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- Joined
- Sep 3, 2006
- Messages
- 225
- Reaction score
- 0
- Location
- Wichita Falls, TX
- First Name
- Willum or Bill
Well, after about six months of on and off work, I have my RZ about where I want it.
I bought it new in 1984 and promptly tore it up in a lowside crash in '86. It's been parked in the garden shed for all these years.
I won't bore you with all the details of getting it back on the road. It was the usual work of rebuilding and cleaning the brake pistons/seals, cleaning the bong-like resin out of the carbs and replacing the junk CDI and PV controller with a Zeeltronics unit. Cleaned and lubed all the bearings and races everywhere, replaced the ones that needed it. Otherwise the engine and seals were in good shape.
I had to straighten the bent sub frame too. My brother and I used torches to heat it up where it was bent and used tire irons in the rear of the frame tubes to bend it straight. Low tech, to be sure, but it worked just fine.
Bent subframe. Tweaked to the right a bit.
Misc. crud and closeup of the subframe.
25 years of dust and crud. Not too bad really... On the outside.
Various stages of repair and bodywork...
White Primer.
Final paint and stripes.
I'm pretty much done with it now. I didn't replace the OEM quarter fairing since the mount and headlight was bent or destroyed in the crash. The original instruments were trashed as well. I used a tach off an old Yamaha Dual Sport, and wired the neutral light that was built into the tach. Aftermarket headlight with a hole drilled for the blue high beam indicator bulb. Still looking for an OEM tail light lenses. FPP pipes. Aftermarket turn indicators. Clubman bars.
I bought it new in 1984 and promptly tore it up in a lowside crash in '86. It's been parked in the garden shed for all these years.
I won't bore you with all the details of getting it back on the road. It was the usual work of rebuilding and cleaning the brake pistons/seals, cleaning the bong-like resin out of the carbs and replacing the junk CDI and PV controller with a Zeeltronics unit. Cleaned and lubed all the bearings and races everywhere, replaced the ones that needed it. Otherwise the engine and seals were in good shape.
I had to straighten the bent sub frame too. My brother and I used torches to heat it up where it was bent and used tire irons in the rear of the frame tubes to bend it straight. Low tech, to be sure, but it worked just fine.
Bent subframe. Tweaked to the right a bit.
Misc. crud and closeup of the subframe.
25 years of dust and crud. Not too bad really... On the outside.
Various stages of repair and bodywork...
White Primer.
Final paint and stripes.
I'm pretty much done with it now. I didn't replace the OEM quarter fairing since the mount and headlight was bent or destroyed in the crash. The original instruments were trashed as well. I used a tach off an old Yamaha Dual Sport, and wired the neutral light that was built into the tach. Aftermarket headlight with a hole drilled for the blue high beam indicator bulb. Still looking for an OEM tail light lenses. FPP pipes. Aftermarket turn indicators. Clubman bars.
Where did you get that mirror? I'd like something similar.
Man, I was devastated!!
Ebay's been my friend and slowly but surely I'm getting it back in shape one step at a time.
Well what can I say, that's exactly what happened!
I might add that tanks are very hard to win on ebay. They're getting rarer by the year. I finally won one but it cost me an arm and a leg. Here's a funny pic. Since the bike ran fine but had no usable tank I stuffed an old plastic lawnmower tank between the frame tubes, filled it with premix and I was gone.
but it worked.
......
Wouldn't the mfg's recommended rotation actually be forcing water UNDER the tire???
