The bodywork is already gone to be painted. I wasn't willing to roll with the Rossi paint.
Now it's just sitting in the corner awaiting my attention. I had to clear extra room in the basement for the giant pile of spares that came with it.
FZR400 track bike project.
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FZR400 track bike project.
I bought this on Saturday. '89 FZR400. It doesn't run at the moment but supposedly did when parked. I'm hoping to take it to Mid-O and PIRC with my supermoto this summer.
The bodywork is already gone to be painted. I wasn't willing to roll with the Rossi paint.
Now it's just sitting in the corner awaiting my attention. I had to clear extra room in the basement for the giant pile of spares that came with it.
The bodywork is already gone to be painted. I wasn't willing to roll with the Rossi paint.
Now it's just sitting in the corner awaiting my attention. I had to clear extra room in the basement for the giant pile of spares that came with it.
...dude you ride an offroad bike with slicks, 1/2 the weight of a GS, double the suspension, with a browning 50 cal going off 32" from your skull as a daily freaking driver - I'd expect anything except a nitro dragbike to be bland by comparison - SSG
Re: FZR400 track bike project.
nice choice 
lets see some more
lets see some more
2012gsxr750
07gsxr750 track(gone)
91gsxr1100
1989 fzr400
400/600 in the making
07gsxr750 track(gone)
91gsxr1100
1989 fzr400
400/600 in the making
Re: Re: FZR400 track bike project.
I don't really have any more pics that look any different at the moment. Here are some of the spares. Upper, two tails, tank cover, two shocks (has a Fox on it), radiator, carbs, brand new Spiegler SS lines, a complete set of brakes (calipers, Earls SS lines, master, and double banjo with bleeder) off of an FZR 600 or possibly a '90 400.kirbster wrote:More pics!
There's a bunch more but you get the idea.
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...dude you ride an offroad bike with slicks, 1/2 the weight of a GS, double the suspension, with a browning 50 cal going off 32" from your skull as a daily freaking driver - I'd expect anything except a nitro dragbike to be bland by comparison - SSG
Re: FZR400 track bike project.
Looks a nice clean bike...
Re: Re: FZR400 track bike project.
It's a 10 footer.elmwood wrote:Looks a nice clean bike...
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...dude you ride an offroad bike with slicks, 1/2 the weight of a GS, double the suspension, with a browning 50 cal going off 32" from your skull as a daily freaking driver - I'd expect anything except a nitro dragbike to be bland by comparison - SSG
Re: FZR400 track bike project.
Good progress. I was able to make it run last night by pouring gas in the carbs and then augmenting the starter with my drill on the crank. So I've verified the integrity of the motor.
The fuel pump primes but to me sounds terrible and I never did end up with gas at the carbs. I'll have to pull it and jumper it to a 12V source to verify full function.
I pulled apart the starter a couple nights ago and everything looks okay and it seems great when jumped to a 12V source. However, once back in the bike it just doesn't seem to get the job done. I'm going to have to pull apart the starter gears and starter clutch to see if that's where the issue is coming from.
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The fuel pump primes but to me sounds terrible and I never did end up with gas at the carbs. I'll have to pull it and jumper it to a 12V source to verify full function.
I pulled apart the starter a couple nights ago and everything looks okay and it seems great when jumped to a 12V source. However, once back in the bike it just doesn't seem to get the job done. I'm going to have to pull apart the starter gears and starter clutch to see if that's where the issue is coming from.
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...dude you ride an offroad bike with slicks, 1/2 the weight of a GS, double the suspension, with a browning 50 cal going off 32" from your skull as a daily freaking driver - I'd expect anything except a nitro dragbike to be bland by comparison - SSG
Re: FZR400 track bike project.
This is a few days late but here is the update.
After figuring out that the starter still wouldn't turn any better when jumped directly from a battery I decided to investigate further. I pulled the cover that contains the starter clutch and starter gear drive system.
