Z1OwnersClub GB

From the off, I'd advise you not to hold your breath waiting for this project to get finished as life, spelt w-o-r-k, often halts progress but this winter's entertainment is Yet Another Harris project.

I bought what amounts to a large kit of parts from Mike Parkes (mike_p hereabouts) in June 2014. This Harris has been through a number of hands including some Z1OC members but the original engine has gone AWOL and Mike supplied a Unitrak 1100 motor to go with the 'kit'.

Here's the bike in more complete days



I've sat and stared at the rolling chassis wondering if I should do the stripped down 'streetfighter' thing, the KR1000 lookalike or original Magnum 2 and I've decided that I'll go down the original Magnum 2 route. Obviously there's no such thing as a 'standard' Magnum but I'm going to aim for something close to how the bike would have been 'in the day'.

I'll order a full Magnum 2 fairing from Harris and, probably, change the wheels to 18" rather than the 16/18 GPz900R combination that's currently on there (although the 16" front was fitted by Harris for the original owner so part of me says keep it).

Anyway, first job is getting the engine stripped so it can go on a trip to Doug Cox (it's pretty skanky). Off with the cam cover and woops



yes the missing bolt on cam cap #4 is missing because it's been seared off

That'll be a little job for the weekend then.

The other job, that's causing more head scratching, is the frame. Mike cut off the battery box as he was planning on fitting a TZ style seat unit. I'm sticking with the original Mag 2 seat unit so want to put the battery box back on.

When mike showed me what he'd done, I though 'oh a simple spigot and braize' will sort it out.



Now I've looked closer, the tubes are not round at this point and while I can get a 1" bar in the frame side of the cut, the battery box side is oval from about 1mm beyond the cut; making a spigot tricky.

What would you much cleverer engineering types do?

I'd get your 1" bar into the straight part of the frame, as far as needs be to be able to push the battery box section on, I'd chamfer both sections of tube and then get a better welder than me to fully penetrate TIG all around.

If you chamfer the tubes, he should be able to penetrate to the bar inside.

The Butt weld should be strong enough in it's own right, but if you can get through to the spigot then so much the better.

To hold the spigots in place while you weld you could drill a hole in the straight section of tube an 'spot' weld them though the hole.

If your gunna strip it down to the frame I'd take the frame to harris & let them fix it & any other problems u might have

neilbarrett wrote:If your gunna strip it down to the frame I'd take the frame to harris & let them fix it & any other problems u might have

NO DON'T

I did this and you end up buying stuff you properly don't really need like a full Harris race exhaust and Brembo discs on specially machined Harris centres

Only joking everybody need a Harris race exhaust

ruffle wrote:
Anyway, first job is getting the engine stripped so it can go on a trip to Doug Cox (it's pretty skanky). Off with the cam cover and woops



yes the missing bolt on cam cap #4 is missing because it's been seared off

Hi Russel - couldn't believe that picture - after your last pm (re comparing Rickman & Harris)
I got the cam cover off mine and it has a sheared cam cap bolt on No4...

At least you have made a start on yours. Good luck

Big up Harris performance

Still cogitating on the frame repair but leaning towards taking it to Hertford as Lester showed me some offset headstock cups to quicken the steering and they could fit them at the same time.

Anyway... some steps forward and some back on the engine.

Managed to get the sheared cam cap bolt out using the mill as a pillar drill. I used a center finder to line things up.



Ran a 4mm 2-flute endmill into the remains of the bolt



Then gently tried an easy-out and the remains of the bolt just unscrewed I don't generally like easy-outs and even though the set I've got seems to be good quality I don't put any real force through them.

Three of the exhaust studs sheared flush with the head when I took them out and as the head was by the mill I tried setting it up on there to drill them out.



However angle of the exhaust ports and the cam tunnel made it tricky to mount and I wasn't happy with the clamping. Back to Plan B and a bit of playing on the lathe and mill produced a drilling jig. I wish I'd had a larger diameter bar as picking up the inside the exhaust port wasn't brilliant as the insert could only go in a couple of mm. A larger bar or a circular bit of plate on the end of the bar would have let me pickup the exhaust gasket pocket but I was in getting-it-done mode so I pressed on with what I'd made.



A 4mm drill went in and I tried the easy-out but it wasn't shifting with modest pressure so that was abandoned and a 6.8mm drill went in. I must have got the centering pretty much spot on as I managed to pick out enough of the old thread to get a starter tap in and cut out the remains of the old stud.



Only two more studs to do now

After that it's a bit of rebuilding on one of the inlet mounts - Gawd knows how this got damaged.



but some low temperature ally rod should let me build it back up and file to shape.

One curious thing on stripping the cylinder head off was the state of the gasket on #2 and #3.



The gasket has moved into the combustion chamber. Anyone seem owt like this before? I wonder what caused it. I can see a Cometic head gasket in my future

Re: the battery box.....
This is exactly why most special framed bikes become extinct!
I think the vast majority of people see special framed bikes as kit bikes (which they are in a way) and their original build spec and history don't seem to matter.
Why on earth would anyone do that to a frame

It's becoming increasingly popular to return 'Specials' back to their original specification.
The amount of Rickman bikes that are going up in value are the ones that are standard and not messed about with.
That Moto-Martin that Paul Doran had a few years ago was one of the best original examples I'd ever seen. Can't remember who bought it off here but I hope they kept it standard!

Great to see you returning it to standard too.... these Harris bikes will also start to climb in value soon.
Keep up with the great work. Will

Keep up the good work

I just love all this talk of removing sheared bolts!!!

Having dealt with the shared bolts in the head I turned my attention to the broken bit on the #1 inlet manifold.

I tried some low temp ally welding stuff but just couldn't get enough heat in the head to make it stick. Plan B (epoxy putty) was therefore employed.



There's enough meat left in the head for the bolt to grab onto so this is really just cosmetic.

I put the block through the parts washer and was dismayed to see that #2 and #3 have got nasty marks in the bore





I can feel the marks with my finger and running a hone through the bore didn't clean it up

The pistons all mic up as well within spec so this is very annoying.

However, if I'm going to have to get oversized pistons and bore the motor I might as well go OTT and get the biggest I can find.

So... questions...

APE list a 1260 78mm 10.25:1 kit (K1262) using Wisco pistons that, according to their website, doesn't need sleeving. [edit: sorry got that wrong. the 1260 does need sleeves]

On the Wisco site, the 78mm pistons (4304M07800) are shown as needing a sleeve. MTC say anything over 1135 needs resleeving.

Can I fit 78mm pistons in a Uni-trak without resleeving?

Also.... had Gremlin died? Their website is down. Where's best to buy a piston kit? I see that BigCC Racing list a 78mm kit for £470 which doesn't seem that bad a price.

I'd go 1170cc & if you want Wiseco, have a word with Jeff at Z1 Enterprises.