Kawasaki Sportsbike Riders Club - Australia - Online Forum

Click photo for bigger photo...

Picked my '96 ZX9 motor up from the Patrick depo last night.
Got it from a very very VERY friendly wreckers in Tasmania (Tasmania Motorcycles & Wrekcers) who I can't recomend enough... for an ok price, much cheaper than any Syd wreckers.
Shipping was payed for by my employer:

Patrick Corporation, the Australia stevedore and multi-industry market dominator, invest in the future of Australia transport. Patrick Corporation.

Deserves a plug
The engine looks in sweet condition but I haven't had a good look yet.
I'm putting it in the bike tonight, so wish me luck.
It was running right before it left Tas (a friend checked it out for me) so I'm pretty confident.

*scopes the internet for a turbo and EFI hahaha*

With new clipons (had raised bars when I got it )


Old engine ready(?) to be fixed(?)


New engine ready to be cleaned(!!!)

wow! let us know how you go... and i thought adjusting your own chain was doing good!

Awsome man, and yes a turbo would rock!

Do you mind if I ask how much it was?

HemiDuty wrote:Awsome man, and yes a turbo would rock!

Do you mind if I ask how much it was?

Thanks guys, $2200 for the engine.
TAS has marginally lower prices than most things, shipping to Sydney would normaly have been around $300.

Quotes from 'mainland' Aus were $2500-$2900, dunno what Josh payed for his.

I was only joking about the turbo, hahaha.
That's when I'd buy a new bike and retire this one to the track.

JamesLaugesen wrote:With new clipons (had raised bars when I got it )

hey, what kind of raised bars were they? raised clipons or MX/flat bars?

i'm curious because i'm fairly keen to change the position on my ZX7 to something a little more friendly. my bike is naked and i was going to go the whole hack and chuck some MX bars on that i've got at home but i'm not so sure now that i've been riding it a while. i was thinking something like a raised set of clipons would be perfect, just got no idea where to source them

if they were raised clipons, and you do still have them, then i'm a very curious coconut

Cant wait to hear more about the transplant James...... keep up the good work

99coconuts wrote:

JamesLaugesen wrote:With new clipons (had raised bars when I got it )

hey, what kind of raised bars were they? raised clipons or MX/flat bars?

Thanks...

They're Z-bent clipon bars. So they use the standard clipon brackets and bend two 90 degrees so they're up about 5 or 6 cm higher.
They're not really comfort-orientated raised bars, they still keep basicly the same angle as normal. They're just for longitudely challenged people I think.

Here's a photo with the raised bars, I'm about 6 foot (Click for big one):

I'll take some photos of them tonight for you.

They have a cut-out to "hug" the ZXR's fork tube (the most annoying thing in the world), which is cut for a 52mm tube.
On ZXR's (And I imagine ZX7's too) you can swap the clipon brackets so they're upside down and angle the bars up instead of down.
This had also been done to my bike, which I suppose would make it more comfortable.

Cheers

Well done mate. let me know what your engineer is like. don't know about you, but i'm very nervous about all that. We'll definately have to meet up for a ride once our zxr's are complete. you never know they might hit it off and mount eachother KAWI style and make lots of little zxr's. Keep us updated with your project.

jpbikeboy wrote:Well done mate. let me know what your engineer is like. don't know about you, but i'm very nervous about all that. We'll definately have to meet up for a ride once our zxr's are complete. you never know they might hit it off and mount eachother KAWI style and make lots of little zxr's. Keep us updated with your project.

Will do mate. He's only 2 minutes from my house, so you could borrow my carbs if you need (and if it'd run) to avoid any hassle about the turbo.
I wonder if he'd get suss seenig the same bike with the same mod, haha.
We also need to pass the 93db noise test; I was going to get a baffel from Crash Test, but if you know of a slip on muffler or baffel I could borrow that'd be awesome

Definitely up for a ride, and a track day with you and Matt... maybe we could even get Brian out there with his crazy superbike, hahaha.

Dunno about the mating but clearly your bike would be the female; always running over 6psi and all.

JamesLaugesen wrote:

99coconuts wrote:

JamesLaugesen wrote:With new clipons (had raised bars when I got it )

hey, what kind of raised bars were they? raised clipons or MX/flat bars?

Thanks...

They're Z-bent clipon bars. So they use the standard clipon brackets and bend two 90 degrees so they're up about 5 or 6 cm higher.
They're not really comfort-orientated raised bars, they still keep basicly the same angle as normal. They're just for longitudely challenged people I think.

Here's a photo with the raised bars, I'm about 6 foot (Click for big one):

I'll take some photos of them tonight for you.

They have a cut-out to "hug" the ZXR's fork tube (the most annoying thing in the world), which is cut for a 52mm tube.
On ZXR's (And I imagine ZX7's too) you can swap the clipon brackets so they're upside down and angle the bars up instead of down.
This had also been done to my bike, which I suppose would make it more comfortable.

