ACK! Its been a great year. Not a perfect year but a great year.
In June or July I drove my Dodge Dakota truck to a small town in the next county to buy a 1987 ZX600 Kawasaki Ninja. It didn't have a title but it had a good engine. The Kawasaki ZL600 I already have (and rebuilt last winter) uses the same engine as the ZX600. For $400 I drove home with this:
1 1987 Kawasaki ZX600 Ninja in very bad shape
It wasn't pretty. The gas tank was SO bad, it went right in the trash when I got home. I spent a few weeks trying to ensure that the engine I had purchased would do what I wanted it to do....however, I noticed, a silver frame that would take powder coating VERY well...Hmmmmm there might be more to this than meets the eye. Could I do it again? Could I rebuild something in SUCH bad shape? First things first. I tried to find a title for the frame I had. The best I found out was that the bike was a California specification and the last time it was titled was in Pennsylvania. The previous owner told me when he went back to get the title from the people he purchased it from, they guy tried to stick him for more money....and I couldn't blame him for not paying another dime. Well THAT was a dead end...... I then wrote a guy I purchased a few parts from who lived in Myrtle Beach. I first ask him if he had a frame with a title for a ZL600....(I knew he had a ZL600 frame with out a working engine) He told me he had a frame for a zl600 but no title....well DARN, he then told me he had a 1986 ZX600 frame with a clear title. As first I turned him down flat. Riding a ZL600 is like riding a Tennessee walking horse. A very smooth ride for a 30 year old motorcycle. After thinking about it I decided a ZX600 might not be a bad idea, and here's why:
1. I already had the factory repair manual as you need a ZX600 manual to work on a ZL600 because they have so many parts in common
2. I had a good understanding of how the parts fit together because I had rebuilt my ZL600 the previous winter and the ZX600 uses the same parts just mounted differently on the frame.
3. The zx600 was made from 1985 until 1997 and parts are SO much more available as it was such a popular bike.
The bad part of it all:
1. I had never seen a ZX600 with all its parts and in running condition. There just aren't dozens of 1986 motorcycles still in running condition.
2. A ZL600 has a drive shaft, the ZX600 uses a chain. I'm not crazy about a motorcycle with a chain. It takes a "certain" touch to ride a chain driven motorcycle smoothly and I seem not to be blessed with that "certain" touch....
Well, in for a penny, in for a pound. I drove to Myrtle Beach and picked up the 1986 ZX600 frame. I picked the coldest weekend of the year to drive to Myrtle Beach. It was just plain NASTY, rainy and overcast. When I got to the guy's farm, we talked and the frame I was purchasing had parts that I was missing so THIS was a good thing. The money changed hands and we loaded it in the back of my truck.
There were 5 or 6 outdoor cats at this guy's farm and while loading the frame in my truck I stepped right in one of the "kitty gifts" some cat left in the yard. Oh joy! The smell we had to live with all the way back from Myrtle Beach with the heat on was "icky"
a 1986 ZX600 Kawasaki Ninja frame with a title
Well, it wasn't winning any beauty contest but it did have a title.....
When you look up the parts manual of ZX600 on the Kawasaki.com, the three years from 85, 86, & 87 are always together. The engine and running gear from 88, 89, through 97 was very similar and shared lots of common parts with the 86....I ASSUMED this would be simple...strip the 87 of parts, repair the frame and bearings on the 86 and then put it all back together, purchase what was missing or broken. Simple, right?.....WRONG.
The 86 and 87 Ninja are VERY close but there are certain parts that are a TINY bit different and I seemed to find out those differences at the worst moment.
I also forgot that the 87 I had once lived in a rainy part of the country and rust was on everything (and I do mean everything!)
For as much as the 87 was about 80% there, the rust made it harder to disassemble that motorcycle....trust me on this...broken parts suck.
The rust caused me to break off a exhaust/head stud and I had to figure out how to fix that...TADA! J.B. Weld and a new stud to the rescue...(I have since learned there are "left handed" (no, that doesn't mean they smoke pot) drill bits and using a left handed drill bill will back the broken stud out 98% of the time! The rust in that engine caused me cut the upper coolant pipe because I couldn't remove it because the part in the engine was rusted just enough to prevent them being pulled out of the engine. Once I cut the part, I pulled and twisted and the rusty parts came right out. Ebay supplied the new part, a coat of paint and a few sealing o-rings later, the parts were back on the engine looking good as new.
I was ask what goes through my mind while working on a motorcycle...and the true answer to that question is a bit boring. Sometimes putting a motorcycle together is a bit like a jig saw puzzle. Parts have to go back on in a certain order or they don't fit together correctly. I usually have two or three things on my mental agenda so when I get to a place I have to stop on one sub assembly because of lack of parts, a problem removing a part or whatever the problem, I can grab another sub assembly and continue to make progress. If I'm not thinking of how to put something back together I'm looking for tools, for I will admit I have the organizational capabilities of a GNAT. My organization gene got left out when I came along. I sometimes wish I was better put together on the organizational front.......as Popeye says "I yam what I yam" and I yam unorganized in a big way! Or as Hannah Horne (news anchor for WIS TV) would say "I'm a hot mess".
For as much as I felt familiar with rebuilding a motorcycle and the parts as they went back together, I've also had challenges I didn't have the last time around.
The horn on the ZL600 is on the bottom triple tree right under the headlight....easy as cake, er pie. The ZX600 has two horns and they are frame mounted behind the exhaust header, radiator and the oil cooler...I can't seem to fit my hands in there to put the wires back on the horns. I haven't figured out how to get that task done yet but I haven't given up yet either.
Other than the brakes and chain, from a mechanical standpoint my zx600 is darn near together. I would like to hear it RUN before I continue on. After this, the big repairs are to the body, lights and paint. I've never painted a darn thing in my life...(yes, I have painted a house before but I can't say I'm good at it) I must decide on a paint and body shop to paint the plastic body parts and the tank.
The paint style I'm going with.
no red seat for me....
Right now, I have that motorcycle farther together than it was when I purchased it. I'm in uncharted territory and I'm having to dig in the factory parts and repair manuals to figure out just how to move along going forward.
Wish me luck!
J.
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