Z1R BUILD

[John H]

While in SoCal for the holidays I picked up the 78 Z1R exhaust that was in storage. Considering it's age it's in pretty good condition. Most of the wear has come from handling. I spent the day cleaning and buffing out as many of the scratches as possible. Exhaust pipes 1 and 4 are welded to the collector so this was the most difficult to buff. Next will be buffing out the muffler.

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[John H]

Well, this wasn't suppose to take a year to complete. What started out as a cleaning job turned into a complete rebuild. The only difference now is a nice chrome exhaust system instead of the old Yoshimura that was on when i bought the bike. Next will be oil and gas so hope all goes well

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[John H]

I have delayed the valve cover problem long enough. The cover had been poorly chrome plated and the finish had deteriorated such that it required being painted. After sanding/filing away any loose chrome I decided to powder coat it instead. The chrome on the 4 exposed ends was good so masked off to give the original look.

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The decal for the front fender finally showed up. Outline tape was placed for a reference to help line up the four pieces. As I started removing the backing paper it separated leaving a thin film stuck to the decal.
Cautiously with a pen knife and some water I tried removing the paper. Most came of but along with it the adhesive also came off. I had a conversation with the supplier who apologized and has sent out another set. Hopefully no more problems.

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[Lotus54]

The cam cover with black and chrome ends looks great. I will have to keep that in mind.

Have you started it yet?

[John H]

I found a spot of oil under the output shaft so pulled the sprocket, then the gearbox cover and found the thin paper gasket had a tear in it.

[John H]

I may have mentioned before that the fuel tank had a lot of rust in it. I filled it with a vinegar solution and a handfulf of small square nuts. Rocked it around for several minutes then left it sit for a while........ actually I left it for over a week during the Christmas holidays . On emptying the vinegar it looked worse than before I had added the solution. Well, after watching several youtube videos I went for it. I mixed up 5 gallons of distilled water and a cup of Arm&Hammer laundry booster soap which is bicarbonate of soda, and when dc current via an anode and a cathode are connected it activates a current, drawing rust to the anode.

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After about 30 minutes I withdrew the anode and this was what came out. It took several 30 minute cycles before the anode came out with just a small amount of rust. I used the pressure washer to flush it out and dry it before adding a gallon of 2 stroke gas for a final rinse. It's finally nice and clean.

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[Lotus54]

I like that- will have to try it out.

I’ve used Evaporust with pretty good results, then treated with Caswell (after thorough cleaning etc).
I have not gotten too much progress on projects lately- well, some on modern OSSA, forks on two bikes and cleaning out the house I grew up in.

[John H]

Yep, I've used Evaporust before and it works well. I wanted to try the bicarbonate of soda as I have watched videos of the process on youtube and it does work, without harming the paint.
Before installing the fuel level sensor and petcock I had to make a new gasket, then install the boot "cover" for the sensor. Ironically, this boot is a catcher for any fuel that may leak from the sensor. Anyway, it was very hard and doubtful I could ever get it back in place without cracking the hardened rubber. So, I tried the formula of 1 part wintergreen oil to 3 parts rubbing alcohol and soaked the part for about a half hour. It softened amazingly and re-installed with no problem. The hole that the pen is poking out of is where a drain line connects. I'm relieved this all worked out because this part is no longer available.

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Fuel gauge boot.JPG (228.35 KiB) Viewed 39487 times

[John H]

This gas tank has always been difficult to install. When routing the harness from the front to the back per the drawing in the Z1R owners handbook it places the harness along side the left coil. Well, the 1980 harness is quite a bit larger than the 78 due to several added required features, like an emergency backup lighting system. Also the 1980 coils are longer and I'm not sure if they were mounted different on an 80 frame. One option was to modify the coil bracket so it would set inward to a point where it almost touches the right hand coil. A template of the underside on the tank shows where the obstruction was. The harness is not rubbing the tank now. Don't forget, this project is a 78 frame and motor while every other piece is 1980. I'ts a puzzle.

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[Lotus54]

Great idea making a template. I should have done that when fitting the Accel coils to my sei.