I got this bike from ProblemChild (Mick) - he bought it a few years ago, got it semi-sorted, but due to a massive problem with the front forks - he parked it. I promised to buy it off him at some point.......and it found its way here last year.
The front forks were leaking really badly, but due to a seized fork-cap in the l/h forkleg, we could not get the forks apart to sort out the seal. Tried everything too !
totally frozen solid. About 2 months ago, I spotted a complete ZX1100 front-end on ebay for $80 !!
what made this even better, was that it was located just around the corner from my place - literally the next suburb !! Old mate has run a small wrecking business out of his backyard shed for a few years - I have bought some stuff off him several years ago - and couldn't get around there fast enough to grab this complete set of forks & triple clamps, brake calipers and lines.....for $80 !! what a bargain ! Because the work on the GPZ1000RX has slowed down - Mick has the wheels and will be doing a number on those with black 2-pack - until these are finished I really can't start on a *rolling* chassis......I had a bit of time to spare and get cracking on this GPz. It needed the front-end changed over - no problem, all that was done a couple of weeks ago....
Biggest other issue was the wiring harness. Whoever had it before Mick, had done a complete butcher job to the OEM harness, and used red wires for ............fucking everything !!! it was a nightmare. Mick did a great job to sort this out to the point where the DFI was working, but had still needed to wire up a fuel-pump switch, as the pump was not working when the ignition and kill switch were 'On'.....as it should.
Over the past few years, I have been picking up the odd spare part for EFI / DFI for these old fuel-injected Zeds (including stuff for the Black Pearl.) - So I grabbed a complete wiring harness for this model out of the electrical rack
, and replaced the entire wiring loom. This has made the entire job way easier.....as you would expect.Before the DFI was fitted, I decided to make sure the bike was going to work OK first. Last year, I had taken the head off with the intention of using it as a spare for the race-bike........but when we took the head off - it was very dissapointing to find that someone in the past had swapped the OEM head ( the good one with high-compression and better valve angle)- for a stock GPz1100B1 head - these heads have the stock hemi combustion chamber and standard Z valve angle.....they work, just not as good as the ZX1100 heads.........so I never bothered using this head ( or fitting it back onto the bike....) until last weekend.
The bike fired up just fine with a new battery and the race-bike 33mm smoothbore Mikunis. I had intended to run it with these carbies - but they are just not practical for extended street use.....so I decided to have a punt at re-fitting the OEM fuel-injection.....
well after some initial issues - the fuel-pump was only working intermittently, and also the starter-motor only seemed to work every now and then - these were traced to just dirty contacts in the connector plugs....old and very crusty ...the DFI is all up and working well, the bike starts first time at the moment, and all the normal things - blinkers, horn etc - all work OK.
I am waiting on a replacement headlight bucket, and still have some further tidying-up of the bodywork - but basically, its all there, all together, and working.......done several laps around the backyard, and so far so good.
The Corbin seat was a bit of a find - thanks to GPz750Turbo from another forum. It fits perfectly, and is brand-new old stock from the US. Looks a lot better than the OEM seat.....
So there you go - unfortunately too late for Gingers Creek this year - which shits me no end, as it would have been great to take it for a thrash up the Ox
- but once rego has been sorted, this bike will be nice to belt around on for a few months during spring and over summer......
