Howdy! New 86 ZL600 owner. couple Q's

[Chrispyweld]

Now that I got it all broken apart all my white trashy instincts are telling me to hack the back off this thing at the shocks and drop a coffin/prism/frisco tank on top of that sexy straight backbone. A turned up bobtail fender, shorter rears shocks, and some chopper paint sample panels sounds about right. But probably not now.



Anyone have any info on the ninja front end of the same era? I see they are dual disc and have "dampeners" which I assume work like Ricor's? Light valves for pressure from below and harder from the top to ease nose dive on breaking and soften the rougher roads. How well do these work? I can grab a set for around $100 and the dual disc alone seems like a reasonable budget upgrade. I would have to change out front wheels to accommodate the dual discs but that should be doable as Cyclepsycho here in town has a warehouse of bikes and parts to pick through.

I also have a chance to get an 86 GPZ motor that has been freshly built with high comp. pistons, polished and ported heads and receipts to prove it. Built for a sand rail but immediately upgraded to a 1000cc motor for drag racing at the dunes in Florence. The only thing holding me back is the chain drive conversion. If I understand I either have to crack the case or swap out the swing arm and rear wheel. Not sure if i'm the reward is worth it. I might get a little more for a bike with receipts for a $1600 rebuild but I can't see it increasing the value that much. Maybe if I decide to keep it I will get it as a back up. The carbs, cam, head, and pistons are probably worth the $400 he's asking.

 

[Chrispyweld]

So got the new jets in the mail and the carb rebuild is done 38 pilots and 140 mains for the new pods, needles on the fourth groove and screws 2 turns out as a baseline and got it bench synched. New o-rings/seals throughout. Floats adjusted to 17mm have not checked fuel level yet. Will do that before the they get mounted and vacuum balanced. New screws throughout, nothing special just zinc button heads from the local hardware store.




Got the plumbing all hooked up and water tight refiled with fresh coolant, I will flush it again after a little road time. Rear break was seized up so I dropped the wheel and the shoes had disintegrated and the pedal was seized in the mount. Got new ones installed and the pedal removed and lubed. Had to hammer it out and reshape the splines with a file to get it all mounted back up.

Oil pan is remounted and oil/filter changed. Valves adjusted.

Compression jumped from 120-145 to 150-170 PSI. I have always been told to keep them within 20PSI of each other and this is right in there. Should I re adjust the valves or do y'all think I am good to go?











Got my rear tire in and the front is on its way. Went with Shinko 734 in the rear and 712 in the front. Probably going to try my hand at mounting these myself being tubeless. Looks easy enough.

To do list: Remount exhaust, got new gaskets from head to muffler.
Put a new end on the return cable for the throttle (broken when I got it) and lube cables.
Fire it up and fine tune the carbs.
Ride it and work on cosmetics.

Coming along nicely, should be done buying stuff, coming in at around $550 total so far. Not bad. Looking forward to riding it!

 

[Chrispyweld]

Another quick question. Since I have removed and reinstalled the plumbing I noticed my temp light comes on with the ignition on. I don't remember it doing that before, I have checked all the conectinosn at they seem good. Is that normal and I didn't notice before or is there a problem with my Coolant Nanny system?

 

[Chrispyweld]

Never mind.

 

[RLTherio]

Yes, you might want to readjust the valves, there might have been some carbon build up before and running it since might have knocked some off which would cause the valves to be off

 

[Chrispyweld]

Got it running for a minute! It will run with the choke on at around 4K rpm but not well with the choke off. I went up one size on the idle jet to 38 when I rebuilt them. I read a lot of people talking about ending up at 5 turns out to get it to run so figured I would up it and try to maximize threads engaged and spring tension. At three turns out it idled roughly/intermittently so I thought I would try to turn it in and see if I had over compensated on th jet size. After messing about for fifteen minutes with adjustment I figured my fat meathooks were making it harder than it had to be. I removed the carbs and turned them all in to 2 turns out and couldn't get it to fire. Removed them again to try it at 4.

I noticed a few drips coming out the overflow on the number one bowl while on the kickstand so I will be checking and adjusting the float levels again. Got some clear fuel line to check fuel level properly. I will get back on it next weekend.

Also after it ran for a minute I noticed that I have a small drip from the left head coolant line at the T-stat. The indention from that hose clamp is more noticeable than the other hoses. Looked around for a new one but they seem non existent. I swore i just saw a set somewhere online but couldn't find them again. Bought a used one of ebay that looks to be in better shape. For $20 it seems worth the shot.

