Radar Posted January 17, 2009 Share Posted January 17, 2009 Back at the tail end of 2006 after selling CB250RS I got myself a little FZ600 to keep my Thundercat and the XJR1300SP I had at the time company. I rode it home the 216 freezing miles from Durham. Anyway after a few months the MOT and tax ran out and the little FZ got pushed into the shadows. Time passed and a failed attempt at an MOT at my rather picky local test centre. Leaky fork seals, leaky zorst and stiff rear shock. Well 16 months later it was time to dig her out of hibernation and return to her rightful place; on the road. As I am notriously hard to motivate I roped in a mate to help me and so he turned up and we got on with it. After moving the Thundercat, 4 mountain bikes and a collection of empty boxes big enough for The Sweeney to chase some slags in an old Jag through the FZ begins to emerge! Even the spider had died of boredom awiting the return to the road! He kept trying to get me to cut my fairing off and 'fighter' the old girl. I was dreading taking off the exhaust; I had visions of siezed studs and hours battling with the headers. In the end the odd mix of bolts, cap heads come straight off. Result! Hopefully stainless will be going on in their place As you can see the exhaust isn't stainless!! A couple of pin holes explained the blowing exhaust note. This lot will be cleaned up and welded by another mate of mine. Should look a bit better then! Off with the Scorpion end can, probably worth more than than the bike! With the fairing, down pipes and zorst off we could stick the bike on my friends' rather wonderful lift. Great piece of kit, must get one for myself. Off with the front wheel, calipers and front mudguard Having already removed the clip ons ad released the fork pinch bolts we could drop the forks out We were coming up to a complicated bit, so its out with the Haynes 'Book of lies' The manual wittered on about special tools to take out the inards of the forks, but we improvised! The fork oil had seen better days... Getting there now! More improvisation! Yes, that is a paint roller! The circlip put up a bit of fight, but came out in the end. In the absence of the correct type of circlip pliers we used a couple of thin punches in each of the eye holes and a small flat bladed screwdriver. Tip, remember to keep things sided. We fitted the one seal without problem, refittted the original dust cap, but then hit a problem. Our improvised tool (!) wasn't suitable for the re-assembly task. So my partner in crime has taken the forks away as he reckons he has someting lurking in his garage that could do the job. So progress is halted for a little while. I will sort the rusty downpipes this week, while he sorts the fork assemblies. The FZ is pushed bike to the side of the garage, to await the next stage. Part 2 will follow soon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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