Saturday December 14th 2024. Kawasaki Z550 AJ, Jack and Jon worked on the bike, AJ in particular was overcoming some final electrical problems around the headlight.  The front brake light switch was found to be faulty and a new one will have to be ordered.  AJ got the bike running outside the hall with vacuum gauges attached to try and establish why the engine was not idling smoothly. Unfortunately the club’s gauges were not playing ball. Hopefully a balance issue would explain why the exhaust of No 1 cylinder was not getting hot.  The respray of the bike’s tank and side panels was still a work in progress. Kawasaki Z550 on the brink of completion? Kawasaki Z250 Steve and Allan worked on the bike’s rear disc brake. The vacuum brake bleeding device the club had bought couldn’t be persuaded to work due to its o-ring having warped.  However with Phil Howell’s assistance Steve eventually got the fluid into the rear brake caliper.  Steve had concluded that the...

  Workshop Update for Saturday 16/11/24… Kawasaki KZ550 Limited Progress was limited to installing  a battery of the correct dimensions to fit in the battery box.  The bike’s fuel tank and side panels were away with the club’s resident Kawasaki expert A.J. who in turn had got us a quote to have them professionally resprayed.  The quote included hand painting pinstripes on the tank to match those that Kawasaki originally applied to the bike.  The incorrectly wired bulb from amongst those in the tachometer still needed to be sorted to prevent the fuze blowing problem.  Andy, the club’s resident refinisher, sprayed the components needed to attach the seat to the frame when the time came.  Dnepr 650. Dave worked diligently to reassemble the top end of the engine, installing second hand replacement cylinders, cylinder heads and pistons to both cylinders.  This resulted in strong compression on both cylinders.  When the engine was started, the popp...

  Kawasaki KZ550 Limited (Hybird!) A.J., Jack and Andy Joiner worked on the bike and the bike was started up.  However a short developed in the wiring which blew the main fuse.  Andy Joiner, our budding auto-electrician detached components one at a time until the huge current drain on the battery ceased.  It did so when he disconnected the small harness of wires leading to the bulbs in the tacho.  Working with Graham and testing each bulb holder in turn with a volt meter Andy deduced that one of the bulbs had been wired up with its polarity reversed leaving the bulb holder on the live side of the bulb instead of on the earth side.  Although the tachometer is largely made of plastic there were metal components where some of the bulbs pressed in and it was concluded that the live bulb holder had shorted out on one of these.  Whether this would ultimately prove to be behind the fault would have to wait until the harness On leaving the session A.J. took th...

  Workshop blog update for Saturday October 19th. The assembled throng busy in the workshop. The below video of some of the activities that went on during our 19/10/24 workshop session, was kindly prepared for us by club member Mark McDermott on 19/10/24 and originally uploaded to the club Facebook Group. First and foremost we welcomed Andy Jenkins AKA ‘AJ’ back for the first time since his horrific accident back in April, it was also great to see his wife Meryl with him.  AJ looked surprisingly good considering his 6 month ordeal to regain his fitness. Kawasaki KZ550 Limited. It is fantastic to be able to say that AJ set to work on the bike with assistance from Jack. A number of wiring issues were tackled and at one point the bike could be found laying on its side on the workshop floor. Not because it had toppled over but because AJ and Jack were replacing the oil pressure switch.  The oil pressure switch is located on the bottom of the engine and had the bike been left...

  Saturday October 5th 2024 The Grinnng Reaper mysteriusly appeared during the session.  Look out Dneprs everywhere. Kawasaki Z250. Graham and Don worked to try and ensure the fuel levels were correct.  Kawasaki in their infinite wisdom only specified a fuel level and did not provide a float height.  Initially the bike was taken outside and started up.  Having previously run reasonably well, it now ran like a dog and quite a lot of fuel overflowed from the carburettors. Oddly the fuel levels were quite low.  Taking off the float bowls revealed why it had been running so badly.  One of the bungs blocking off the pilot (AKA Idle/Tickover) jet was now missing.  Don recalled that at the previous session the carbs had been taken apart outside the hall and set off in search of the missing bung.  Miraculously he returned a short while later having found the small black bung on the ground outside.  I say miraculously because it could so easily h...