I'm wondering if this was not the problem that led to the lower coolant pipe blowing. I figure if the coolant level was low enough to have a dry thermostat it may have never opened and the heat build up in the engine caused the pipe to blow. The paint on the valve cover looks like it was leaking for a while as it is stripped of paint directly below it.

 

[Chrispyweld]

So I noticed a little drip coming from the fuel channel at one union so I must have cut an O-ring during assembly. Removed the carbs, disassembled them, and cleaned them again for good measure focusing on the idle circuit.

I bought the cheap K&L rebuild kit and after just a couple adjustments the float bowl gaskets were stretched and oversized. I could not get them to seat properly until I cut them and made the end overlap. I have a very light leak on one still.

I ordered OEM gaskets from Murph's. (Thanks for the hook up guys!) I set the screws four turns out and hooked them up. It fired right up! Let it idle until the bowls emptied. I just had a funnel to the fuel rail so it only ran a minute or so. Still pretty happy to hear it running. Idled right around 1200 RPM pretty smoothly but lots of cam chain rattle. Got it up to around 6K RPM and the rattle went away. Super traps sound good.

I will wait until it is all tuned and see how the cams chain sounds. The $30 manual adjusters on eBay worth the price?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Red-Manual-...ash=item43fdd8b38e:g:1hcAAOSwjDZYmS5L&vxp=mtr

The new bowl seals and radiator hose should be hear this week. Other than those two bits the tank needs an Esprite Performance Rust Remover treatment. I'm sure the carbs will need some fine tuning and then a vacuums balance, but it's coming along nicely.

 

[87kawzl]

You may want to reset the oem tensioner, it's free and only takes 20 minutes. It has quieted mine significantly.

Glad you have the carbs sorted, hopefully you have a couple of gauges to sync them as it really makes a difference on the way it runs.

 

[kawboy]

What he said, try resetting the tensioner.

 

[Chrispyweld]

How do I reset it? The manual just talks about removal and install. I was going to re grease it. Is there more to it than that?

I have a set of four vacuums gauges for the sync.

 

[Chrispyweld]

Is this the procedure you were referring to?

 

[Drdeth]

I just did carb synch on mine and set the fuel screws, it definitely runs best at 3 turns out
And it doesn't hit 5 grand on the choke now either

 

[Chrispyweld]

Still needs some fine tuning but it's alive.

https://goo.gl/photos/BXuhDDYnm21i9kmc9​

 

[Chrispyweld]

Haven't synced them yet. I have to pull them off to put in the new gaskets, and reset the tensioner. I don't have throttle cables hooked up and the spring is not enough to close it so I had to give it a little shove to go back down, thus the initial hanging idle. I hoped to get away without a return cable as the one it came with was missing an end. The pull was broken at the elbow that enters the throttle body. I was going to build a new pull out of the two but either it is not a redundancy on this bike like others or the spring has weekend and the redundancy i needed. Ordered universal build your owns from Venhill.
https://www.amazon.com/Venhill-U01-4-150-BK-Universal-Motorcycle-Throttle/dp/B00O1C2IH6

 

[87kawzl]

Definitely let us know how those cables work out, momma kaw don't sell them for the big ZL's anymore and that's not a bad price at all.

 

[Chrispyweld]

I have used them before and they worked great. Just remember to solder the new ends with a pot and not directly heat the cable. I will post pics for sure.


The fan is working as well which is nice. Came on after running it for 5-10 minutes.

 

[Chrispyweld]

Well, it's dead.

Got the carb gaskets in, no leaks. Got the new coolant hose in, no leaks. Looked good to go.

Started it up this morning and it backfired hard and now will barley turn over. May have jumped a tooth on the cam? Blowing air out the carbs, one cylinder seems to be hanging up. Seems like the timing is off. Will have to wait to tear into it and see if there is any damage. Might just go pick up the rebuilt GPZ motor and figure out a chain conversion. Anyone know a swing arm that I can swap out to make it chain drive?

 

[Chrispyweld]

Picking up the rebuilt GPZ motor tomorrow. Trading it for a Ruger 10/22! May have to call this bike "Bullet" as it's leaving all my guns behind it. LOL!

 

[Chrispyweld]

Well got a chance to look at it a little more and I'm not sure what's going on.

Timing is right.
#3 pressure dropped to 120psi #2 is showing 210PSI and blowing oil out the cylinder with the plug out. Not seeing any water in the oil or vice versa. The guy with the motor flaked a half dozen times so not sure that is going to happen. I'm confused and deflated. Any insights?