs before putting stuff on eBay. Don't wait too long though, I know a few of those things are in high demand, like the Supertrapps, I'll go back and look through thread to see who had first dibbs, but please don't take a week to think about it. The other thing is, I really need the room. Right now, I have 12 bikes in my 2 car garage, and I have passed up a few deals lately, simply because I don't have anywhere to put them!!! I will also put an ad in the parts section, but figured I would announce the decision here, since most of you will recognize the thread title! Be lenient on me, I have SAVED a ton of bikes over the past 3 or 4 years, alot more than I have parted out!!!!!!

[texas-ss-tornado]

First dibs on the supertrapps if you end up parting it out

Furchin, sent you a PM. Got lots of people interested in the Trapps, going to give you first dibbs, but I need to hear from you soon! Thanks!!!!!

[texas-ss-tornado]

Paid for so far:

Gas tank and cap
2 red side covers
chrome side covers
seat
aluminum ignition cover
throttle cables
fender
tail piece
knee guards and brackets

Furchin' has dibbs on the Supertrapps, talked to him today and he definitely wants them. Several other requests have been made, will update the list as parts are paid for.