FZRSupport: the FZROnline Archive

Hey guys. Here is the new project FZR. The pics are pretty shoddy, but its the best I have for now. It is a 91 w/ a dual headlight setup ( vin and title confirm it is a 91 ). Looks like it has been bubba'd on a few things, but I will be undoing most of it and getting it looking nice again. I'm going to leave it naked initially, and save up for some nice plastics at a later date.
I got it running last night, and it is purring right along good enough to give me confidence that it will be riding on the road soon enough. I just got all of my control cables, and nuts and bolts in today from Yamaha. The only thing that will be keeping me from riding it now is the throttle tube that is supposed to be here by the end of the week. ( its UPS, so who knows honestly )


Here are the carbs. I didnt get any pics of the painted slides, or the slide housings while they were flopping around in the carburetors. I HATE BUBBA...

The staple I found in carb #2


The wonderful muck left behind with ethanol treated fuel.

It runs MUCH better now

More pics to come as I complete different parts of the bike.
I'm installing a digital voltage monitor so I can keep track of what the charging system is doing. The voltage regulator has been upgraded already, but I have been bitten a few times on trips by failing components... I have found that the sooner you know something is up the quicker you can respond and keep it from damaging things worse or adjust your plans so you arent left stranded.

Feels good to be back, I still wish I could remember my previous user name here... Oh well

Hey welcome back! Yeah there is something about an FZR that is just fun! And the possibilities are endless.

man those carb bowls are GROSS!!

old_school wrote:Hey welcome back! Yeah there is something about an FZR that is just fun! And the possibilities are endless.

Well put! That's why I had to have another. These bikes are very easy and fun to frankenstein together. They are also lots of fun to ride around on with enough power to keep one fairly entertained.

Ok, now for some better pictures. I got out of work an hour early today, so I got home and started doing some more things to the bike.
I installed the front sprocket cover with the new bolts I got from Yamaha, installed the new clutch cable, got the new throttle cables attached to the carburetors, and put the seat cowl over the passenger seat.
I ran into some more bubba'ing, but I was able to undo it thankfully.


Pulled THIS out of the right case... it was a car's drain plug and it was leaking really bad. I replaced it with the proper cap and seal from Yamaha.


Has an NRC peanut cover on it already. ( yay! )


It's been feeling like Xmas time already with all of these parts coming in for me. Funny thing is the deeper I get into this bike the more things I am finding I am needing to order. It needs new exhaust gaskets and 2 new exhaust nuts, as the PO had it held together with crappy low grade nuts. You could smell the exhaust leaking past the pipe at the head. I hope he didnt run it like this for too long.....


Check it out, my new Ram Air mod



It's coming along nicely, more pics to come once more things get finished with it.
I am debating finding a Seca2 upper clamp and putting dirtbike bars on it.

Oh, one last thing. I think my charging system is a little weak, so I will be testing the stator next time I get around to it.
It is putting out, but the voltage never goes over 13.3V. @ idle it is right at 13, and 6k rpms it is only 13.2-13.3

That is a bit low. Check the alternator output at 5k; you should see 30-60vac. Check your connections and wiring for security, connector fouling or corrosion, fraying, and general damage. Check the red wire from the VRR to the battery as well.

It's possible that your VRR is failing low - annoying, but better than failing high and destroying your electrical system!

DonTZ125 wrote:That is a bit low. Check the alternator output at 5k; you should see 30-60vac. Check your connections and wiring for security, connector fouling or corrosion, fraying, and general damage. Check the red wire from the VRR to the battery as well.

It's possible that your VRR is failing low - annoying, but better than failing high and destroying your electrical system!

One of the PO's replaced the VRR w the yzf one already. The 3 wires coming from the stator looked good, no corrosion @ the connectors made for it or @ the VRR. The ground connection was solid, I didnt get a chance to see where he was drawing + from because I had somewhere to go and had to stop what I was doing. I'll check it tonight and see. I hope it's just wiring, but if I have to order a new VRR and/or stator so be it. Both are easy enough to replace.

The throttle tube came in the mail today! I got it installed, and ended up having to reroute the throttle cables once more. ( misunderstood the diagram in the OEM manual... The bike didnt come with cables originally ) It snaps back quickly like it is supposed to. I used Motion Pro cables since I am on a budget, but i have had good experience with them in the past. They bolted up nicely.
I wish I could take it for a spin around the neighborhood, but it is late now and mother nature decided that it was a good time to pull the plug from the sky. It's supposed to be rainy all weekend here, so I guess I'll have to wait until it clears up a bit. Will give me more time to finish up some other loose ends on it. More pics to come.