Some fool had this apart and didn't put a shaft back in place. One of the gears was essentially just floating in place. I'll be very clear, it's not just that the shaft was placed incorrectly. It was completely gone. So each time that the starter was spun it would just drive the gear into the side of the case. I can't believe that things were spinning at all. It was millimeters of thickness from driving through to the point that it would have hit a bolt and come to a grinding halt. You can also see damage on the cover from where the gear was just floating. Red arrow is where the shaft was there for the first gear, blue circle is where the shaft was missing. I drained all of the oil afterward and it doesn't look like the oil in the crank case was contaminated at all by what was going on inside that cover. Just to be safe I then pulled the oil pan. Also essentially clear of debris. I flushed everything and now I'm just have to pick up the new parts.
Seriously, blown away.
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After figuring out that the starter still wouldn't turn any better when jumped directly from a battery I decided to investigate further. I pulled the cover that contains the starter clutch and starter gear drive system.
Some fool had this apart and didn't put a shaft back in place. One of the gears was essentially just floating in place. I'll be very clear, it's not just that the shaft was placed incorrectly. It was completely gone. So each time that the starter was spun it would just drive the gear into the side of the case. I can't believe that things were spinning at all. It was millimeters of thickness from driving through to the point that it would have hit a bolt and come to a grinding halt. You can also see damage on the cover from where the gear was just floating. Red arrow is where the shaft was there for the first gear, blue circle is where the shaft was missing. I drained all of the oil afterward and it doesn't look like the oil in the crank case was contaminated at all by what was going on inside that cover. Just to be safe I then pulled the oil pan. Also essentially clear of debris. I flushed everything and now I'm just have to pick up the new parts.
Seriously, blown away.
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...dude you ride an offroad bike with slicks, 1/2 the weight of a GS, double the suspension, with a browning 50 cal going off 32" from your skull as a daily freaking driver - I'd expect anything except a nitro dragbike to be bland by comparison - SSG
Re: FZR400 track bike project.
I got it running today. The new starter gears showed up yesterday so I installed them last night. Today I started the rebuild on my XR650R supermoto engine but had to pause when I broke a piston ring. Since I couldn't proceed on the XRR I went back to the FZR. By bypassing the fuel pump and holding the tank up I was able to make it run. It sounds great with the V&H full system. Now I just have to get a new fuel pump.
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...dude you ride an offroad bike with slicks, 1/2 the weight of a GS, double the suspension, with a browning 50 cal going off 32" from your skull as a daily freaking driver - I'd expect anything except a nitro dragbike to be bland by comparison - SSG
Re: FZR400 track bike project.
Always good to finally get it running!slickwill wrote:I got it running today. The new starter gears showed up yesterday so I installed them last night. Today I started the rebuild on my XR650R supermoto engine but had to pause when I broke a piston ring. Since I couldn't proceed on the XRR I went back to the FZR. By bypassing the fuel pump and holding the tank up I was able to make it run. It sounds great with the V&H full system. Now I just have to get a new fuel pump.
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What are you doing to the XRR motor? Mine is stock right now , but I'm planning on putting in a Carrillo rod and having the crank trued, balanced & welded before I proceed with the mods for horsepower.
BTW, what speeds/ gearing are you running in the XRR? I could use a good starting point for my FZR/XRR roadracer.
Hope to see you out at PIRC this year. I race at Nelson quite a bit as well.
XR650R in an FZR400 chassis project
Re: Re: FZR400 track bike project.
