ChrisNI's Z1000 rebuild
Posted: Wed Jan 31, 2007 11:22 pm
As some of you might know my 1000 A1 has been pending a major revamp for about the last four years. A lot of it was good and had been sorted out over the years, but it needed a top end re-build because it was quite noisy, the frame was horrible because it hadn't been painted in twenty five years, (see pic in the photo album - '82)and I'd always thought the engine was a bit rumbly - it sat for a number of years '83 until about '91 - so I'd always wanted the crank looked at. I'd been gathering up bits for ages and have been having some bits made, quite literally for years, so it's in for a new front end and back end, but it's like pulling teeth getting stuff back from the machinists.
The bike's been off the road for about two years now, but I hadn't started dismantling it until I exchanged the Dresda arm with Paul for a ferry ticket on the way back from Dipper's 2005 Welsh Rally in the forlorn hope I'd soon get some shiny new bits, but once it had been sat on concrete blocks for what seemed like ages I decided I may as well pull it apart so I dismantled it in about September 2006.
Now it's actually starting to go back together!
Still a few bits to sort but here's where we are.
This is the bike when it was still on the road a few years ago on holiday in Scotland:
This is what it's like just now:
Frame's cosmetically quite horrible - like my garage.. It's going off for a bit of welding, new shock mounts, and a powder coat within the next week. Hopefully my brother will pick it up from my garage while I'm at Donno - he's got a powder coater near him plus he's ging to weld the new pins in for me before he takes it there. If the pins bloody come - they should have been here weeks ago...
Engine less block on bench - I've decided I'd like to go back to silver for the crancases and top end (could be a bad idea) nobody round here vapour blasts so it's the old fashioned method for me:
Much elbow grease and swearing they're still not Steve Smethurst crankcases but that's as good as I'm realistically going to get - plus this isn't going to be a coffee table Zed - so we'll move on...
New crank - old crank:
I was lucky to get this crank from Martin Newberry at Psycleworkz for less than it would have cost to rebuild mine and it's welded and lightened - it's aMk2 crank so needs different camshaft sprockets and chain but the rotor off the A1 should still fit. Going to get some of Martin's billet engine plates too when we get that far - shortly I hope. (He gives Z1OC club discount...)
Not much progress really but we're going forwards instead of backwards at last.
This is the rear end which I got back a few weeks ago
This arm's the same width as the 1000R arm but it's about 5mm wider than the old arm which means it's not quite a straight fit on the earlier frames - but hopefully it'll not be too troublesome. I'll post pics of the solution when it's in.
The arm's going to be powder coated black too - Fer has a black one on his 1000 and Padders recent pics prove my long held theory that the old shape bikes suit a black arm, the lawson/gpz types can carry a shiny arm better - that's just my theory.
Wheels are Zephyr 1100 spokes which I was really lucky to get a few years ago. The bike had spokes on it when it was new but they were replaced with alloys in about 1979 so the new much fatter wheels are kind of going backwards and forwards at the same time.
Not much will happen for the next day or two with Donington this weekend but now we're moving - yay. Target for completion is the far away but scarily close in many respects Scottish Rally in August.
(Those last half dozen pics were taken on my phone because I couldn't be arsed to go in for the camera - apologies for the quality...)
To be continued...
The bike's been off the road for about two years now, but I hadn't started dismantling it until I exchanged the Dresda arm with Paul for a ferry ticket on the way back from Dipper's 2005 Welsh Rally in the forlorn hope I'd soon get some shiny new bits, but once it had been sat on concrete blocks for what seemed like ages I decided I may as well pull it apart so I dismantled it in about September 2006.
Now it's actually starting to go back together!
Still a few bits to sort but here's where we are.
This is the bike when it was still on the road a few years ago on holiday in Scotland:
This is what it's like just now:
Frame's cosmetically quite horrible - like my garage.. It's going off for a bit of welding, new shock mounts, and a powder coat within the next week. Hopefully my brother will pick it up from my garage while I'm at Donno - he's got a powder coater near him plus he's ging to weld the new pins in for me before he takes it there. If the pins bloody come - they should have been here weeks ago...
Engine less block on bench - I've decided I'd like to go back to silver for the crancases and top end (could be a bad idea) nobody round here vapour blasts so it's the old fashioned method for me:
Much elbow grease and swearing they're still not Steve Smethurst crankcases but that's as good as I'm realistically going to get - plus this isn't going to be a coffee table Zed - so we'll move on...
New crank - old crank:
I was lucky to get this crank from Martin Newberry at Psycleworkz for less than it would have cost to rebuild mine and it's welded and lightened - it's aMk2 crank so needs different camshaft sprockets and chain but the rotor off the A1 should still fit. Going to get some of Martin's billet engine plates too when we get that far - shortly I hope. (He gives Z1OC club discount...)
Not much progress really but we're going forwards instead of backwards at last.
This is the rear end which I got back a few weeks ago
This arm's the same width as the 1000R arm but it's about 5mm wider than the old arm which means it's not quite a straight fit on the earlier frames - but hopefully it'll not be too troublesome. I'll post pics of the solution when it's in.
The arm's going to be powder coated black too - Fer has a black one on his 1000 and Padders recent pics prove my long held theory that the old shape bikes suit a black arm, the lawson/gpz types can carry a shiny arm better - that's just my theory.
Wheels are Zephyr 1100 spokes which I was really lucky to get a few years ago. The bike had spokes on it when it was new but they were replaced with alloys in about 1979 so the new much fatter wheels are kind of going backwards and forwards at the same time.
Not much will happen for the next day or two with Donington this weekend but now we're moving - yay. Target for completion is the far away but scarily close in many respects Scottish Rally in August.
(Those last half dozen pics were taken on my phone because I couldn't be arsed to go in for the camera - apologies for the quality...)
To be continued...
Snigger.
Once again sorry for the dodgy pics still using the phone 
