The Last Project

[85RZwade]

Mark, this is such a cool project! Exotic, over-the-top impractical and drenched in two-stroke history (mythology?)! Love it, and I hope I read it right that you elected to go with the round pipes, as I find them astronomically more aesthetically pleasing 

[Mgmark]

Yep I’ve pretty much decided on using the round pipes.
I’ve been doing small jobs. I had to lengthen the shifter 2” to fit my size 12 foot. Luckily I had another lever I could cut off longer and put the two together. Since they are hollow I tapped the inside for a threaded rod (cut off bolt) and screwed the two together. I’ll weld it whenever I take it off later.
I also had to lengthen the seat upholstery pan to fit this seat. The seat is a replica of the monoshock TZ seat but 3” longer. It was part of a set with a shorter than stock TZ250 tank on my old RD250 race bike. I ordered the fiberglass upholstery pan from airtech, then cut it and added a 3” section to match the seat length. I cut some dense foam to fit. Now I need some stretchy vinyl to cover the pan, then attach it to the seat after painting.

[mnein]

This project just makes me grin. Carry on.

[Mgmark]

Gas tank repair. I have three gas tanks with the bike. One is a twin shock tank with no shock tunnel so it is out. One is a monoshock tank with some nasty welded crash repair, no gas cap mount, and a huge hole where a quick fill receiver was. The third one is kinda lumpy from crash damage on the right side/corner, and the gas cap mount area is pushed in. Both mono tanks have had the back two inches cut off so they fit the frame where there is a cross member/seat mount. Luckily the cut off sections are with the bike stuff.
I think it is easier to move one small frame tube than to try and make the tank look right with the back end modified. So now that tube is moved back the 2” needed for the stock tank to fit properly.

I dropped off the tank to the welder and he attached the back piece, and did some repair where the right front corner was mashed in. He did it for me in two days and pressure checked it for leaks. I sat the tank out in the sun until it was too hot to handle and used a three jaw internal puller to pull the gas cap mount area back up. It’s about 95% ok now. The paint guy can make it look pretty.

There aren’t any original fuel taps or copies available anywhere, so I had to make an adapter plate to use a Pingel. I use quick disconnects also. I had to buy a new repop gas cap and latch parts.

[Mgmark]

It’s always something with these projects.
I hung the shiny new ebay radiator that came with the bike and discovered it is useless. All of the hose inlets and outlet are too small in diameter , there is no fitting for the thermostat bypass hose, and the mounts don’t line up because the upper tank hits the frame. Useless.
After a phone call to Bill Howarth in England I bought a very nice used original twin shock type radiator since that’s the type of mounts on the frame. He also stocks new formed rubber coolant lines for the 750. The other hoses can be made from straight heater hose, and the two upper hoses are automotive 90 degree curved heater hoses that I cut to fit the length.
So other than still needing a coolant temp gauge to plug the hole in the head that’s the cooling system finished. Except the upper mounts don’t line up to the frame because this rad hits too. The C&J frame tubes have a different curve behind the steering head from original Yamaha, so the top rad tank hits. I’ll have to look at that later.

[Mgmark]

 Time to look at the original ignition system and see if there are sparklers. I have three lower units but only one CDI box. I spun the back wheel and guess what -no spark. I checked the stator and it measures out ok, but the CDI box is bad. I can send it off to England to have it rebuilt, or buy a completely new system. I went with new. The Electrex World CDI system uses two dual output coils. It is basically twin 2-cylinder ignitions. Now I have sparks.

[Mgmark]

It lives! It started immediately on the rollers. I tried it first very briefly with no water just to make sure I had everything connected correctly, in case something would need to come apart again. Then I added water and tried it again. There are a couple of annoying small water leaks but otherwise everything works as it should. I ran it a second time to get some heat into it, just enough to move the temp gauge.

I need to tidy up the steering neck area. There is a lot going on up there and stuff is getting pinched before the steering lock. I’ll have to do some rearranging/re-routing. I think I decided on an 80s FZ600 fairing upper. I like the dual headlights, and that I can get a fairing, the mount, headlights, mirrors, etc fairly inexpensively. I have an LED tail light coming.

After I have the fairing figured out I can send all the body parts out to be painted. I’m thinking the RD400 French Blue. Then I’ll strip the bike back down so I can do something about the upper rad mounts that don’t line up, and I need to make the front engine mounts that weren’t with the bike when I bought it. Then take the frame to the welder and have him put some nice welds on my brackets that I just have tacked on the frame. Lots of small stuff still to do.

I couldn’t attach a video clip here so I had to use Flickr
https://flic.kr/p/2nU9XEa

[m in sc]

YES! awesome!




 

[Kawtriplefreak]

 
I second that.

[dgorms]

Mark, I've got body work from an 86-88 fz 400 in decent shape. Let me know if you're interested, I'll send you some pics.......................D

[Evans Ward]

Very cool Mark- sounds great! 

[85RZwade]

YES YES YES

[Mgmark]

FZ600 fairing looks like it will fit pretty well. The size and shape are good. I’ll have to make a new tach and temp gauge mount to work with the FZ fairing mount, and hopefully it all fits behind the headlights. I’ll convert the headlights to LED since I’m going to have to run a total loss lighting system.

[Mgmark]

I’m making an FZ to TZ fairing mount. I’m not going to cut the original 750 fairing/tach mount. I also have another TZ mount that uses a separate gauge mounting I can cut and adapt to the FZ mount. I’ll just have to make a gauge mount panel for the tach and temp gauges. It looks like I need to raise the tach as high as I can to make room so the handlebars don’t hit when turning. I also found some LED replacement bulbs for the H4 in there now.
I’m still looking for a windscreen and mirrors.

[Evans Ward]

The fairing choice looks great! You know, Shane’s Kaw KR250 has the FZ600 fairing on it.