FZRSupport: the FZROnline Archive

Bought a '90 FZR1000 bike in march, owner said it was perfect, just gone though, etc etc. The local shop he had it checked out at (I spoke with them) were either lying for his benefit, or just complete retards (I knew NOTHING about bikes when I bought this). Long story short, after splitting the cases on that engine and finding everything from broken clutch plates, shredded cam chain guides, to rods and pistons pins that NEEDED replacement, I bought a '89 FZR600 (18k miles) for a steal. Paid one grand for it, even had the little nubs left on the battleaxe tires he replaced last year. The guy knew absolutely nothing about the bike as he purchased it from his friend, rode it for a while, then stored it for four years.

It made me grin to see the receipt for $500 worth of carb work. He had them cleaned and a few seals replaced is all. He didn't even know a carb sync was, but said he never heard the place that cleaned the carbs say it.



The bike started and idled fine when I took it for the first test drive. After driving it to the storage unit, it ran out of gas. The PO put seafoam in the tank, i'm assuming it was old gas he had in it. I put some new gas in it, and while it would idle fine it would stall as I tried to take off in first gear. After a few more tries, it would start for a few seconds (sounding like only one or two cylinders were firing) then stall. I'm assuming the old gas in the tank botched up the starter jet in the carbs explaining the takeoff issue, and my use of the choke fouled the plugs leading for the inability to run. If someone could comment on this, or explain to me the purpose of the damn choke, I would greatly appreciate it


Here's what I got to help with this build:




Lincoln 180amp welder. Let me start by saying I SUCK at welding. I have not done much welding in my life, but when I have it was on 1/4 material typically, if not 3/8ths. I weld steel, never even attempted alum.

The machine was setup with a 75/25 mix of argon to CO2. .30 wire, attempted to maintain 3/8th inch stickout constantly using a forehand, or pushing, method of welding. The majority of time I did pulse welding because I kept blowing through the stock material (It surprised me how thin the frame metal was...) I still don't know what I was doing wrong. I tried turning up the penetration, AKA wire feed speed, as I was always able to do on the thicker material to prevent the blow through. I ended up doing my own version of pulse welding for the majority of the welds, which may explain why my welds suck.

check out my packing peanut wire cleaner. haha.


I started by making frame slider mounts. The idea came from Zero9243's rebuild thread (helped by ThatKid) on FZRonline forums. It's a really cool idea, kudos to those guys. Here's my version:


The mounts were made from scrap steel I had in the basement. I bought some welding bar from Lowes, cut it and welded it. I went through 3 Cobalt drill bits trying to get through them, using cutting oil. :wtf:


"Weld-thru primer"


prepare for crappy welding...


I burned through the frame so many times, it's not even funny. These are before I cleaned it up. Ugly as hell, but I KNOW I got damn good penetration.



I started working on the subframe then. I tried and tried to work with fiberglass, eventually got pissed and through all the fiberglass shit in the trash. Bought some 16g sheet metal and 1"x1" square steel with the same thickness of the subframe on the bike. cant recall what thickness, but it was thin. Unfortunately I didn't take pictures of building the point, but it's two pieces of this pipe welded to cut sheet metal. You'll understand when you see it.


This is the straight squared tube (I dont know what the hell to call it. but its not round. and I didn't know how to bend it without crushing it.) I bought. I cut a triangle out of one side, bent it to the correct angle, joined it by butt welds and grinded down the welds. you can see a few dark spots in the middle. those wouldn't be there if I was actually good at welding and knew how to do it without blowing through on this thin material.


Here's the bar welded to the stock subframe.


I'm missing photos again, sorry.

Here's the cutout of sheetmetal welded to the back of the point. This was my homemade version of pulse welding. It left some imperfections after I grinded it down... damn.



HORRIBLE WELDING:

This is a double pass of the sides for the rear seat. You can see a bit more of the point in this photo. The cutout on the right is where the rear seat latches onto. I used up a roll of wire, and shut of the gas when I installed the new one. Being an ass, I turned the machine on and started welding the sides on...without turning the gas on :doh: wouldn't have been a problem if I used innershield wire.

I ended up doing a double pass for a uniform look to cover up the pinholes. I end up grinding these out.



A lady friend came over with her nice camera to take pictures of my pups, so she shot a few of the bike aswell in its current ugly stance.















I wish I would have snapped a picture of it with the seats on, it looks sick.



Filled a few holes, the large frame cooler holes left a few imperfections after welding them shut and grinding it down, so I used bondo. which ended up showing through the paint a bit, big f*ck mistake on my part.


Figured I would see what I could do with this...

and hot rod flatz black. first time ever using paint not from a rattle can.


more pics to come, but I gotta finish painting a few imperfections. the engine is in flat black already using rattle can engine enamel I did a week or two ago, i'll grab pics of that here soon too.


I'm hoping after I touch it up it will look better.



started to work on the muffler some

hope the muffler works after I pack it...and shorten the downpipe with the correct angle.


stock muffler cutup

Looks like a nice project you have ahead of you. Your welding is a ton better than mine. Course I have a crappy welder and have no idea how to use it.

Look forward to your progress.

darrin

ragedigital wrote:Looks like a nice project you have ahead of you. Your welding is a ton better than mine. Course I have a crappy welder and have no idea how to use it.

Look forward to your progress.

darrin

Haha thanks man. I only have a few more weeks to complete the project then I start tackling my car -- i'm moving across the country here in about two months. I spend lots of time outside, but it's a good way to get my mind off the recent split with my lady friend. what kinda welder ya have? I can't for the life of me find a video on youtube that teaches even the basics of welding. I'm thinking of making one, although i'll probably get maliciously mocked by the guys that actually weld for a living haha.


adjusting shims









gotta run a tack cloth over the frame still, that should clean her up. gunna make time here this week to rebuild the carbs. I sent in a donation to the site, I figure it was well worth it for the vast amount of info I pulled off the forum related to carb work.

