Project Newbie, FZR250 Project

yup, printed it out and had it beside me the whole time, absolutely invaluable, the only issue i had with the kit was i couldn't get the choke seals on properly as they were too tight, but the originals were ok so i just left them on. now if we could only get the needle situation resolved we'd have our fzr's running forever is the fix still being worked on??

i think i read somewhere before and im sure it was on @GreyImport fizzer thread where he cleaned up the frame nicely with a brillo pad, but that threads like 50 pages long now and cant be arsed trawling through it again at the moment.

back to the shock situation and i have spring compressors here already from changing shocks in the car so might just clean it up as best i can and see how it goes, the r6 mod does look tempting but will have to look into it a bit more, not sure on modifying the dog bones as it may effect the geometry of the bike, will have to look into it more.............

 

Got some goodies in the post there over the last week or so, got my fork seals and headstock bearings also decided to go with the r6 shock in the end, so just waiting for that to be delivered and can start building the bike up again, so just a few questions for those in the know.

What weight for oil do ye recommend to stiffen the front up a bit??

i had a look thorough the service manual supplement and found the following specs:



im assuming google translate is correct and i can say the following:

oil volume - 390cm
oil level - 112mm from top
fork spring length - 559.6mm

hopefully will get the time to go at them this week and have a rolling chassis for next week, bike is looking a bit sad at the moment:

 

i have another question now regarding the headstem bearings, the ones that i ordered are the tapered type whilst the stock bearings are the loose ball bearing type. i have previous experience changing tapered headstock bearings in my R1 so just want to double check something before i start.

as seen in the pic below, the original ball bearings sit on a seal that is approximately flush with the top of the frames cast, thus when the bearings are placed they would be above the frame so to speak.



would i be right in saying that i then remove this seal and drive the new tapered set inside the frame so it sits flush with the top of the casting??



i have measured approximately the depth of this collar inside the frame tube pictured above and it seems to correspond with the height of the new bearings that i was supplied so im reasonably sure that the new set does in fact go inside rather than sitting on top like the old set but just want to be sure before i start. The bearings i did previously on the R1 have a nice shoulder inside the tube that you drive the replacements into hence the confusion on my part.

 

thanks murdo, i was just really unsure as to having 1/3 of the bearing sitting proud above the headstem, i've never seen that before so just needed my mind set at ease in case i got the wrong bearings. so anyway on with the pics!!






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However, my c-spanner is too big to tighten up the crown nut to seat the bearing properly, so I’ve ordered a new one, so while I was waiting i decided to tackle the fork seals as one of them was weeping pretty badly and as soon as I had the dust cap off could see that the oil seal had previously been put in backwards hence the leak, the fork oil that came out was pretty bad and resembled muddy river water!! Also there was a washer missing between the oil seal and the bush on the same fork.

On the upside, the previous owner had at least tried to do something about the fairy soft suspension and there were extra spacers put in to help stiffen up the spring, I then added 15w oil to the mix to try help stiffen it a bit more.


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Drove in the seals with a homemade seal driver


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And all done.

 

and just to back up a bit i said id throw up a few pics of the rear end i did a few posts ago




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Obviously you can’t tell these things from the outside but as you can see from the pics I was pessimistic as to the state of what I would find inside, but it turned out the bearings were in really good nick, spun nicely, not too loud and didn’t feel gritty at all, so I just cleaned them up and re-greased them.


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then moved on to cleaning up the shock, I cleaned it up as best I could, but after scrubbing off all the muck it turned out to be pretty goosed. unsurprisingly for an almost 30-year-old shock the chrome had worn off the rod and it had begun to rust.





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Ready for reassembly