RZ350NC2 Resto Mod

[Lonster]

Great pics.
The paint looks like it should be pretty hardy. Looking forward to seeing it for myself after a year or two of use.
Sorry about the dowel incident, but it sounds like you took it in stride.
Keep 'em coming!

 

[kpke]

"took it in stride"This was one of those you had to be there moments. You might've made a different comment.

3 vacations, a family sized dose of really nasty Covid, and work sure have gotten in the way of keeping up with this. I am much better at keeping up with my YouTube channel if anyone is interested in following along.

I’m attempting to get a few entries in this morning.

6/5/22
Assembled clutch side cover. New OEM Yamaha
Water pump bearing, seal and gasket.
MacDaddy Racing water pump cover with drain.
Oil pump seal and gasket.
Kick start seal.

Made 24 videos and 1 photograph.

Started assy of power valves but noticed no chamfer on the ports after the bore job. Damn it.

Brian said “shit, I forgot” and to bring them back and he will fix them. Too much driving time so I set up to do it myself. This porting tool has really done me well.

Refurbished the 40T rear sprocket

 

[kpke]

6/6/22
Engine bottom end clutch and stator assembly. Very few photos again.

Upgrades include aftermarket clutch, 3 stock springs and 3 stiff springs.

Aftermarket shift detent and pancake bearing.

Stator installation.

 

[kpke]

6/11/22
Power valve assembly.

After chamfering the ports I was able to proceed with this task.

 

[Lonster]

Progress is progress. Love the paint results too.

 

[kpke]

5/??/22 start and finished 8/7/22
Front and rear wheel bearing replacement.

Rear wheel went smooth.

On the front wheel a few challenges were encountered. I was unable to get a drift to make contact with the bearing to get it started. Ken’s Garage hack shop had to make a special tool to get the front wheel bearings started.

In the process I damaged a weird front wheel stamped steel spacer replacement part that needed to be ordered with timing such that I would be home when it arrived.

Wheel bearing press tool in action.

I am sure you noticed the ugly speedo drive. This has been cleaned, blasted, painted, reassembled.

 

[kpke]

8/30/22
Installed rear caliper. I didn't have a proper tool so I had to make a tool to spot face the powder coated caliper bracket mounting surfaces to ensure the caliper sits flush against the bracket.

It worked.

The rear caliper now mounts properly to the caliper bracket.

Installed front calipers.

Installed rear blinkers.

 

[kpke]

(I keep getting interrupted with work so posting piecemeal. How do they expect me to get my build thread updated efficiently, hmmm?)

8/31/22
Venhill brake line order

Measure existing line from the center of the banjo at each end, or as the diagrams below, then subtract 40mm from the overall length. This gives you the line length you will need.


Front MC to splitter
320-40 = 280
Ordered 300

Front 2 lines from splitter to left and right calipers
495-40 = 455
495-40 = 455
Ordered 450

Rear MC to caliper
275-40 = 235
Ordered 250

Qty (8) M10 20° BANJO, BLACK
Qty (1) 10x1.25mm DOMED DOUBLE BANJO BOLT BLACK
Qty (5) 10x1.25mm DOMED SINGLE BANJO BOLT BLACK

 

[Frame Maker]

(I keep getting interrupted with work so posting piecemeal. How do they expect me to get my build thread updated efficiently, hmmm?)

Sheesh... we haven't even seen any pics from that other event

 

[kpke]

9/4/22 and 9/5/22
Repaired harness. Stator wires on the main harness were a bit melty at the interconnect from the stator. A common theme on these bikes it appears. I did the same exact repair on the Thrasher bike https://youtu.be/aGqdsueU8RY April 2021.

It’s hot today.

In Ken’s Garage harness repairs like this always get soldered.

And Monday it’s going to be hotter than yesterday.

A bit of a sidebar here.

Playing with some thermometers on Monday. Did anybody notice that it got FUCKING HOT today?

Meat thermometer I think in the shade

Pool thermometer in the shade. (I have no idea if this is accurate as this thing is supposed to be submersed in water.)

And then in the sun

Inside the travel trailer with the vents open and a fan exhausting

Inside the cargo trailer

A screenshot at 9:45 AM

A friend from Georgia sent me this he made from the secondary clutch cover

Back to the motorcycle.

The repaired harness is installed.

Also installed a couple of horns.

 

[kpke]

Sheesh... we haven't even seen any pics from that other event

Go here Julian

https://bayarearidersforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=556248

 

[kpke]

9/11/22 Sad day in history

This weekend I installed the radiator and filler.

Cleaned and hand polished radiator cover. Ordered M5 well nut to attempt a repair to this cover.

Cleaned chain guard and 000 steel wooled it using WD40.

Ordered pad for cheap orbital car polisher to attempt to polish chain guard. In the past I have attempted using my real buffer on this type of plastic and it burns extremely quick. Against my better judgment I attempted it on this chain guard and burned it. It starts working with a very light pressure and moving very quick but it’s very easy for it to catch something and then you’re done. So I went through many grades of sandpaper standing the burn mark off.



9/14/22

I decided to try a different method to get some threads into this part. Epoxied the cavity of the missing nut on the radiator cover. Cured and tapped it out. I don’t think it’s going to hold but leaving it. The cover is easily removed and drilled for a well nut when it fails. Installed cover.

Spent hours trying to restore the chain guard. Wet sanded to 1500 then used the orbital buffer. Did not work.

Too much time penalty resulted in installing a NOS unit I had in stock (thanks Julian from many years ago). The other one will be used on a custom bike.

 

[budman]

Chain guard looks fine to me.

 

[mean dad]

Hey Ken, I've had really good results from using this on the black plastic pieces to renew them.

They're basically like Clorox or Lysol wipes, but for garage type stuff. Cleaned up my rear fender very nicely.

 

[Lonster]

Tub-o-towels are GREAT cleaning cloths. They are my 'go-to' for wiping all the grime and sludge off of the exterior of the BBQ, and other tough cleaning jobs. Never tried plastic, but I definitely will now!
thanks.

 

[kpke]

Thanks mean dad. I'll have to give those a try. Nice, one day to my door step from amazon.

 

[Lonster]

Thanks mean dad. I'll have to give those a try. Nice, one day to my door step from amazon.

Or In Stock at your local, friendly O'Reilly Auto parts store!

 

[kpke]

9/15/22

Top End Assembly

Need to do a tiny bit of trimming of the cylinder base gasket to match the case matching that was done on the cases.

Installed pistons, base gaskets. Temporary install of the head to get the cylinders perfectly flat. Tighten cylinder base nuts. Remove head and Inspect cylinder flatness. It looks perfect. Yamaha spec for flatness is .003.

Squish band measurements were taken.

Final assembly of the top-end is done.

 

[kpke]

9/22/22

I decided not to purchase VForce 4 reed valves because they are very expensive from the manufacturer and it’s too much of a risk receiving imitation ones purchasing from anyone else at a discount. There’s lots of horror stories about this. I had a set of TDR single petal fiber reed valves and installed them and the intake manifolds. Pressure tested the engine and it held, no leaks.

 

[kpke]

10/1/22

Installed the engine into the frame. No nicks and no scratches on the beautiful powder coated frame so this is a big win.