ZXR 750 L1

[dern]

I bought this a while back...



...and have been failing to sort it out consistently since. The plan is to make a sunday sunny bike out of it that can also do classic track days. It won't be going back to standard as the fairing is in a state and it's not a minter in any other respect. I had an J1 years ago and love the bikes. If I had the space I'd like a minter but I'm not interested in restoring this one to original spec.

The bodywork I'll fit will be race stuff that I'll paint a mixture of pearlescent white and satin black in a scheme a bit like this...



The headlights will go and be replaced by a single projector a bit like this...



I know a lot of people like the original colours and lights and I do too, it's just not what I want this to be.

This is the frame now the engine is out...



...as you can see someone had a go at polishing the frame but didn't bother taking anything off the bike to do it. I'll try and do this properly as I like the look.

This is the engine after a bit of a clean...



Next job is to change the cam cover gasket and cam bolt seals that all were leaking and resulted in the engine being covered in a thick layer of muck.

I'll then continue to strip the frame.

[Skub]

I've alway like those too. I'll watch with interest.

Take the sump pan off and check the oil pump pickup filter,they can accumulate a lot of muck and choke the engine of oil at higher revs.

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

I like them to look at, but, for me, they're hideously uncomfortable, and that was when I was young and slim.

[weeksy]

Now we're talking! If you'd posted this last week you'd have won a prize

[KungFooBob]

The ZXR750 ran a close 2nd to the GSXR1100 when I was looking for a cool 90's bike.

I like what you're doing, but I'd have painted it Kawasaki France endurance racing colours.

[Rockburner]

Nice.

[Beancounter]

Good thread.

Numpty question, why are the spark plug holes slightly off-set in pairs? Bear in mind the square root of feck all about engines.

[KungFooBob]

Good thread.

Numpty question, why are the spark plug holes slightly off-set in pairs? Bear in mind the square root of feck all about engines.

They're not.

What you think are plug holes are breathers or pair valves or or something, the plug holes are hidden behind them due to the angle the picture was taken.

[dern]

Good thread.

Numpty question, why are the spark plug holes slightly off-set in pairs? Bear in mind the square root of feck all about engines.

They're not.

What you think are plug holes are breathers or pair valves or or something, the plug holes are hidden behind them due to the angle the picture was taken.

Yep, the raised ones are the pair valves.

[mangocrazy]

A mate of mine was a ZXR750 fan. He had three of them - the first being a J1 in blue which was probably his perfect bike. It suited him and he went well on it. But there was a bit of friendly 'upgrade wars' going on between us, fuelled by the contemporary WSB shenanigans. I had an 851, but lusted after an 888 SP3. So when I bought one, Tim (not to be outdone) upgraded to the K1 - the limited edition WSB homologation, flat slide carb jobbie. And had a Muzzy paintjob done on it. It looked hard as nails.

He let me have a go on it and it was proper quick. Needed to be revved and revved hard. It was like riding a two stroke on steroids. But then he managed to crash it - twice. Once at Cadwell and once right outside my house. And it all went a bit downhill after that. Having lost a fair wedge due to the crashes, he had to sell the K at a big loss and bought a crash-damaged L1 as a fixer upper. It got him back on two wheels but it was a bit of a dog.

It took him all the way to the south of France and back on a biking holiday but I don't think it ever lit his fire like the J did.

[dern]

The K's are very special bikes and cost a load of money now. This cost me about £1300 a year or so ago from memory.

[Beancounter]

Good thread.

Numpty question, why are the spark plug holes slightly off-set in pairs? Bear in mind the square root of feck all about engines.

They're not.

What you think are plug holes are breathers or pair valves or or something, the plug holes are hidden behind them due to the angle the picture was taken.

Thank you.

[mangocrazy]

The K's are very special bikes and cost a load of money now. This cost me about £1300 a year or so ago from memory.

