Tedward
Junior Member
Hey all,
New to the forums here. Just stumbled across it and it seems like a great forum with lots of info floating around. Figured I would share my experiences with my bike so far, maybe get a bit of feedback, maybe even help a person or two with my posts. I've been writing everything I'm doing into a text file. It isn't organized in any particular order but outlines most of what I've done and found out so far.
Picked up a 1986 FZ600, only 29,000 km. Looks to be in pretty good condition, new brakes and tires, minor crack in the fairing that was plastic welded back together. Pictures made it look a lot worse then it looks in person. Loosing some power someplace. Overall speeds seem to be good (60 in 1st before redline), but acceleration isn't there. Every so often it pulls nicely for a second, I can feel the front end trying to come up, but most of the time not so much.
Pulled the clutch out. Clutch plates and friction discs are all good. Two springs are a little out of spec, ordered 5 new ones to replace them all. One of the "teeth" is broken on the basket. Guy at my dealer says it shouldn't effect anything so long as another one doesn't go. He's a bit concerned that if one went, others might not be far behind due to the metal possibly being weak. At $300 for a replacement basket, not sure what to do. He thinks it should be fine as long as I'm not hard on it. Waiting on new gasket to seal it up again.
All 4 spark plugs have quite a bit of carbon buildup. My guess from reading the manual would have been a good cleaning should be good enough, but decided to replace them all based on the advice of my neighbor who's a car mechanic.
Valve clearance: All over the place. One is as low as 0.038 mm. Another is 0.200 mm. Should be in the 0.11 - 0.16 mm range. Waiting on a tool so I can start pulling the shims to see what size they are so I know what size I need to replace them with. I sure appreciate just turning a screw to adjust the valve clearance in my CBR now.
Adjusted throttle free-play, was very tight, now have the recommended slack. Clutch was tight as well, will properly adjust it when I put it all back together.
Drained oil, wasn't bad looking. Bit dark but otherwise clean. Oil filter looked to be long overdue for a replacement, so that's done.
Air filter needs a bit of a cleaning, nothing major. Will take a can of air to it.
Fuel gauge was not working, constantly at empty. Gauge seemed fine so pulled the .. thinger out of the fuel tank. Took it apart, wire was broken and a bit crispy looking at one end. Cut out the bad part and soldered it back together, resistance was still within spec. Hooked it up to the bike and tested it out, needle covers the full range on the gauge from empty to full. Had a bit of a "Crap.." moment when I went to put it back in the tank, so hopefully I put it back in the tank facing the right direction...
Still need to clean the carbs. Only carb cleaner I've been able to find is the type you add to your fuel and cleans as you ride, dealer recommended throttle body cleaner to give it a good cleaning when taking it apart.
When I was taking the gas tank off the vacuum line was disconnected. My first thought was that it just came off when I lifted the tank, but when I took the fuel line off I really had to fight with it to disconnect it and that really made me wonder if the vacuum line was already disconnected. Need to find out if this would explain the lack of power or if the bike would even run like that.
PO claimed there was a problem with the battery, said it wasn't charging while riding and thus needed to be recharged quite often. Drained it to about 12v, went for a ride, and it was up to 12.4v so not worried about the charging system at the moment. Battery seems to be holding the charge thus far. Maybe PO only took it on short rides where the startup drained more then the ride recharged? *shrugs*
Overheats after about 30 minutes of riding. Idle became a bit erratic, sitting up at 2500 to 3000 for a while when I was stopped at lights, eventually dropping back to normal. When I got to my destination (thankfully!) and it was idling it dropped down to 800-900 for a few seconds before stalling. Let it cool for a bit, took a few tries but finally got it to start again. Made it home without it stalling but same overheating and erratic idle. Haven't checked anything to do with cooling yet, on the to-do list.
Will be testing compression once everything else is done.
Sprockets look good, chain is also in good condition and has proper slack.
Going to clean up some of the wiring. Some of the plastic wire covers are cracking, and tape is peeling.
Want to see if the Radian exhaust (dual pipes) will mount nicely. Wouldn't mind having 4 into 2 instead of 4 into 2 into 1.