Cheers

5-6cm not a comfort change i would have thought you'd feel like your riding a cruiser or something with a change like that

if you have a closer photo of the things, that'd be awesome. i was considering trying to have something made up for mine similar to what your talking of there, i see no reason to change the whole bar/clamp when you can get away with just a new bar not sure on just turning them upside down tho, that'd make them feel a bit weird wouldn't it

anyways, good luck with the 9 thing, farkin wish i had the monies to play with my old ZXR like that

Restablishment Phase 2 complete!!!

Engine positioned and rear-bottom bolt in. The whole engine can now swing into the frame around this point.


Making sure nothing gets caught where it shouldn't be before swinging engine up.


Good friend and previous owner QuinDaddy (QD) posing with the 'Ready To Swing Engine Up' frame.


After a few test 'swing ups' to establish where we need to grind (To clear the oil return feed line), QD gets to work with the dremel.


Demonstrating my new found technique of swinging the engine up with 1 person, after dremeling.


QD posing with the compeltely installed engine. Still need to drill out the top mounting bolt holes on the engine block.


The area QD ground away to clean the oil return line banjo. Because we chose to swing the engine in, we needed to remove more material than seems required, so the banjo and feed plate could get past on the way up.


QD went home after this, around 10:30pm, thanks for the help QD!!

Carbs installed.


Exhaust headers.


Full exhaust system.


Radiator, using only the top mounts as the ZX9 has different mounting positions at the bottom (because it has an engine cradle).
The hoses provide more than enough rigidity to the whole thing, and as GreenMan advised me the radiator with have a bit more give in a crash and less likely to be damaged.


Now left to do is:
The top-front engine/frame mount holes don't line up, it's a figure-of-8. So I need to use the hardened tungsten carbide steel engine spacer things as a guide to drill through and expact (figure-8-erise) the mounting holes on the engine block.
Then, I need to clear space inside the "notches" on the inside of engine block which hold the nut in place, since the nut will now be sitting about 4mm lower.

This is probably the most worrying part of the whole process, but I think I'll be fine.
And yes, I do expect I'll need to remove the radiator and exhaust again hahaha.

Then, Finish hosing it up, airbox, fuel tank, get electronics working, check fuel system, put some oil in, check oil system, crank engine over by hand without spark plugs to check for smooth-ness and compression, crank over with plugs checking for leaks, get enngine running and let idle for a minute, check hoses & leaks, drain oil check for debri, fresh oil again, run engine until coolant fan starts & check cooling system leaks under pressure, drain coolant and check for debri, fresh coolant again, run engine and modulate throttle checking for sounds and bad smoke...
Then get new carb needles from somewhere (kwaka original or dynojet or whatever works out cheapest), get pegs for race kit rearsets and install them... dobule-check everything, and go for a little ride
Riding further and further with quick stops to check everything looks ok.

Yep, so that's the plan for the next week...

---
99Coconuts, I'll take some photos of the bars for you today and post them in another topic. Maybe 6cm was a bit of a high figure, not sure really. They do make a difference, but not a true tourer style difference.
I never noticed anything weird having the brackets upside down but did find it hard to get good posture into hard corners and I'd end up hurting my knees because of some weird angle there, I assume this was because of the angle of the bars, but could just be I wasn't using the bike's geometry propperly.
Photos for you a bit later

Damn exciting
Cheers
James

Fuggen ORSUM mate good stuff.
Cheers Brett

Thanks Brett

....

ENGINE RUNNING ENGINE RUNNING!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well I the 900 engine roared into life tonight around 8pm!!
Stumbled for a half a minute and then held a steady idle.
Now I can hit the starter at any time and it jumps instantly to steady idle!!

Pretty astonishing since it was a wrecked engine, I didn't clean it much, and my carbi needles are very much rooted... YAY!!!

So now I need to:

@ Finish front engine mounts - It's angle-grinder time...
@ Break-and-join chain so I can swap drive sprockets to my original (matching the chain) sprocket
@ Get foot-pegs so I have somewhere to put my feet.
@ Get new bolts for the lower-triple clamp
@ Install dynojet kit
@ Re-fit everything
@ Bleed clutch and brakes again

Exciting

Haha yeah the bars were not at the best position.

It was better for me though due to my lower back problem, although even with the raised bars the riding position was still pretty extreme. Which was the primary reason for me passing the bike onto James in the first place.

I can only imagine how quick James' ZXR Chimera is going to be, because even with the 750cc donk in it was a fast as hell.

James I'll be happy to engineer a low pressure turbo installation for ya m8 when your bored with the 900cc power

I am dying to try out my new idea of adding a combustion can to the impeller to increase preassure on the compressor (kinda like a internal combustion engine/jet engine hybrid
Anyway gotta go, the men in white coats have a new jacket for me to try on, strangely it does up at the back