It doesn't matter where you post a welding video, you will get mocked by anyone. It's stupid. Go on any welding forum and it's one guy posting up something cool he did and then everyone else mocking his welds or telling him he should have pushed and not pulled. I guess unless you TIG like a machine you aren't good enough. Meh.

I'm glad I could be of service for the frame slider adapters. I take no responsibility if they fail though! Did you make sure to double check the space for fitment with the carbs? When we did it on Dillon's bike it was very tight but just cleared. Ideally I think the mounts would be better served as one point in a multi-point cage around the fairings. It's a very high mount so the fairings are going to get shredded before the mount takes anything. But we did it for grins.

Bike is coming along nicely though. Keep posting!

thatkid wrote:I guess unless you TIG like a machine you aren't good enough. Meh.

haha, aint that the truth...

thatkid wrote:I'm glad I could be of service for the frame slider adapters. I take no responsibility if they fail though! Did you make sure to double check the space for fitment with the carbs? When we did it on Dillon's bike it was very tight but just cleared. Ideally I think the mounts would be better served as one point in a multi-point cage around the fairings. It's a very high mount so the fairings are going to get shredded before the mount takes anything.

haha yeah the carbs fit in place, not too tight oddly enough. really the only goal of the mounts is to protect the bike if it falls over. incase of a slide, well unless it's very well controlled, i'm sure it will shred up almost everything on the bike. I'm using R6 vortex sliders and pucks, I should snap a picture of them here soon.

Okay as a welder-for a living, I will offer some advice..and some comments regarding welding forums and the lack of video help...

You can know all the technical specs/jargon/processes/etc.....but nothing will make you a better welder than PRACTICE. Get some scrap A36 steel in a few thicknesses...18, 16, 14 gauge..1/8" and weld on it. You say you had 75/25(argon/co2)..what wire? Er70/71xx hard wire? Or flux core?

75/25 is great flux core gas..the co2 is an 'active' gas though....it adds heat and penetration which is great welding 3/16" and up steels. For all the 'guage' sizes and hard wire short circuit welding 98/2% is preferable.

I dunno if that power mig 185 has an actual voltage readout or the 'A', 'B', 'C', 'D' dealio... I know .035 hard wire, with 98/2 gas runs nice welds on thin sheet(18guage) at 16.5v and about 175 inches per minute of wire..

If you don't have a wire speed readout either, you can hold the trigger down for 6 seconds and measure the wire...multiply by ten and know your wire feed speed.

Regardless, ALL welding is all about managing heat. One piece will almost always be the 'cold' piece..it will be the one with more mass at the weld zone. Manipulate the gun so that the cold piece is the 'bailout' area..on thin stuff, NEVER get hung up in one spot..KEEP moving. If the wire is pointing into the puddle(drag) it will penetrate deeper..and the puddle will be quite a bit hotter than if the wire is pointing downweld(towards virgin metal). If it is a butt joint and thin stuff, often the oppsoite is true....this is because the weld you've just made has more mass than the base metal.


With thin stuff and hard wire sometimes the best weld can be gotten by welding vertically....DOWNHAND with a steady weave about twice as wide as the material is thick. And, yes, sometimes, you just gotta -as you say- 'pulse weld' (which, btw ISN'T really pulse welding, per se). This is fine.. go 'bzzzt' from the cold piece to the 'hotter' and stop. Move downweld and do it again.

Ohhh, and something that never is in books, and rarely is told to beginners, and is something that I had to figure out on my own is: You can watch many things while you are welding....everyone's eyes are drawn to the arc itself..or the wire right where it is making the arc .

QUIT IT.

LOOK AT THE PUDDLE''S edges-leading edge, trailing edge and sides....

THAT is what tells you what to DO ..the arc will be an arc regardless of how the weld is forming

Ohh, and throw away the auto darkening helmet if you have one-unless you spent more than $500 for it. Or maybe keep it around for fitup/tack welding. Otherwise you will weld better with a $25 Jackson 'journeyman' with a large window, and a $7 gold plated #10 shade...I'm NOT KIDDING here.

The forums are full of a) welding students. b) prima donnas, c)certified weld inspectors

All of whom think their opinions are unbiased facts. Screw 'em. Some CWI's are pretty good. These are the ones who have been 'on the floor' for years prior to becoming CWI's. The good ones will offer valid advice. The others will just critique.

And, regarding weld instruction videos/books....there are SOO many variables....electrode/wire type(and even a huge difference in the same grade electrode from different manufacturors) , gases, materials, etc. that there is no 'one size fits all'

Get some scrap (lots actually) and pull the trigger..try different stuff-drag, push weave, step forward then back halfway(keyholing), uphand, downhand, slow stepping figure eights........

Hi,
not bad at all for someone who reckons he has no experience,

backing RR " Practice is ALL " and as he said, but the most difficult to master but master it you must, is stop " eyeballing " the arc, your ears do that job, your eyes are for the puddle edges.

well...a few years later (and moving across the country...twice...) I found the bike for sale in the twin cities.... think I could pass that deal up? nope

sneak peek

Sikowanalize wrote:well...a few years later (and moving across the country...twice...) I found the bike for sale in the twin cities.... think I could pass that deal up? nope

sneak peek

S,
did you ever take Photo of the project bike when it was finished ?

Good to see you back and starting something else keep us all upto speed.