Repainting the fairings? Hmmm...
New to the forums here. Just stumbled across it and it seems like a great forum with lots of info floating around. Figured I would share my experiences with my bike so far, maybe get a bit of feedback, maybe even help a person or two with my posts. I've been writing everything I'm doing into a text file. It isn't organized in any particular order but outlines most of what I've done and found out so far.
Picked up a 1986 FZ600, only 29,000 km. Looks to be in pretty good condition, new brakes and tires, minor crack in the fairing that was plastic welded back together. Pictures made it look a lot worse then it looks in person. Loosing some power someplace. Overall speeds seem to be good (60 in 1st before redline), but acceleration isn't there. Every so often it pulls nicely for a second, I can feel the front end trying to come up, but most of the time not so much.
Pulled the clutch out. Clutch plates and friction discs are all good. Two springs are a little out of spec, ordered 5 new ones to replace them all. One of the "teeth" is broken on the basket. Guy at my dealer says it shouldn't effect anything so long as another one doesn't go. He's a bit concerned that if one went, others might not be far behind due to the metal possibly being weak. At $300 for a replacement basket, not sure what to do. He thinks it should be fine as long as I'm not hard on it. Waiting on new gasket to seal it up again.
All 4 spark plugs have quite a bit of carbon buildup. My guess from reading the manual would have been a good cleaning should be good enough, but decided to replace them all based on the advice of my neighbor who's a car mechanic.
Valve clearance: All over the place. One is as low as 0.038 mm. Another is 0.200 mm. Should be in the 0.11 - 0.16 mm range. Waiting on a tool so I can start pulling the shims to see what size they are so I know what size I need to replace them with. I sure appreciate just turning a screw to adjust the valve clearance in my CBR now.
Adjusted throttle free-play, was very tight, now have the recommended slack. Clutch was tight as well, will properly adjust it when I put it all back together.
Drained oil, wasn't bad looking. Bit dark but otherwise clean. Oil filter looked to be long overdue for a replacement, so that's done.
Air filter needs a bit of a cleaning, nothing major. Will take a can of air to it.
Fuel gauge was not working, constantly at empty. Gauge seemed fine so pulled the .. thinger out of the fuel tank. Took it apart, wire was broken and a bit crispy looking at one end. Cut out the bad part and soldered it back together, resistance was still within spec. Hooked it up to the bike and tested it out, needle covers the full range on the gauge from empty to full. Had a bit of a "Crap.." moment when I went to put it back in the tank, so hopefully I put it back in the tank facing the right direction...
Still need to clean the carbs. Only carb cleaner I've been able to find is the type you add to your fuel and cleans as you ride, dealer recommended throttle body cleaner to give it a good cleaning when taking it apart.
When I was taking the gas tank off the vacuum line was disconnected. My first thought was that it just came off when I lifted the tank, but when I took the fuel line off I really had to fight with it to disconnect it and that really made me wonder if the vacuum line was already disconnected. Need to find out if this would explain the lack of power or if the bike would even run like that.
PO claimed there was a problem with the battery, said it wasn't charging while riding and thus needed to be recharged quite often. Drained it to about 12v, went for a ride, and it was up to 12.4v so not worried about the charging system at the moment. Battery seems to be holding the charge thus far. Maybe PO only took it on short rides where the startup drained more then the ride recharged? *shrugs*
Overheats after about 30 minutes of riding. Idle became a bit erratic, sitting up at 2500 to 3000 for a while when I was stopped at lights, eventually dropping back to normal. When I got to my destination (thankfully!) and it was idling it dropped down to 800-900 for a few seconds before stalling. Let it cool for a bit, took a few tries but finally got it to start again. Made it home without it stalling but same overheating and erratic idle. Haven't checked anything to do with cooling yet, on the to-do list.
Will be testing compression once everything else is done.
Sprockets look good, chain is also in good condition and has proper slack.
Going to clean up some of the wiring. Some of the plastic wire covers are cracking, and tape is peeling.
Want to see if the Radian exhaust (dual pipes) will mount nicely. Wouldn't mind having 4 into 2 instead of 4 into 2 into 1.
Repainting the fairings? Hmmm...