That's an excellent price. My mate still hankers after another ZXR750, it seems like an itch that needs to be scratched. And the K's are rare and expensive beasts indeed.

[Bustaspoke]

I've never been a Kawasaki fan,those ZXR750's are one of the few models that I like.The Kawasaki France endurance bikes & Scott Russel's WSB bike looked great,I even had a sweatshirt celebrating To tall Tel & Foggy's world endurance win back in 1992.
44 Teeth uploaded another episode with their ZXR750 to You Tube last week,They got a surprise when they swapped exhausts & put it on the dyno

[Supermofo]

The K's are very special bikes and cost a load of money now. This cost me about £1300 a year or so ago from memory.

That's an excellent price. My mate still hankers after another ZXR750, it seems like an itch that needs to be scratched. And the K's are rare and expensive beasts indeed.

I was thinking that. Even crap ones on ebay are advertised at £2k+

The Maroon red J1 model was my favourite. My mate had a H2 in Red/Black and that was the first big bike I ever rode. A ZXR would cripple me now but I'd still love one.

[Jody]

Great thread keep it up!

My mate has a red and black ZXR750 in his collection of bikes, it's in need of a deep recommissioning or a a full rebuild. He talks about advertising it but somehow never gets around to it !

[dern]

I was thinking that. Even crap ones on ebay are advertised at £2k+

I just checked and I bought it two years ago so I probably should have finished this by now given how busy I've been for the last two years socially. It seems I paid £1500 which is pretty good. I think it's done about 30k.

When I picked it up I could tell that half the fairings were not EO, the frame had been 'polished' badly and the engine was covered in oily muck but it did have plenty of clean oil in it. It ran well and pulled well on a quick run up the street so I bought it.

The brakes are pretty bad so need stripping down. The forks had been recently rebuilt and I have a receipt for that work but I'm probably going to pull them apart anyway and get the shock serviced.

I've already replaced all the service bits in the carbs. There was also play between the butterflies caused by wear on the spindle where one joined to number two but I've fixed that.

On top of all that the bike I bought was highlighted in the 'Bad' section of this Bennetts buyers guide that anyone looking for a zxr750 would have found at the time... https://www.bennetts.co.uk/bikesocial/n ... gbu-zxr750

Anyway, it's a fun project and rereading the article has made me start looking for a zx9 motor...

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

I was offered a race ZXR750K for £2500 a couple of years ago, it was by no means original as it was a race bike, but it had the flat slide carbs, K engine and frame, I think it was from Phase 1, but I could be wrong.

[dern]

Bit more work on the bike this weekend.

First thing was to make sure all the valve clearance were ok. Most were good but 4 exhaust valves were slightly too tight. This bike uses the same shim size as my cbr1000rr and I've got a hot cams kit for that so that was easy enough. The best thing about doing the clearances on this bike is that the rockers push to one side so you don't have to remove the cams. Huge time saver. You can see the springs in this picture...



I then painted some of the covers for the engine to make it look a bit tidier. I had some satin black so thought I may as well. I also fitted a new cam cover gasket, new spark plug seals and cam cover bolt seals to cure the oil leak that the engine had. I also fitted some pair valve delete plates...



I then stripped out the loom, rear brake and a load of undertrays to get to the bare frame...



The shock doesn't look great so I have to decide whether to refurbish it or buy a new aftermarket shock and spring...



The swing arm came off ok. Heard some horror stories where the sleeves can't be shifted but all mine came undone with some encouragement from an impact gun. The only problem is that the swing arm sleeve is worn so needs replacing along with all the bearings and seals. You can't get the sleeve any more so I'm currently looking in to getting some adapters to suit a zx7r sleeve. I can't find instructions on how all this fits together and all the parts come to about £200 so don't want to just buy it all and hope. I'll find someone soon enough who knows though. The other option is to get a fabricator to machine a replacement sleeve out of hardened steel.

[weeksy]

Bloody great work mate, thoroughly enjoying it.