Thoughts after my ZL600 rebuild 6/5/2012

I am a member of a Kawasaki ZL forum (http://www.zl-oa.com) that deals with all models of ZL or Eliminator series motorcycle.  The forum is full of knowledgeable people who are willing to give advice when needed. The help I received from that forum was invaluable!   
After doing my own rebuild, I wrote a post on the forum of things I would do different now that I had finished all of that work.  I think it is fitting to post it here....just cuz.

********************************************

Now that the deed is, for the most part, done, I've had a day or two to think about what I would do different or what advice I would give others thinking of doing the same thing.....Here they are, in no certain order:

1. Download the manuals and read them. You can't go wrong reading the manual. I learned a lot.

2. Before you take a wrench to said motorcycle, take a BUNCH of photographs......In 4 or 5 months when you are putting the cables back on, you will LOVE those photos. I had to go hunt photos from memory cards to see where a cable or two went.

3. Buy zip lock bags. The gallon size is a good size.

4. I can't speak for the 900 or 1000 but the best parts manual I found for the 600 is marked as a 1990 ZL750. It has all the screw sizes so you can tell the right hand control screws from the left hand control screws...(the right screws are 40mm long and the left screws are 45mm long and if used on the right control you will leave nasty screw bumps in the plastic....don't ask me how I know) If you can't find a parts manual, http://www.kawasaki.com has the same information online.

5. Lowes or Home Depot have a good selection of metric bolts, nuts and Allen head screws. I was at my local Lowes a lot in the last 4 months.

6. Orange Glo multipurpose cleaner does a good job of getting the 27 years of road grime off of plastic parts. Don't use it on those labels that you just can't get any more....it might clean the label a bit too good and clean the writing off the label

7. Mothers Back to Black works very well on those not so black parts that should be black...

8. I purchased used headers because my old ones had lived a hard life. (The first owner put road rash down both mufflers and bent the right side header in so far that the engine case put a hole in the header and he wore down the bottom screw on the kick stand switch so badly that half the screw head was missing) Putting on headers that were not bent or tweaked was a JOY. They darn near fell on by themselves. I must admit that putting all new exhaust gaskets on my headers/mufflers wasn't easy to watch. I had to spread the clamp section of the header/mufflers and watching part of that gasket peal away was hard to watch when I put the headers/mufflers on. All I could see was the money hitting the floor in those little slivers of exhaust gasket. ACK! The good news is that the exhaust sounds better than it ever has. It was money well spent!

9. I would have LOVED to buy all new parts...but....at some point the budget came into play. If it dealt with a reliability issue, I tried to get new parts. (I give MCM/Baccus alot of credit, he found NOS hoses I thought I would NEVER see new for a 27 year old motorcycle).

10. Speaking of budgets..... Some new parts on your old motorcycle will make your old parts that looked "ok" before look REALLY bad next to a new or refinished part. You might not want to, but you will spend more money than you expected to. The powder coating cost about $210 for a frame, tank and swingarm in black and most of the aluminum parts in silver metallic. I would be willing to bet I have another $150 to $200 in new parts/nuts, bolts, and screws. Invest in a tap and die set if you are powder coating your parts. It will leave a bit of coating in the threaded holes that could break a bolt. A quick tap of the screw hole before putting a screw/bolt in it will save you heartache later on!

11. I had been doing some restoring or updating from the day I got my ZL600 running in May, 2009. The seat was already done and the rear shocks, the tires, the carbs and the running of the engine were things I didn't have to mess with this time around.

12. The best thing I purchased before this rebuild was a box of odd nuts and bolts off of ebay for $10 almost two years ago. The best 10 bucks I've ever spent. That box of bolts saved my backsides more than once and kept me from spending even more money than I did.

13. Don't throw ANYTHING you take off your bike away until you are VERY sure you can replace it or repair it. The ZL600 has only been made 4 years in the past 27 years. Some things just aren't available any longer.....(ZL600 sidepod decals for example) (I think of how hard it would be to restore a ZL1000!)

14. Don't forget to say "THANK YOU" to your wife/girlfriend/husband/boyfriend.....Remember, it is your motorcycle hobby, not theirs. My wife dealt with my wrenching after work and then falling in bed and being asleep before my head hit the pillow. She told me I snored VERY loudly on those nights when I was most tired. Thank you Randi, you are truly a blessing. I give my wife a lot of credit, whenever she heard me say "my golf words" she would come running to help. Dropping your restored frame in the middle of a concrete floor will make you cuss a bit!

15. I got to give back to the ZL-OA, which was important to me. This group of people has helped me a bunch since 2009. I think I wrote two tech articles for the ZL600 (Gas Cap tear down and a Junction Box tear down) I also tried to pass on information about aftermarket bearings that would work with the steering and swingarm. My lower steering bearing was in BAD shape. I had to cut it off and replace it.

16. Wide levers....worth every dime! They are very comfortable.



17. before and after photos are fun.....take a bunch of them.

Before picture

After Picture

 
Is my 1986 ZL600 now perfect? NO..not by a long shot. Is it better? You bet! in every way you can think of it is SOOO much better than the barn find that pulled up on the back of a trailer at my old house in 2005 or 2006. There are still a million little things to do and parts to adjust....but it runs once again!

BadBrad, Thank you for calling me and telling me about the ZL600 Crash Bars on Ebay. I LOVE THEM! They fit perfectly!

Thanks ZLMark, you run a good forum. I'm sorry I missed meeting you last year.


********************************

J.