Ruby...

[BrettZZR]

... mines a 9/2001 and just hit 101000 kms ...

And put up some pics! More ZZR goodness!

BTW: was interested to read the comments in your thread about keeping the oil level up - I was not aware of that...

(-8

[BrettZZR]

Been ages since I updated this!

Well, work has been up and down, but I decided to take the bike off the market either way, so that is good.
(-B'

As per my thread on the subject I had a leaky fork seal and decided to use this as an excuse to strip them and make sure they are okay, and at the same time do the steering bearings, (the mullet that worked on this thing before leaves me cold).

So stripped the ol' girl down:


currently the bike looks like this

while all the bits were posted from eBayland.

So it's all here:

Progressive springs (sounded like a good idea)
Sprockets and chain set for later (Price was good - incremental shipping was negligible)
Wheel bearings for later ( ditto )
Fork seals, clips and bushes
Steering bearings, seals and O-Ring

I'll post pics as I go...

(-8

[BrettZZR]

Decided not to do a step by step with gazillions of pictures because I'm too lazy and it's not that hard to do.

Stripped the forks

As I said the previous guy that worked on the bike was an absolute pratt, and for this reason alone I'm glad I'm doing this - notice the fork cylinder top left, see the other one further down - it operates with a small bump-spring on it - there is supposed to be a washer between the spring and the cylinder - I can see the spring has been fretting metal off the cylinder because it's not there! Mutter mutter mutter!

De-burred the inners

There was at least one biggish sharp one on each leg, and bunch of little ones they clean up very well with a small file. I am definitely going to improvise fork protector widgets.

Comparison of the OE with the new progressive springs. The OE are ever-so-slightly progressive, but hard to notice.

The extra length requires that the spacers are cut shorter accordingly

With the front wheel off the ground the steering felt fine and I toyed with doing a CBF and leaving the steering bearings. Then I remembered the above-mentioned pratt and stripped that down too. No apparent errors, but the bearing is brinnelled which could be from over-tightening...

It's a bit too late to be bashing those bearing races out now so I called it a night.

I am going to have to have some custom washers made up for the fork cylinders, so I may as well get the spacers machined to exact size and square at the same time. So it wont be completed this weekend...

(-8

[BrettZZR]

I entertained myself by putting the lower steering bearing on the king-pin and carefully tapping it home - AND THEN REALISED I HADN'T PUT THE FRIKKEN SEAL ON! Heh! I was so worried about putting the upper bearing on that I didn't... Oh well. The money I save doing this shit myself means I can cut that brand new bearing off and replace it and still be waay ahead.

FORK OIL:
By the way, I have heard people talking about using 'heavier' fork oil etc. The manual recommends 10W-20, but I saw a recommendation on the web to use 10W synthetic. Can somebody shed some light on this please?
{ZZR1100D Not used two-up any more *SNIFF!* mainly ridden in gentlemanly fashion}

(-8

[BrettZZR]

So... got it all together and went for a ride yesterday - all good!

Motul 10W "Factory Line" fork oil is what i put in.

I landed up making a 'special tool' for holding the folk valve body when tightening it

So full overhaul of forks and steering and everything is perfect-as-new. The fcuk-ups from the previous idiot working on it that I fixed:
1. Steering lower seal on upside down
2. Bad pre-load on steering bearings
3. Washers missing in forks
4. I have no idea what oil he had in there, It came out grey, but within an hour grey particles (I'm guessing it was the teflon off the bushes) settled out leaving a clear yellow oil.

Only thing still to do - the front brakes are a bit iffy since having fork oil leaked all over them. Pads are nearly finished, as is the front tyre. Did clean up the brakes, but when the tyre is done, I'll clean up the brakes properly, fit new wheel bearings, pads, and the 90deg tyre valve.

(-8

[BrettZZR]

Been ages since I updated this! ...

The trend continues!

Work continued up-and-down for a while and then dried up completely. I've started a small business repairing and servicing Robot Vacuum cleaners! Heh! Not out of the woods yet, but it's picking up and should get there. You bookface users feel free to give my business' bookface page a "like"! And if you know anybody that has one of these please let them know - I'm getting machines from all over the country in the post - works well!

... I'll clean up the brakes properly, fit new wheel bearings, pads, and the 90deg tyre valve ...

Didn't get around to the wheel bearings. Back tyre is due for replacement so I pulled the rim off and fully intended to change the bearings, but they really feel fine and reading up some of the horror stories getting the old bearings out has made me decide to let sleeping dogs lie. Might grab one of those special tools that grabs the inner race (with a wedge action) in prep for when I do decide to do this.

I have also been toying with painting the rims a goldy/brass colour (roughly similar to the colour of my Toc 6-pots) so took the tyre off (GEEZ was that a mission!) and cleaned the rim up with diesel and a pot-scourer. Now at decision point - paint it or no... *ponders navel*

Might try to snap some pics later...

(-8

[BrettZZR]

Decided that with the pitting that I have on the rims (still have no idea what might have caused this - got the bike like this and thought it would easily polish out, but... )

Was undecided as to if it would look better with the polished lip so decided not to wet sand it, just in case I want to go back to polished lip in future. Generally I don't keep my bike nearly clean enough for this sort of sh!t to make any difference anyway!

Colour test. Not spot on, but for rattle can, not too bad.


Scoured with potscourer & diesel, degreased, and 2x thinners wash: (you can see the pitting etc on the lip - bastard stuff)


Acid etch primer. As you can see etch primer must go on real thin - you can still see through it:




Pretty happy with this:


The disk was a bit ratty, and I really want some decent wavy disks but cannot afford them at the mo so just dickied this one up a bit:


Still to be bolted on, Kaneng 90deg valve in place:

Not too bad for a quick backyard job.

(sorry for dodgy phone pics...)

(-8

[BrettZZR]

Been raining a lot here so finally dragged the ol girl out in the dying light for a shitty pic or two:




Quite happy with that. Will do the front one when the front tyre is done...

(-8

[BrettZZR]

...Will do the front one when the front tyre is done...

And it only took 5 years!!! *Blush!*

[billwest]

Looks good, Brett!

[BrettZZR]

Treated myself to an upgrade and bought a ZX14R.

While it is awesome, I will miss the mighty Ruby! The ol'girl amazed me and everyone else with quiet and refined power!