I have an '03 XRR supermoto that was a Johnny Campbell's factory race bike. It was built with a 680cc 11:1 piston, custom ground WebCam that makes the stage 2 hotcam look mild, ported, polished, decked. It was run as his BITD race bike, then I put around 5k street miles, and some track days on it. The big end bearing blew up on the front straight at Grattan a couple years ago. I rebuilt it last winter after having the crank rebuilt by Falicon. I had their full "supercrank" service done with polishing, lightening, balancing, and knife rod. Unfortunately they damaged the counterbalance drive gear, I sent it back and they pressed on a new one. When I got it back together the new gear had just enough run out that it caused a bit of a knock in the bottom end. I raced like that a few rounds this summer on a short kart track but never had full faith in it holding up so I pulled it back apart. I found a donor crank and had the counterbalancer drive gear swapped on to the supercrank. I got all of the bottom end back together and sealed up yesterday. When I went to reinstall the piston rings I broke one so I'm stalled while I wait for new rings. I should mention that on my rebuild this summer I used a Wiseco 11:1 in standard bore.tgold wrote:Always good to finally get it running!slickwill wrote:I got it running today. The new starter gears showed up yesterday so I installed them last night. Today I started the rebuild on my XR650R supermoto engine but had to pause when I broke a piston ring. Since I couldn't proceed on the XRR I went back to the FZR. By bypassing the fuel pump and holding the tank up I was able to make it run. It sounds great with the V&H full system. Now I just have to get a new fuel pump.
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What are you doing to the XRR motor? Mine is stock right now , but I'm planning on putting in a Carrillo rod and having the crank trued, balanced & welded before I proceed with the mods for horsepower.
BTW, what speeds/ gearing are you running in the XRR? I could use a good starting point for my FZR/XRR roadracer.
Hope to see you out at PIRC this year. I race at Nelson quite a bit as well.
I run 15/43 gearing. That gives an honest 120mph. A lot of guys run 15/45 for general supermoto use. If I was running road course only I may consider 16/43 or a 15/42. On the kart track I race on I'm never out of 2nd gear.
...dude you ride an offroad bike with slicks, 1/2 the weight of a GS, double the suspension, with a browning 50 cal going off 32" from your skull as a daily freaking driver - I'd expect anything except a nitro dragbike to be bland by comparison - SSG
Re: Re: FZR400 track bike project.
Thanks for the gearing info. That will help me get in the ballpark.
Interesting you have Johnny Campbell's bike... I went down with a team of guys to race a quad in the 2007 Baja 1000. I was in Ensenada the day before the race started when I met Johnny and he autographed my helmet.
That was one of the most awesome racing experiences of my life, just unbelievably awesome scenery and an insane race for 1290 miles through the desert. It's sitting in may garage with his autograph the dirt from the race still on it.....I'll never wash that thing.
Interesting you have Johnny Campbell's bike... I went down with a team of guys to race a quad in the 2007 Baja 1000. I was in Ensenada the day before the race started when I met Johnny and he autographed my helmet.
That was one of the most awesome racing experiences of my life, just unbelievably awesome scenery and an insane race for 1290 miles through the desert. It's sitting in may garage with his autograph the dirt from the race still on it.....I'll never wash that thing.
XR650R in an FZR400 chassis project
Re: FZR400 track bike project.
I rode all four of my bikes today. That's right, all four because I was finally able to make this thing run. It still has some issues to sort out but I was able to terrorize the neighborhood for long enough to know that it sounds good, runs smooth, and shifts through all six gears.
I'm still having to add fuel to the carbs a few times to get it running. Once running it doesn't want to idle very well and does better if I keep the revs up. I'll start with some fresh fuel and Seafoam and then go from there.
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I'm still having to add fuel to the carbs a few times to get it running. Once running it doesn't want to idle very well and does better if I keep the revs up. I'll start with some fresh fuel and Seafoam and then go from there.
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...dude you ride an offroad bike with slicks, 1/2 the weight of a GS, double the suspension, with a browning 50 cal going off 32" from your skull as a daily freaking driver - I'd expect anything except a nitro dragbike to be bland by comparison - SSG
Re: FZR400 track bike project.
Nice bike. It sounds like you have a little bit of carb work to do. Any pics after the fresh paint job?
Re: FZR400 track bike project.
Oh, and I'm not surprised re: your starter gear. However that might be the most unusual PO modification I've heard. Usually it's a welded front sprocket, forks with zero oil, hacked up wiring, or nuts and bolts that are so over torqued that they are impossible to remove.