Well, it looks like I will be needing to do quite a bit more to the bike to get it roadworthy than I had originally anticipated.
I got home, the weather had improved enough for me to take the bike out around the neighborhood. I fixed the charging system issue ( found a burned wire ) and was really excited about taking it for a test ride finally. I fired it up, pulled the clutch in and put it into gear. I all of a sudden felt a grinding coming through the clutch handle... Sh*t... Somethings wrong in the clutch basket!
I drain the oil so I can take the clutch cover off, and the oil has a greenish look to some of it... double Sh*t.... I remove the clutch cover, and I find the outer most friction disk sitting outside of the basket stuck between the pressure plate and on top of the splines of the basket... I can already tell that someone else had been in here because it had a hardware store grade screw holding one of the washers in to keep tension on one of the springs. The inner hub looks like it is too far out, especially since when I pull the clutch the outer most friction disk is able to leave the basket with very little travel at all. When the clutch is engaged it is almost halfway out of the basket anyway. I was hoping that Bubba hadn't gone into the motor too, but I was wrong I guess I really want to smack whoever it was who did everything wrong to this bike.
The inner hub is beat up really badly, it's notched up bad enough that I think the steel plates would get stuck in the grooves. I think the PO wanted to be a stunter, or decided that doing lots of wheelies on an FZR was a good idea by the looks of it.
I've done head gaskets on OHC motors before, but never on an FZR. Do you guys think that I should trash this motor and start over, or clean out the crankcase somehow and rebuild this one? Need some advice and personal experience/s please I am capable of doing the work, but if it's going to cost too much in my time and parts costs then I'd rather keep this engine for parts only. I am kind of worried about things like bearings being contaminated with the coolant, and the fact that it is so obvious that this thing has been abused.
I will be running a compression test on it on monday evening, but I really am fearing the worst at this point.

So sorry to hear about your woes. I don't have any specific help to offer, other than moral support.

Have you priced motors in your area? Are there any available?

Good luck, I'll be curious to see how you make out.

nortstudio wrote:So sorry to hear about your woes. I don't have any specific help to offer, other than moral support.

Have you priced motors in your area? Are there any available?

Good luck, I'll be curious to see how you make out.

Haven't found any in the area yet. I found one on Ebay that sounds promising. Talked with the seller today and he has 2 motors up for sale, the one I am looking at is $600 shipped. It had good compression, and it was even across all 4 cylinders. Supposedly came off of a bike with close to 15k on it. We will see what happens, I am going to put up an ad on CL to see what I can drum up locally as well since I would prefer to inspect the motor myself before buying it. ( ideally )

I believe that replacing the engine with a known good one will probably be the better solution, and keeping this older one for the few good parts it still has left in it ( pickup coil and stator are good, NRC Pnut cover, maybe take the head off and gradually rebuild it so I'll have an extra in case something happens to the other one ) I'm just really worried that the PO ran this bike for a while with coolant in the case, and I dont want to drop a bunch of money and time into this motor if the bearings in the bottom end are going to be failing because of contaminated oil.


I'll keep you guys posted on everything else that's going on. I have a Seca2 upper triple tree coming in right now so I can put some dirtbike bars on it ( $50 on ebay ).

A motor swap is your better bet at this point. It'll be cheaper in the long run. $600 for that motor sounds pretty high. Around me they start with asking prices of 450 or so and I wouldn't pay more than 400 tops for an excellent condition motor. You can look into YZF600R engines. A direct swap and newer engines available. The fzr motor is most likely parts only. Just new rings and an engine gasket kit will run you close to $300. If you need a new clutch basket and bearings too you're already up to what you can buy a used YZF motor for.

thatkid wrote:A motor swap is your better bet at this point. It'll be cheaper in the long run. $600 for that motor sounds pretty high. Around me they start with asking prices of 450 or so and I wouldn't pay more than 400 tops for an excellent condition motor. You can look into YZF600R engines. A direct swap and newer engines available. The fzr motor is most likely parts only. Just new rings and an engine gasket kit will run you close to $300. If you need a new clutch basket and bearings too you're already up to what you can buy a used YZF motor for.

I hope I can find one cheaper, but that's the best one I have found on Fleabay for the money. I checked out the YZF motors, and they were going for a decent amount more than the FZR engines. I will still read up on the YZF swap just to consider my options. Thanks for the info I've got a listing up on CL now, hopefully I can find one locally.

I know this is stating the obvious, but keep in mind that what this guy is saying about the new engine could be very misleading, like the guy speaking about the last engine.

I don't want to be a downer, but the Internet is filled with tales of optimistic buyers hoping the PO was not a complete drip, and then getting burned.

If you can't wait - that's another story. But patience seems to reign supreme in terms of getting a good deal. But believe me, I know how hard it can be to wait when you have an option right in front of you!

Just got off of the phone with a local shop. Buddy of mine said he knows of a guy who has one maybe lying around that he was going to use in a 400 swap, but lost interest.

If I decide to get it from the seller on Ebay I will make him take some pics of the compression test. You are definitely right, and I will try to be more patient so I get a better deal.